Pan Roasted Venison with Crushed Blackberry-Ancho Chile Sauce and Sweet Potato-Toasted Pine Nut Polenta

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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.

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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.

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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.

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Would have loved to try this recipe but upon visiting our neighborhood grocery store, I wasn't able to find cranberry juice concentrate, juniper berries, or ancho chiles! What a disappointment! Perhaps FoodTV could recommend substitutions for hard to find ingredients?

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Not good at all

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i made this dish for my husband and stepson, and got rave reviews. i used venison backstrap instead of tenderloins, but the meat was perfectly cooked per directions give. (let the meat marinate for an hour. the sauce was heaven, and would be the perfect foil for any fowl or pork roast as well.
lots of work, but oh, so good!

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A truly awesome Christmas main course, the polenta was fabulous- and easy to make ahead before frying- and the venison was unbelievable. I got those quiet sounds of true satisfaction around the table that you get when your people are eating something that they know that they are going to remember.

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A truly awesome Christmas main course, the polenta was fabulous- and easy to make ahead before frying- and the venison was unbelievable. I got those quiet sounds of true satisfaction around the table that you get when your people are eating something that they know that they are going to remember.