Ingredients
- 1/2 cup gin
- 1/2 cup Port
- 1 cup red wine
- 4 sprigs fresh thyme
- 8 juniper berries
- 4 (6-ounce) venison tenderloins
- Olive oil
- Salt and freshly ground pepper
- Sweet Potato-Toasted Pine Nut Polenta, recipe follows
- Crushed Blackberry-Ancho Chile Sauce, recipe follows
Directions
Whisk together the gin, Port, red wine, thyme, and juniper berries in a medium shallow baking dish. Add the venison and turn to coat. Marinate at room temperature for 20 minutes.
Remove from marinade and pat dry. Heat olive oil in a large saute pan over high heat. Season the venison with salt and pepper and cook on 1 side until golden brown, about 3 to 4 minutes. Turn over, reduce heat to medium and continue cooking for 3 to 4 minutes.
Plate with the Sweet Potato-Toasted Pine Nut Polenta, drizzled with the Crushed Blackberry-Ancho Chile Sauce.
Sweet Potato-Toasted Pine Nut Polenta:
- Olive oil
- 1 large red onion, finely chopped
- 2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
- 6 cups chicken stock, vegetable stock, or water
- Salt
- 2 cups yellow cornmeal
- 1 sweet potato, cooked, peeled, and mashed
- 3 tablespoons unsalted butter
- 1/4 cup toasted pine nuts
Brush a little oil on a baking sheet and set aside. Heat 1 tablespoon of olive oil in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Add the onions and garlic and cook until soft. Add stock or water plus salt, increase heat to high and bring to a boil. Slowly whisk in the cornmeal with a wire whisk.
Once all of the cornmeal is whisked in turn the heat to low and continue cooking, mixing with a wooden spoon, until the mixture begins to pull away from the sides of the pan. Stir in the mashed sweet potato and butter and mix until combined. Stir the pine nuts into the mixture, season with salt and pepper and pour the mixture into the prepared baking sheet. Cover the top with plastic wrap and refrigerate until firm and chilled.
Remove from the refrigerator and cut into triangles, circles, or squares. Heat oil in a large saute pan, season the polenta slices with salt and pepper, and saute on both sides until golden brown.
Crushed Blackberry-Ancho Chile Sauce:
- 4 tablespoons unsalted butter
- 2 celery stalks, finely diced
- 1 medium carrot, finely diced
- 2 small yellow onions, finely diced
- 1 tablespoon black peppercorns
- 1 cup Port
- 1 cup red wine
- 1 cup cranberry juice concentrate
- 1/2 cup ancho chile puree, recipe follows
- 1/4 cup dark brown sugar
- 5 cups chicken stock
- 1 cup fresh blackberries
- Salt
Melt the butter in a medium non-reactive saucepan over medium heat. Cook the celery, carrot, and onions until soft. Add the peppercorns, port, red wine, cranberry juice, ancho puree, brown sugar, and stock and cook over high heat, stirring occasionally, until reduced by half. Strain into a clean pot, add the blackberries, and cook over medium heat until the blackberries are soft, using the back of a fork, gently crush the blackberries. Season with salt, to taste.
Ancho Puree:
- 3 ancho chiles
- 3 cups boiling water
- 1 teaspoon minced garlic
- 1 tablespoon chopped fresh cilantro
Combine the ancho and water in a small bowl and let stand 1 hour. Drain well, reserving the soaking liquid. Remove the seeds and stems and puree in a food processor with the garlic, cilantro, and about 1/2 cup of the liquid, or more if needed.

















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By A is for Awesome
Midwest
on October 27, 2011
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One of the tastiest dishes I've ever made, from Food Network or anywhere else. The complex blend of fruity and spicy is marvelous with the earthy venison. It does take some work to make, but it's well worth the effort. Good with or without the juniper berries. Don't skip the polenta--it's the perfect match for the meat.
By tacogigante
US Army
on August 10, 2011
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I made this one a while back and am about to make it again tonight. It came out pretty good, but the sauce as it appears in the recipe is a little labor intensive and takes a long time to reduce. Tonight I'm going to cut the proportions by about a quarter an substitute vegetable stock for the chopped vegetables. Aside from that, the sauce is spot on and compliments the flavor of the marinade and the natural flavor of the venison very well.
In response to some of the earlier commentors, I don't think you missed out on anything by not having juniper berries since there is plenty of juniper flavor in the gin. As for the ancho chile and the berries, you could certainly play with other substitutes (I used a cascabel chile and added blueberries in addition to the blackberries. You will just get a slightly different end result. Play around with it and see what you like.
By ElleFirebrand
Lincoln, NE
on May 31, 2010
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We made this for a small Memorial Day dinner party. Perhaps the flavors would have been better for March or early fall, but we had a nice cool day so it worked well. I found the dried ancho chiles at our local store that has lots of Mexican ingredients. I bought my juniper berries from Penzeys.com. This recipe used a lot of alcohol. I actually substituted cheap Taylor sherry for the port and used a Malbec for the red wine. The cooking times for the venison were spot on. Our venison turned out to be rare-medium rare. The sauce was nice with the addition of the blackberries. I think it would be okay to use frozen berries in this sauce, and even use raspberries in lieu of blackberries.
Read all 8 reviews