Stuffed saddle of deer with morels and wild garlic

  1. Firstly, take the short saddle of deer and place upside down with the small under fillets facing up.  Remove these fillets and reserve.
  2.  With a sharp knife go in underneath each loin close to the bone and remove the backbone all in one piece.   Remove and skin and sinew from the saddle and reserve in the fridge.
  3.  Using a cleaver, chop the bone for making the sauce later

4.  Leave the flaps as long as possible either side of the loins as these will be needed to roll the  saddle back together 

Wild garlic pesto

Ingredients

  • 120g washed wild garlic leaves
  • 30g pine nuts
  • 40g parmesan
  • 100g Extra Virgin olive oil
  • 100g Sunflower oil
  • zest of 1 lemon
  1.  In a food processor, blend the pine nuts with the oil
  2. Add the wild garlic and blitz until correct consistency is achieved
  3. Add the parmesan and lemon, pulse until combined
  4. One spoon of the pesto is used on the plate for each dish.  The rest can be reserved and used for plenty of other things

Chicken and mushroom mousse

The mousse is used as a stuffing for the saddle.  It takes the place of where the bone was removed.

Ingredients

  • Mushroom duxelle
  • 250g button mushrooms
  • 40g shallot
  • 25ml madeira
  • 1 garlic clove
  • 25g butter
  • thyme sprig
  • lemon juice
  • salt
  • bay leaf
  1. Sweat the dice shallot and garlic in butter with the thyme and bay leaf until soft.
  2. Add the madeira and reduce down.
  3. Add the finely chopped mushrooms and cook until the water has first come out of the mushrooms, the continue cooking till the mix has gone dry.
  4. Season with salt pepper and lemon juice.
  5. Chill down

Chicken mousse

  • 1 chicken breast, cleaned of skin and fat (approx 200g in weight)
  • 150g Double cream
  • 20g egg white
  • 4g salt

Ensure all ingredients and equipment are cold

  1.  Blend the chicken breast with the salt until well blended.  Add the egg white and blend for further 10 seconds.
  2. Transfer to a bowl positioned over ice and slowly beat the cream in using a spatula.
  3. When all incorporated, fold in the cold mushrooms duxelle.
  4. Place the mix into the fridge.

Method

To assemble the stuffed saddle, firstly put the small under fillets back into the gap where the bone was.  Next line leaves of blanched wild garlic leaves flat all over the exposed saddle.  Place a good layer of the mushroom mousse covering the centre part of the saddle.

Carefully roll up and then wrap in creponette.   Tie with string carefully to help hold altogether.

Ideally this wants to be done the day before cooking so it can fuse together properly before cooking the next day

Roast at 150 degrees celsius for approx 40 mins.   You want to take the core temperature to 48 degrees C before resting for 20 minutes 

Serve with some sautéed morel mushrooms and a little deer gravy

*Blanched wild garlic* (drop wild garlic into boiling for 5 seconds, then plunge into ice water, Remove carefully and lay out on a j cloth to dry)

The dish is assembled by placing 2 leaves of blanched garlic on the plate and a spoon of the pesto.

Carve a thick slice of the saddle.  Finish with morels and the sauce.