Ingredients

• ½ red cabbage
• shredded
• 150g/5½oz demerara sugar
• 40g/1½oz sea salt flakes
• 20 juniper berries
• crushed
• 50g/1¾oz butter
• 250g/9oz cold
• dry mashed potato
• 75g/2½oz plain white flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 125ml/4fl oz milk
• 2 free-range eggs
• 3 tbsp rapeseed oil
• 200ml/7fl oz red wine
• 100ml/3½fl oz red wine vinegar
• 100g/3½fl oz redcurrant jelly
• 4 cloves
• 500ml/1lb 2oz beef stock
• 50g/1¾oz butter
• 4 tbsp rapeseed oil
• 4 venison T-bone steaks (about 250g/9oz each)
• salt
• to taste
• ½ lemon
• juice only
• 150g/5½oz crème fraîche
• to serve
• 1 tsp crushed Sichuan peppercorns
• 1 lime
• juice only
• to serve

Directions

• Thirty minutes before you plan to cook
• mix the red cabbage
• demerara sugar
• sea salt flakes and juniper berries together in a non-metallic bowl and leave for the cabbage to soften.
• Meanwhile
• make the potato pancakes
• preheat the oven to 160C/325F/Gas 3 and then turn it off. Mix the mashed potato
• flour and baking powder together in a bowl. In a separate bowl
• whisk together the milk and eggs
• then stir the liquid ingredients into the potato mixture to form a batter.
• Heat the rapeseed oil in a large non-stick frying pan over a medium heat. Drop spoonful of the batter into the pan and fry for 2-3 minutes on each side until golden-brown. Transfer them to the turned off oven to keep hot. You should get 12-16 pancakes from the batter.
• To make the clove sauce
• bring the red wine
• red wine vinegar
• redcurrant jelly and cloves to the boil in a saucepan over a high heat
• stirring to dissolve the jelly. Continue boiling until the volume of liquid reduces to a glaze. Add the beef stock
• return to the boil and reduce again by half to make a sauce. Pass the sauce through a fine sieve into a bowl to remove the cloves
• then set aside and keep warm.
• For the red cabbage
• rinse the cabbage thoroughly under cold running water. Melt the butter in a pan over a medium heat
• then add the cabbage to warm through. Do not overcook – the cabbage should still have some crunch. Keep warm until ready to serve.
• For the venison steaks
• melt the butter with the rapeseed oil in a large frying pan set over a high heat until the butter just starts to turn a hazelnut-brown colour. Season the steaks with a pinch of salt
• add them to the pan and fry for 3-4 minutes on each side
• or until they are a lovely dark colour. Squeeze in the lemon juice and baste the venison with the pan juices (do not overcook them
• as venison has a very low fat content and can become dry). Remove the steaks from the pan and leave them to rest
• covered with foil
• for 10 minutes.
• While the steaks are resting
• mix together the crème fraîche
• Szechuan pepper and lime juice.
• To serve
• put a couple of pancakes on each plate
• add some red cabbage and a venison steak
• and then pour over the clove sauce. Serve with the spiced crème fraîche on the side.