Hand-chopped tartare of venison with a tartare sauce of tarragon cream, rye bread crunch and sorrel

This is a twist on a familiar and well-loved classic.

You can make it with any venison, but here we make it from the top round of a fallow deer. Venison is milder than beef and veal and can easily tolerate a few subtle nuances of taste. We have made our tartare sauce with a tarragon mayonnaise, a little rye bread crunch, fried capers and sorrel. Simple to make and incredibly delicious.

Tarragon cream

First, make the tarragon cream.

• 1 egg yolk
• ½ a clove of garlic, crushed with a little salt
• 1 bunch tarragon, leaves picked
• 50 ml olive oil
• 100 ml rapeseed oil
• salt and pepper

Put the egg yolk, garlic and tarragon leaves in a blender. Add the oil very slowly. Almost drop by drop, to prevent the cream from separating. Season with lemon juice, salt and pepper.

Tartare of venison

• 400 g top round of fallow deer
• 2 slices of rye bread, well toasted and crushed in a mortar
• 1 banana shallot
• 2 tbsp. capers
• 1 handful of sorrel
• the juice of ½ a lemon
• 3 tbsp. of good olive oil
• salt and pepper

Chop the meat as finely as you can with a sharp knife. Put it in a bowl and add the olive oil, lemon juice, salt and pepper. Leave the tartare to stand for 5 minutes.

Meanwhile, fry the capers in a little olive oil. Spread the meat evenly on the plate. Cut the shallots into paper-thin slices with a mandoline and spread them thinly over the meat. Sprinkle a small handful of rye bread crumbs on each plate, and put some tarragon cream around the edge. Garnish with a little sorrel, season with a little extra salt and pepper, and drizzle a few drops of good olive oil over each plate. Voila!