Game for deer

SO MANY menus nowadays are utterly predictable, chicken, farmed salmon, steak and maybe lamb. Sometimes there is duck but it’s rare enough to be offered any wild food or game.

The deer hunting season opened on September 1 and runs until February 28 depending on the type of deer (check the different dates with National Parks and Wildlife Service) so in response to a reader’s request I have decided to concentrate on venison in this week’s article.

In Ireland we have three main types of deer – the native Red deer, a large noble animal, Sika and Fallow, which are similar in size to a lamb. The meat is dark, rich, virtually fat free and apparently lower in cholesterol.