It was a very special dinner. It was Christmas, but it wasn’t a Christmas dinner.

Also, this was not a reindeer.

The special part was that it was the feast of winter, which goes by many names all over the world, but which is always observed at around the time of the winter solstice.

The featured guest was deer, red deer, and it came, not from anywhere near a real or fantasy north pole, but from New Zealand, arguably today the source of the highest-quality farmed venison This is at least partly attributable to a wholly temperate climate that allows deer to be raised on excellent pastures all year round (I’ve always thought of New Zealand as Scotland without the interesting complications, but definitely a welcoming environment for game, so long as you weren’t of the persuasion of the hunted).

Deer are not native to New Zealand; for that we have to thank nineteenth-century New Zealand settlers.  In the 1850’s and 1860’s they imported eight different species, but mostly Red deer, releasing them into the wild for sport hunting. The animals thrived in the mild climate and the predator-free environment, and their numbers were soon causing severe damage to the native forests, so in the 1930s professional hunters were called in to reduce the population.

Decades later, or some fifty years ago, entrepreneurs began sharing the culled animals with Europe, where there had always been a big market for venison, and soon after that, with demand outpacing the supply, the first farms were established, many of them with huge open pastures, fenced – ironically, because of the history – from hunters.

The meat began to be marketed in the U.S. in 1975, and I think I’ve been cooking it almost since that time.

The excellent recipe I followed on December 25th comes from a feast held at the painter Marc Séguin’s farm in Hemmingford, Quebec, and described in the New York Times in 2008., but I did not include the carrots or the onions, since I had other plans for a vegetables accompaniment.

It may have been the best venison I have ever had.

Don’t be afraid of the generous maple syrup element, as once it’s combined with the other ingredients, and fully cooked, the sauce had gone way beyond its origins and become just a rich complex game sauce.

• a 35-ounce loin roast of New Zealand red deer (cervus elaphus) purchased from Frank, the brother who specializes in game at O. Ottomanelli’s & Sons on Bleecker Street in the Village, seasoned generously with sea salt and freshly ground black pepper, rubbed with a little olive oil and allowed to rest at room temperature while the oven was lit, its thermostat set for 400º, and a braising liquid prepared by combining in a medium saucepan 3/4 cup of David Marvin Vermont Family Heirloom Organic Maple Syrup, ‘Medium Amber Grade A’ (I donlt know where I purchased it or how long I’ve had it, but just opened it that day, and it’s wonderful), one cup of good chicken stock (I used low-sodium Better Than Bouillon chicken base, 5 sprigs of thyme (Uncle Vinny’s) from the West Side Market on 23rd Street, one bay leaf (also Uncle Vinny’s), 5 peppercorns, 1 large peeled clove of Keith’s Farm rocambole garlic, gently boiling the mix until it had reduced by half, a medium enameled cast iron roasting pan set over medium-high heat with one tablespoon of butter and, when hot, the small roast browned on all sides and transferred to a plate while the maple-stock reduction was transferred into that pan, the brown bits on the bottom of the pan scraped with a wooden spoon and the venison returned to the pan, meat-side up, its contents seasoned with salt, placed inside the oven and cooked for 10 minutes, basting with the liquid twice, the meat flipped and the roasting continued, continuing to baste, for maybe 10 to 20 minutes more, or until the roast was rare to medium rare, (otherwise, when an instant thermometer inserted in the center registered 130 degrees), and when done, transferred to a cutting board and allowed to rest for 10 minutes, while the sauce was strained into a saucepan and simmered until reduced to the desired thickness, the seasoning corrected with salt and pepper, and the venison separated into four sections by cutting through the chine and served with the sauce (there were leftovers)

quince chutney [not yet on the plate when it was photographed], mostly using this recipe, but substituting a mix of raisins for dried cherries, and candied slices of ginger for fresh ginger

