The game season is one of my favourites in the kitchen year. It is the one time you get to work with quantities of wild meat, giving a true sense of seasonality to your cooking.

Game is rarely cooked at home these days, so it is a bit of a treat to eat it out.

Over the coming months popular Irish game such as venison, rabbit, grouse, mallard, teal, widgeon, woodcock and snipe will all make an appearance on the menu at Thornton’s, while just before Christmas we will feature partridge and pheasant.

Game traditionally refers to any wild animal that is hunted for eating. It includes both feathered and four-legged creatures. The season for feathered game runs from October 1 to February 1. For four-legged game the season is September 1 until March 1.

However, only a small proportion of the game we eat is really wild – for many, their environment is carefully managed; predators are kept down and food sources are increased to maintain body weight. Farmed game, particularly venison, is steadily becoming more common.

Wild game feed on a varied diet of berries, grains, grubs and grasses which give their meat a distinctive ‘gamey’ flavour. The taste is far more intense than you get with farmed animals and, because they run free, their muscles are more developed and the meat is darker.

One disadvantage to wild game is that the meat can be quite tough and dry, meaning hanging is key. The quality of wild meat is determined by how long it is hung – a butcher will usually hang game for around two weeks, while supermarkets tend to sell wild game that has been hung for a day or two.

The most prized game of all has to be grouse and woodcock, and I love them both. We only serve grouse for two weeks of the year, and we only serve woodcock after the first frost of the year, when you get the best flavour.

We serve woodcock with its head and brains intact – for the seasoned game lover, sucking the brains out is a rare delicacy.

Venison is also popular in the restaurant. A beautifully pure meat, it is lower in calories, cholesterol and fat than beef, but it needs careful cooking to ensure the texture remains supple and tender.

Because the flavour of meat is directly related to the animal’s diet, venison is typically described as having a full taste akin to a woody yet berrylike red wine.

We take venison that is over a year old and serve it very rare or in an elegant casserole. This recipe for venison with a rich chocolate sauce is guaranteed to create a stir at any dinner table.

Venison with Valrhona sauce,
potato maxim and parsnips,
serves four

Venison
4 noisettes of venison, 150g each
20ml hazelnut oil
Splash of hazelnut liqueur
Pinch of fresh dried chilli powder
Sauce
3 diced shallots
100ml of dry sherry
200g of Valerian chocolate
1 litre of veal stock
1/2 litre of venison stock
50ml of white balsamic vinegar
1tsp of raspberry juice
1tsp cocoa powder
Crushed back peppercorns and sea salt
Drop of white wine vinegar
5g butter

Potato maxim
4 medium Maris Piper potatoes
10g clarified butter
Sea salt and freshly milled white pepper
10g braised onion

Parsnips
4 parsnips
Still water
Olive oil
Sea salt and freshly milled pepper

Method

Sauce
1. Heat a pot and rub with olive oil. Saute the shallots without colouring.

2. Add the dry sherry and the freshly crushed black peppercorns. Cook for two minutes and add the raspberry juice and stock and reduce by half.

3. Roughly chop the chocolate. Add 3/4 of it to the sauce, keeping the remainder for later. Add the cocoa powder and stir gently and consistently to make sure that the chocolate is not lying (and burning) at the bottom of the pot. Taste to make sure it is not too bitter. Cook for a few minutes longer, then remove and pass through a fine strainer.

4. In another pot add the white balsamic vinegar add the chocolate sauce. Taste and correct the seasoning, then add the remainder of the chocolate. Stir gently and add 5g of butter.

Venison
1. Heat a copper pan and add hazelnut oil. Season the venison with salt, pepper and chilli powder and saute until golden brown on all sides.

2. Remove and cook in a hot oven for five minutes. Then return it to the heat and sprinkle with crushed black peppercorns.

3. Flambe with hazelnut liqueur, remove and rest for a few minutes before carving. Remove each end of the venison so you can have a perfect cut. This allows you to taste it and make sure it is cooked properly.

Potato maxim
1. Wash and peel the potatoes and cut into cylindrical shapes. Slice thinly, season and brush with clarified butter.

2. Arrange in a Teflon pan about 10cm diameter. Cook on a solid top cooker until golden brown and cooked through – about ten minutes.

Parsnips
1. Wash and peel the parsnips, cut in quarters and shape like cones. Blanch the parsnips in salted spring water, then remove and saute in a hot pan.

2. Season and cook throughout, remove and serve.

To serve, place the potato on the plate, arrange the parsnip cones and sprinkle lightly with fresh dried chilli and some cocoa powder. Sauce the plate, arrange the venison on top and serve.