Salad of Smoked Red Deer with Blueberry Compote

This is a salad that Drake Sous Chef, Nick auf der Mauer put together after I gave him some La Maison du Gibier smoked red deer meat from Fiesta Farms. He found the meat really smokey so he chose to tem­per that with some sweet­ness and spice. The result­ing salad is a work of art and very sim­ple to make, espe­cially if you buy frozen puff pastry.

Measurements are not given as this is a com­posed salad so you can put as much or as lit­tle of each ingre­di­ent as you like. You won’t be mak­ing a tra­di­tional dress­ing for the salad as some of the com­po­nents in the recipe become a sort of de-constructed dress­ing that all comes together in the eating!

Ingredients:

• puff pas­try rounds baked to golden brown, you’ll need 2 for each plate
• roasted but­ter­nut squash
• spiced pecans (recipe to follow)
• creme fraiche or sour cream
• blue­berry compote
• any salad greens — water­cress, baby spinach or arugula
• smoked red deer meat
• driz­zle of olive oil
• salt and pepper

Steps:

1. Put 1 cup of blue­ber­ries in a pot with a Tbsp. of sugar and a splash of vanilla and let cook until a thick mush. Tada! Blueberry compote!
2. Peel and thinly slice rounds of but­ter­nut squash from the fat end of the squash. Season and toss with a lit­tle olive oil before roast­ing at 400 for 7–10 min­utes or until soft.
3. Lay out a bed of greens on each plate then layer puff pas­try, squash and pecans. Add a driz­zle of com­pote and some creme fraiche.
4. Top the salad with another puff pas­try round and the red deer then spoon the com­pote around, then the creme fraiche.
5. Give it a lit­tle sea­son­ing with salt and pep­per then fin­ish with a quick driz­zle of olive oil.

Do let us know if you make it and share any tips with us in the comments.

Bon Appétit.