Seared Venison Medallion with Horseradish Cream and Maple Candied Sweet Potatoes

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Seared Venison Medallion with Horseradish Cream and Maple Candied Sweet Potatoes

Decisions, Decisions. 

When Marx Foods sends you a package of this beautiful Cervena Venison, your mind starts running a mile a minute with recipe ideas. That’s how my mind works, anyway. But I could only choose two, so this is my second recipe, the first (in case you missed it) was Coffee Crusted Venison Chops with Parsnip Apple Puree. 

I’ve only cooked with venison a couple of time before, so I was a little nervous with all the warnings to not overcook it. I mean, I would never do that to a beautiful piece of well-sourced meat anyway, but it added on a bit of pressure. 

But honestly, this meat was so tender I barely needed a knife to cut it. 

Seared Venison Medallion with Horseradish Cream and Maple Candied Sweet Potatoes

That may be in part to how it’s raised. The venison from Silver Fern Farms in New Zealand isn’t wild, but is left to do as deer please on huge open meadows– I’ve never been there myself, but I would imagine that includes a lot of grass nibbling and relaxing on sunny hillsides. That sounds like a nice life to me, and it’s in line with how I want the meat I eat to be raised. 

But it also creates an incredibly tender meat that is lighter than wild venison (i.e. less gamy). I paired these leg medallions up with two flavors that venison likes a lot– red wine and horseradish. 

The meat gets marinated in a red wine mixture for a couple of hours, adding flavor and tenderizing. 

Seared Venison Medallion with Horseradish Cream and Maple Candied Sweet Potatoes

While you wait for the venison to have a nice long bath, you’ll want to mix up this horseradish cream, which proved to be quite popular by my live-in taste tester. I ate my fair share as well, since I recently got struck with a brutal cold and the horseradish was just about the only thing that offered any relief. 

The medallions just get a quick sear in a hot cast iron pan. You want to serve venison rare to medium rare– because it’s so lean– but also to preserve the rich game flavor. The horseradish cream is bold without overpowering, and maple candied sweet potatoes make this plate even more cozy. Some humble swiss chard adds a bit of green, balances the bold flavors, and brings the meal full circle with another earthy element. 

Seared Venison Medallion with Horseradish Cream and Maple Candied Sweet Potatoes

I’ve officially added this Cervena venison to my list of favorite meats. It’s crazy tender, has a unique flavor that is mild enough to pair with almost anything, and contrary to all of the warnings I received, it was really easy to work with. 



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