Venison Nut with Chervil Pesto

Ingredients

• 300 g quark
• 2 tbsp poppy seeds
• 170 g toast bread
• 90 g melted butter
• 3 egg yolks
• Salt
• 1 tsp anise seeds
• 1 tsp black peppercorns
• 700 g venison nut
• 1 tbsp Rapeseed Oil
• 60 g hazelnut kernels (skinless)
• 1 small garlic clove
• 1 bunch chervil
• 60 ml cold pressed rapeseed oil
• 2 Blood oranges
• 2 chicory stalks
• 3 tbsp apple cider vinegar (or white wine vinegar)
• 2 tbsp butter
• 2 tbsp maple syrup (or milder honey)

Instructions

1. 1.

   Knödel: Hang quark in a clean kitchen towel and let drain for a few hours. Grind poppy seeds. Remove cores from toast bread and finely grind in a food processor. Mix 200 g drained quark with poppy seeds, 100 g toast crumbs, 50 g butter, and egg yolks; season with salt. Refrigerate the mixture for at least an hour. Later form eight small dumplings from the dough and drop them into boiling salted water. Cook dumplings for 10 minutes over gentle heat, then remove and drain. Just before serving, fry remaining toast crumbs in leftover butter until golden brown and serve together with the dumplings.

2. 2.

   Fleisch: Preheat oven to 80 °C (fan). Crush anise with pepper in a mortar. Sear the venison in rapeseed oil in a pan, season with salt and pepper. Remove from pan and cook in the oven for 2 hours until pink.

3. 3.

   Pesto: Chop hazelnuts and toast them without fat in a pan; let cool. Peel garlic and finely chop. Wash chervil, dry, strip leaves from stems, then finely mince. Blend 40 g hazelnuts, garlic, and rapeseed oil briefly, season with salt.

4. 4.

   Chicory: Use a sharp knife to peel blood oranges, separate individual fillets, and set aside. Squeeze the fruit to collect juice. Remove outer leaves and stem from chicory, cut into individual leaves, then soak in lukewarm water for 10 minutes. Boil one liter of water with 20 g salt and vinegar; blanch leaves for 30 seconds. Cool in ice water and pat dry between layers of kitchen paper.

5. 5.

   To serve: Brown butter in a large pan, add chicory leaves with maple syrup and orange juice. Cover and simmer for one minute, then season with salt and pepper. Add the orange fillets. Serve chicory together with sliced venison, pesto, dumplings with breadcrumb butter, and remaining hazelnuts.