Considering how very overpopulated the British Isles are, it always amazes me that such a large mammal as a deer should be living in our midst, and in such numbers. It is not simply in isolated pockets such as the New Forest or Exmoor that, increasingly, deer roam. An animal that was once the exclusive prey of kings and the aristocracy has become a pest.

According to Surrey County Council: “A recent survey of Surrey landowners indicated a vast majority had deer on their land and over half indicated that deer were considered a problem. They may cause damage by stripping bark from shrubs, small trees and by eating all available greenery. For the woodland owner, the browsing of planted or natural tree seedlings and coppice growth is noticeable. With increasing numbers of deer and shortage of food, deer will enter gardens in suburban areas.”

It is clear, therefore, that those who advocate sourcing their meat close to home, as well as those who believe in foraging wild food, have the answer to the conundrum of how to enact these noble principles while living in an urban conurbation.

The council report says that the dominant deer is the roe deer, an animal previously hunted close to extinction but which has since recolonised Surrey. This is, of course, very good news for the foodies of Woking and Thames Ditton. The roe deer may be bad news for gardeners but it is the best venison for eating.

Almost all venison is lean – but the roe is the leanest, darkest and richest of all. For too long venison in restaurants has been served up as rather dull “noisettes”, the meat exceptionally tender but lacking in character. We have been cooking the meat on the bone at the restaurant and I have been surprised to see how popular it can be: either there are fewer roebuck in Middlesex, or perhaps I have exaggerated the hunting skills of the suburban forager.

Rowley Leigh is the chef at Le Café Anglais
rowley.leigh@ft.com
More columns at www.ft.com/leigh

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Peppered saddle of roebuck, sauce grand veneur

A rather grand sauce from the classical tradition, I am afraid, but the meat merits nothing less. Had the Grosvenor family been descended from tall hunters rather than fat ones, the American embassy would sit in Grandvenor Square. Serves 6.

Ingredients
1 saddle of roebuck weighing 1.5kg
75g butter
2 shallots
1 clove garlic
½ stick of celery
1 tsp sugar
1 tsp red wine vinegar
2 crushed juniper berries
1 sprig of thyme
1 glass red wine
200ml chicken stock
1 tbsp double cream
2 tsp redcurrant jelly
Lemon juice
3 tsp black peppercorns

Method
● Remove – or ask the butcher to – the covering sinew and flap of muscle that sits on top of the saddle. Heat a heavy saucepan and colour the trimmings of the venison in a little butter. Chop the shallots, celery and garlic quite fine and then add them to the contents of the pan. When they too have coloured, add the sugar and let it caramelise before adding the vinegar and stirring very well. Add the juniper berries, having crushed them first, and the thyme before adding the wine. Let this boil vigorously for a moment and then add the stock. Simmer this ensemble for half an hour, letting it very gently reduce by half. Strain through a fine sieve.
● Brush the saddle with butter and brown it well under the hot grill in the oven, turning it from time to time and then roasting for a further 10-15 minutes. The meat really needs to be quite rare to be at its best and a skewer pulled from the centre of the meat should be just tepid to the lips for the meat to be done. It should rest for a good 10 minutes while you finish the sauce.
● Having removed the meat, return the roasting pan to the heat and pour in the sauce, scraping up the juices from the pan with a wooden spoon. Reduce for a few moments and then add the cream before reducing again. Add the redcurrant jelly and whisk into the sauce so that is thick and lustrous. Add any juices that have emerged from the meat, sharpen the sauce with a squeeze of lemon, season with a pinch of salt and strain again into a sauceboat.
● Crush the peppercorns coarsely in a mortar. Brush the cooled meat with more butter and roll it in the peppercorns and then place again under the hot gill for a couple of minutes. Take the meat to the table and carve the saddle in long thin strips parallel to the bone, not forgetting the fillet on the underside of the saddle. Serve with the sauce and, if possible, a celeriac purée alongside.