• one 16-ounce celery root (or celeriac) from from Migliorelli Farm, scrubbed, peeled, and cut into the size and shape of potato frites, each about 1/4″ in cross section, tossed inside a bowl with olive oil, a half teaspoon of Safinter Pimenton de la Vera smoked picante paprika, sea salt, and a little freshly-ground black pepper, spread onto a large seasoned Pampered Chef unglazed ceramic pan, and roasted at 425º until brown and cooked through, or for about 30 to 35 minutes, removed to the plates, and sprinkled with chopped fresh thyme, again, from West Side Market
• one small Napa cabbage (probably Red Dragon), from Norwich Meadows Farm, washed, quartered, cored, sliced into one to one-half-inch ribbons, sautéed in a scant tablespoon of olive oil inside a medium heavy, tin-lined copper pot, stirring occasionally, until wilted but still crunchy, a little more than a teaspoon of toasted cumin seed mixed in, finished with half a teaspoon of Columela Rioja 30 Year Reserva sherry vinegar, the mix stirred and seasoned with sea salt and freshly-ground black pepper, cooked another couple of minutes
• the wine was a superb French (Northern Rhone) red, Benoit Roseau, Saint-Joseph Patagone, 2017  , from Flatiron Wines
• the music was the 2019 WKCR-FM  Bachfestival, streaming

It would have been a pretty interesting menu for any important meal: Lots of oysters, venison chops, sweet potato frites, a baby brassica mix.

It was also, in spite of the absence of turkey (and many of the other fetish items associated with everyone’s very proprietary holiday), very much in tune with the occasion we observed last Thursday: On the shores of Plymouth Bay in 1621 there were no mashed potatoes (no potatoes of any kind in fact), cranberry sauce, or pie on the long tables the precarious little community of Pilgrims had set up. Their thanksgiving meal did however include shellfish and venison, and those delights were our inspiration for our own holiday meal.

But we aren’t strict constructionists when it comes to the enjoyment of  food, so Barry and I did decide to add some fine drink and a few other accompaniments we would have appreciated had we been there 400 years ago, and they were available.

The image below is of the bowl of ‘Originals’, the first of two caches of oysters that Barry and I opened and spread across a broad expanse of partially crushed ice.  I’d packed the ice inside a vintage 13 1/2-inch majolica bowl that my lover Tom had purchased in Majorca and brought back with him from a US Navy tour to the Mediterranean in the early 1970’s, carefully stowed inside his duffel bag.

• a full 50 Walrus and Carpenter Oysters from South County, Rhode Island, Crassostera Virginica (25 ‘Originals’, from Ninigret Pond, in Charlestown, and 25 ‘Dutchies’, from Dutch Harbor in Jamestown), that Barry and I had ordered from Jules Opton-Himmel, the founder of the 2 farms, and carried home from his Mother’s Broadway apartment house roof the night before, opened and consumed in 2 stages, the ‘Originals’ first, followed by the Dutchies’, early in the evening of Thanksgiving
• slices of a small sunflower, flax and peasant sourdough baguette from Hawthorne Valley Farm
• the ‘wine’ was a local New York (Esopus) cider, Metal House Cider from Copake Wine, but because we were with the oysters for so long, we exhausted the bottle and ended sampling them with a wonderful chilled Chicago gin, Letherbee’s flagship bottle

There was an interval before we were able to begin the main course, but it was welcome, above all to the cook.

• four fresh (never frozen), local 6-ounce, Dutchess County fallow deer venison loin chops from Quattro’s Game Farm & Store in the Union Square Greenmarket, rinsed, dried, rubbed with olive oil and a very generous coating of freshly-cracked black peppercorns, then set aside on the counter covered with waxed paper for about an hour, placed over moderately high heat in 1 to 2 tablespoons of a combination of butter and olive oil inside a heavy oval 11-inch enameled cast iron pan and cooked rare to medium rare, or until juices had begun accumulating on the top, which meant little more than 2 minutes on each side, transferred to warm plates to rest while the bottom of the pan was scraped with a wooden spatula to collect the juices, 2 tablespoons of a decent brandy (I used Courvoisier V.O.) added to the pan and briefly cooked over high heat, until it had almost become a syrup, the sauce poured over the chops, which were then garnished with micro chervil from Two Guys from Woodbridge

• twelve or more ounces of Japanese sweet potatoes from Lani’s Farm, unpeeled, but scrubbed pretty thoroughly, cut as french fries, tossed inside a bowl with a little olive oil, sea salt, freshly-ground black pepper, 5 medium unpeeled Keith’s Farm rocambole garlic cloves and a little crushed dried habanada pepper, roasted just above 400º in a large, well-seasoned Pampered Chef unglazed ceramic oven pan for about 35 minutes, or until crispy on the outside, soft on the inside, and chewy on the edges, garnished with chopped parsley from Philipps Farms

