Main Course: Venison with Port-Cranberry Sauce, "Crandied" Yams
When I cook venison, I usually marinade it in gin for a couple of hours to remove some of the gaminess. I boiled a handful of fresh cranberries just until they popped, then let them steep in a cup of gin for a couple of days, then marinaded the venison tenderloin in the cranberry-infused gin for about 2 hours before cooking. Here's the gin concoction about a day in.
While the venison was marinating, I made the sauce:
1 cup chicken broth
1 cup beef broth
1/2 cup ruby Port
1/3 cup cranberry sauce (the jelly cylinder that comes in a can)
1 tbsp butter
1 tsp dried rosemary
Combine chicken and beef broth in a saucepan and boil until reduced to 1 cup. Add the Port and boil until reduced to 3/4 cup. Whisk in cranberry sauce and rosemary and simmer until sauce thickens. Whisk in butter. Strain sauce.
When the sauce was done, I seasoned the the venison tenderloins and sauteed them in a tiny bit of butter until they were just browned (about 2 minutes on each side).
For the side dish, I halved a few large yams, threw a pat of butter on each half, and roasted them in the oven for about an hour at 350 degrees. I scooped out and mashed the meat, and added some more butter, brown sugar, cinnamon and cloves. I simmered about 3/4 cup of dried cranberries in 1/2 cup orange juice until they plumped up a bit and folded them into the yams.
The final product:
The venison was really flavorful, but probably could have been cooked a bit less. The port-cranberry sauce was great -- I would not have expected something with so much canned craberry sauce in it to taste so elegant, but it did.