Dinner Party

Rostis. A bit of a bugger. I never quite seem to get the hang of them. There seem to be a myriad ways of cooking them.

Take the basic potato rosti, for example. Do you boil the potato first? Par-boil it? In it's skin? Whole? Do you then mix it with clarified butter, or do you squeeze all the water out first? Do you pan-fry it? Do you oven-roast it? Do you set it in a ring mould to get the shape or do you cook it in one of those dinky little round frying pans that seem perfectly rosti/fried egg size? Or a fried egg on a rosti?

So many questions, so little time, and do you know what? Mine seem to have a habit of falling apart after the first turn. You know, the one when you've taken the cooking ring off to turn it, it goes a bit lop-sided, some of it sticks to the bottom of your supposedly non-stick pan and you end up with a potato splat rather than a piece of Swiss sophistication.

So this time, I gave up - and yes, if I'm frank, I did start out with rosti in mind, but what I ended up with was easier and just as delicious. It saved me all the palaver and meant I could cook this for a crowd if needs be. Delicious savoury venison from just down the road and some oh so sweet and sour onions and you've got a dinner to dream about...

Rolled Loin of Venison with Sweet Potato and Sweet and Sour Onions
Serves 2

2 boned and rolled pieces of loin venison, about 5oz each
2 sweet potatoes
1 red onion, halved and sliced into thin-ish rings
50mls white vinegar
Handful of dark brown sugar
1 tsp whole black peppercorns
1 red chilli, deseeded and cut into quarters
Pinch cumin seeds
sea salt flakes and ground black pepper
50g butter

Pop the sugar and vinegar in a non-reactive saucepan with the spices and chilli and bring to the boil. Add the onions and boil for a few minutes until the onions become slightly translucent and the liquid slightly syrupy. Set aside to cool. You could do this a day in advance if you wanted.
Pre-heat your oven to 180 degrees C.