• a beautiful, fresh, and superb-tasting ‘braising mix’ (in late-November!) of many kinds of young brassicas (kale, collards, mustards, escarole, and dandelion) from Keith’s Farm, barely wilted in a little olive oil in which several small rocambole garlic cloves, also from his Farm, had first been heated until fragrant and beginning to soften, seasoned with sea salt, and freshly-ground black pepper
• the wine was a great California (Sonoma) red, Triumph by 1849 Wine Co., a blend of Petit Syrah, Syrah, Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, and Petit Verdot, the generous gift from an
• artist friend, Saber

We skipped the planned dessert (it would have been 4 different kinds of tiny pies from the Greenmarket, with a very mature gift Sauternes, but we stayed around for some sips of Koval, a phenomenal Chicago Bourbon

• the contemporary American music we listened to before dinner was assembled by Barry and placed on this Spotify playlist 
• the music through much of the dinner was Leonard Bernstein’s ‘Candide’, the recording of the 1989 concert performance at the Barbican in London, Bernstein conducting the London Symphony Orchestra and the  London Symphony Chorus, with Adolph Green,  Christa Ludwig,  Nicolai Gedda,  and Jerry Hadley

It was a meaty dinner.

The first course was a do-it-yourself project constructed around a wonderful pork mousse that had been made on a Columbia County farm, Raven & Boar, installed at the Union Square Greenmarket for the first time ever on Wednesday. where it was selling its very singular produce, farm-made pork charcuterie.

• a small 3-ounce jar of Hudson Vally Charcuterie Mousse de Foie/Pork Liver Mousse from pastured heritage, whey fed pigs
• a bit of fresh ‘red streak mustard’ from Alewife Farm
• horseradish pickles from Millport Dairy Farm
• a few tablespoons of Organic Valley ‘Cultured Pasture Butter’
• thin toasts of 2 different breads, an elegant wheat baguette from Bread Alone, and a sturdy wheat and spelt loaf, Philadelphia’s Lost Bread Co. pane di tavalo (rustic Italian-style, charred crust with notes of coffee and cacao, baked with organic bread flour, spelt, malted barley, salt, water, yeast, which the bakers say they’ve modeled after a famous loaf from the town of Genzano, near Rome)
• the wine was a fruity California (Lodi) white, F. Stephen Millier Angels Reserve Lodi White 2017, from Naked Wines

The main course stayed with the theme, but with everything cooked this time.

• two 8-ounce local Dutchess County venison t-bone steaks from Quattro’s Game Farm, in the Union Square Greenmarket, defrosted overnight and brought to room temperature, rinsed, dried, rubbed with olive oil and a very generous coating of freshly-cracked black peppercorns, set aside on the counter covered with waxed paper for about an hour, then placed over moderately high heat in 1 to 2 tablespoons of a combination of butter and olive oil inside a heavy oval 11-inch enameled cast iron pan, cooked rare to medium rare, which meant little more than 2 minutes on each side, or until juices had begun accumulating on the top, transferred to warm plates to rest while the bottom of the pan was scraped with a wooden spatula to collect the juices and 2 tablespoons of a decent brandy (I used Courvoisier V.O. this time) added to the pan and briefly cooked over high heat, until it had almost become a syrup, the sauce poured over the meat, which was then garnished with micro red chard from Two Guys from Woodbridge
• just before the venison was being prepared, nine ounces of thickly sliced, meaty spring shiitake mushrooms from Joe Rizzo’s small farm near Ithaca, Blue Oyster Cultivation, purchased from his tables in the Union Square Greenmarket, were tossed into a large enameled cast iron pan in which 2 or 3 tablespoons  of butter had been melted over a high flame, the fungi seared until they had begun to brown, a little more butter and some sliced green, or spring, garlic from John D. Madura Farms added, the mushrooms salted now as they cooked a bit more, and when they were ready, some chopped parsley from Phillips Farms tossed in and combined with them, the mushrooms distributed between the 2 plates next to the chops, with a little more parsley tossed on top

