How to cook cocoa coated venison?

[Bojana]

I want to cook cocoa-smoked paprika coated venison dish and hope someone could help on how to do it.

Dish components: cocoa and perhaps crushed roasted hazelnut coated venison, thickened spiced pumpkin juice sauce (touch of vinegar for acidity), beurre noisette gnocci, and maybe a vegetable crisp?

How do coat and cook venison? Pre cook sous vide, coat and deep fry? Coat and oven roast ? Sous vide, coat, pan fry? What to use to make sure the coating sticks? Temperatures and approximate timing would be of great help.

Also, what do you think about the rest of the menu? Also, could I apply this process to a piece of fish for one of the guest who does not eat meat? How could I best adjust the fish dish without adding tons of work?

Thanks in advance!

[JoNorvelleWalker]

Modernist Cuisine at Home (p 138) has a recipe for a dark cocoa, smoked paprika, and other things rub to be used with barbeque and grilled meat. I intend to try it with grilled pork (that is now in the freezer) once my thumb heals. Unfortunately I have no idea how to prepare venison.

[Baselerd]

The time and temp depends on what part of the deer you are cooking.

[Plantes Vertes]

Bojana, I would suggest either first searing the meat and then coating in a chocolate caramel (caramel + cocoa powder or, better, cacao nibs and a pinch of salt, pureed), then crusting with crushed toasted nuts if you want, or dredging in cocoa powder, black pepper and crushed nuts if you use them and then grilling (ie broiling) or oven roasting. The coating should just stick to the meat.

I would be tempted to add some roasted root vegetables, and go with a beetroot crisp, or a little shower of Jerusalem artichoke crisps.

Edited October 21, 2013 by Plantes Vertes (log)

[nickrey]

I'd cook it sous vide, then roll it in a pan over high heat to brown and then dredge through a glaze made of the cocoa, hazelnut (probably oil) and some veal demi-glace. Slice and then serve it on your plated sauce. Daniel Humm does something similar with his venison in the Eleven Madison Park cookbook. It works well. You could also use the components in a salt and sprinkle a bit over the top for serving. If it's a loin, which I'd recommend, I'd cook the venison at 52C.

The Pumpkin sauce will be sweet so it's a good call to add acidity. Have you considered using something like a stone fruit or berry instead? If you used peach or pear it would go well with both the venison and the fish; pumpkin with fish, perhaps less so.

The fish can also be cooked sous vide at 52C so it is simply a matter of sauce, open bag, place protein on plate, and garnish.

[FeChef]

From experience, deer is very very lean and SV texture is "mealy" at 135F for 4 hours.

[nickrey]

Who said 4 hours? I wouldn't go over one hour.

[Bojana]

Thank you, great ideas.

One of my guest does not eat sugar, gluten and fruit, that is why i am going with sweet vegetables to add sweetnes. I may a tually replace pumkin by beetroot, and i even have dome beetrot tapioca crisps that only need to be fried. Also love sunchokes, hmmm, how to choose?

I have both EMP and MC@H but do not remember those recipes, will have a look.

As for the protein, i havent bought it yet, so i can go in all directions. Was thinking of loin.

[FeChef]

Who said 4 hours? I wouldn't go over one hour.

I said from experence I cooked some deer steaks SV for 4 hours and they came out mealy. So i was giving a heads up. Geesh