Name: Rack of Venison, Buttered Greens and Chocolate Oil
Yield: Serves 6
Ingredients: 1 litre/1¾ pints/4½ cups stock syrup; 1 sprig thyme; salt and pepper; 12 small braised shallots; 2 cloves garlic; 1 savoy cabbage, stalks removed cut into 1cm/½in strips; 250 g/9 oz spinach leaves; ½ onion, roughly chopped; 2 large pears, such as Cornice or Packhan1s, peeled and halved; 1 carrot, roughly chopped; a few sprigs of thyme; 450 g/1 lb venison trimmings; 50 ml/2 floz/¼ cup corn oil; 80 ml/3 floz/⅓ cup corn oil; 4 tsp peppery olive oil; 4 heaped tsp cocoa; 100 g/4 oz bitter chocolate; 75 g/3 oz/¾ stick butter; 125 ml/4 floz/½ cup water; 125 ml/4 floz/½ cup milk; 1 large celeriac, peeled and cut into 2.5cm/1in dice; 3 star anise; 3 bay leaves; ½ tsp cracked pepper; 1 bay leaf; 330 ml/12 floz/1½ cups Merlot wine; a little butter; 1 escarole, stalks removed; 2 kg/4 lb8 oz venison saddle loin; 1.5 litres/2½ pints/5 cups chicken stock

Preparation info

Serves
6

Difficulty
Medium

Appears in

Formulas for Flavour

By John Campbell

Published 2001

About

The chocolate oil in this dish is not made using the same techniques I use for other oils, which are colour extraction and flavour infusion. Here, there is little infusion of flavour or colour because the chocolate is already high in fat. Bather, the oil acts as a vehicle for the chocolate taste and as an emulsifier, preventing the chocolate from setting and splitting on the plate. Logistically it would be very difficult to attempt this dish by timing all the components to be completed at t