• some loose tender, sweet collard green leaves from Lucky Dog Organic Farm, only the stems below the leaves removed first, washed 3 times, drained (some of the water retained and held aside to be added, as necessary, near the end of the time the greens were cooking), chopped just a bit, then braised gently until barely softened or wilted inside a large, antique copper pot in which 2 cloves of garlic from Foragers Market had first been heated until they had softened, seasoned with sea salt and freshly ground black pepper, finished with a small drizzle of olive oil
• the wine was a Portuguese (Douro) red, Xisto Ilimitado Tinto 2016, from Crush Wine

 

• the music throughout the meal was the album, ‘Laurence Crane: 6 Trios, 2 Solos and 1 Quintet’, performed by the Holt Quartet

There were flowers on the table (primrose this time), as there often are in the spring, because, well…

It was a holiday.

And there was game. Although venison is hardly what comes to mind on the day when the memory of Martin Luther King Jr. is especially abroad in the land, last night we celebrated the birthday of the great man partly with this very good meal.

It was especially good, especially on an extremely cold day.

• one venison steak (1.26 lbs/20 ounces) from Schaller & Weber, rinsed, brought to room temperature, dried, rubbed with olive oil and a very generous coating of freshly-cracked black peppercorns, set aside on the counter for more than 45 minutes, then placed over moderately high heat in 1 to 2 tablespoons of a combination of butter and olive oil inside a heavy oval 11-inch enameled cast iron pan, cooked rare to medium rare, which meant little more than 2 minutes on one side, or until juices had begun accumulating on the top, turned and cooked for another 2 minutes, cut into 2 pieces and transferred to warm plates, the bottom of the pan scraped with a wooden spatula to collect the juices, 2 tablespoons of a decent brandy (Courvoisier V.O. last night) added to the pan and cooked over high heat briefly, or until almost a syrup, the sauce poured over the meat, which was then garnished with thyme

• thirteen ounces of ruby crescent potatoes from Mountain Sweet Berry Farm, halved lengthwise, tossed with a little olive oil, salt, pepper, the leaves from some stems of rosemary from Whole Foods Market, and a small amount of crushed golden home-dried habanada pepper, arranged cut side down on a medium Pampered Chef unglazed ceramic pan, with half of a fresh sage leaf from Chelsea Whole Foods Market perched on the top of  each, roasted at about 400º for about 20 minutes

• a little duck fat heated above a medium-high flame inside a large antique high-sided copper pot, adding one finely-sliced 17-ounce red cabbage from Race Farm and several small roughly-chopped ‘yellow shallots’ from Norwich Meadows Farm, stirring regularly until the cabbage had softened slightly (about 15 minutes), after that 1 1/2 teaspoons of salt, less than 2 tablespoons of whole Foods Market lemon juice, and almost 2 teaspoons of local apple cider vinegar, also from Race Farm, were added, plus a sprinkling of freshly-ground black pepper, the heat reduced and the mixture cooked about 10 minutes more, or until the cabbage was wilted and the shallots softened, a teaspoon of turbinado sugar and a third of a cup of some excellent juicy mixed raisons from Chelsea Trader Joe’s added and mixed in, finished by stirring in some red current jelly

The cheese was German, picked to complement both the entrée and the weather. Tilsit is one of my favorite German cheeses, with a complicated history of its own, reflecting at least some of the vicissitudes of its birthplace.

• bits of a really good German Tilsit cheese from Schaller & Weber
• thin slices of a She Wolf Bakery miche

 

• the wine throughout the meal was an Italian (Piedmont) red, Castello di Verduno, Barolo ‘Massara’ 2013, from Flatiron Wines
• the choice of music was the only overt link to the holiday, an album from Naxos Direct, of music by a remarkable African-American composer who had almost disappeared before a collection of her works and papers were discovered in an abandoned and dilapidated house that had once been her summer home, Florence Beatrice Price, ‘Price: Symphonies Nos. 1 & 4’

Farmed game. Well, it’s not entirely an oxymoron.

It was December 25th, Christmas, so the meal had to be at least a little special. Two forms of wild game would definitely fill the bill, I thought, and that’s what I went for, although without the “wild” part.

Unless you fish for trout and hunt deer yourself, or have good friends who do, in the United States today both of those forms of what once passed for game will always be domesticated.

But it’s still worth fishing and hunting for the stores that can offer their farmed equivalents: This meal was a delicious reminder of that.

The appetizer anticipated the signal festiveness of the main course, but otherwise gave nothing away.

• five ounces of smoked local rainbow trout, Solex Catsmo, from our neighboring Chelsea Foragers Market, served with a dressing made starting with a really good prepared mayonaise, Sir Kensington’s, plain, Classic Mayonnaise (made by ex-Brown students, with headquarters in SoHo), adding a little Whole Foods Market organic lemon zest and lemon juice, a bit of Hengstenberg’s horseradish creme, in a (very convenient) tube, from the Schaller & Weber store in Yorkville, sea salt, and freshly ground black pepper

• several tiny whole peppery plants, their basal leaves growing as rosettes, a delicate-looking cross of wild cress and the mustard-like shepherd’s purse (“the second most common weed in the world”) from Lani’s Farm
• slices of a crusty Pain d’Avignon dark rye from Foragers Market
• the wine with the trout was a Portuguese (Beira) sparkling rosé, Beira Extra Brut Rosé ‘3B’ Filipa Pato 2017, from Astor Wines

The main course was, well, the main course, since it featured venison. This time, pretty uncharacteristically for both myself and the venison, it was prepared in just about the simplest way I could imagine, using only a little butter, garlic, and white wine at the very end.

• one frozen 1″ thick venison round steak (1.28 lbs/20 ounces) from the Schaller & Weber store, a Yorkville treasure (I think the meat is locally sourced, but I’ll have to wait until I return to the store to ask), defrosted slowly in the refrigerator, seasoned lightly with sea salt and freshly-ground black pepper on both sides, set aside on a plate or a rack in order to warm to room temperature (no longer than an hour), near the end of that time 2 or 3 cloves of Krasnodar red garlic from Quarton Farm minced roughly and set aside, then a very large (17″) seasoned vintage oval steel pan heated over medium heat until the point when beads of water slide over the surface, a small pad of butter then, allowed to melt and spread across the surface with a wooden spatula, the steaks placed inside the pan and cooked without moving them just until they could slide across the surface with a shake of the pan (about 2 minutes), turned over and the other side cooked to the same point, which should be to a rare to medium rare state, removed from the pan onto 2 plates and covered with aluminum foil while they had rested for almost 10 minutes, while continuing to cook slightly (in this case the plates themselves were also on the top surface of a warm oven), the pan deglazed with a few tablespoons of white wine, the chopped garlic introduced, pushed around, and cooked briefly over low heat, another pad of butter added to make the sauce a little creamy, the sauce then poured over the steaks
• dabs of garlic oregano jam from Berkshire Berries to the side of the venison

• two 7-ounce celery root (celeriac) from from John D Madura Farms, scrubbed, peeled, cut into the size and shape of potato frites, about 1/4″ in cross section, tossed inside a bowl with olive oil [NOTE: I used too little oil this time, which may have kept them from ending up as crispy as I like], a half teaspoon of a smoked picante paprika, Safinter Pimenton de la Vera, a bit of crushed home-dried habanada pepper, sea salt, and a little freshly ground black pepper, then spread onto a large Pampered Chef unglazed ceramic pan, and roasted at 425º until brown and cooked through

• one bunch of really wonderful “broccoli with leaves” (9 ounces) from Lani’s Farm, layered with the cut stem sections on the bottom and the roughly-cut leaves on top inside an antique medium size high-sided copper pot with a half inch of water in the bottom, covered with a copper universal lid, steamed for a few minutes, the water then entirely drained from the pot and the greens tossed, over a medium flame, with a little olive oil, sea salt, black pepper, and a little crushed peperoncino Calabresi secchia from Buon Italia in Chelsea Market
• the wine was a really wonderful Portuguese (Douro) red, Quinta do Infantado, Douro Tinto 2015, from Flatiron Wines (and a really wonderful pairing with this entrée)

 

• the music throughout the meal was a multi-CD album of Bach Christmas cantatas  performed by Ton Koopman and the Amsterdam Baroque Orch & Chorus