---
title: "What’s cooking today: Kudu steak with a port & juniper sauce"
description: "The Merino Slagtery in Graaff-Reinet is tiny but punches above its weight. I always stop there to see what’s interesting. This week the blockman cut me some kudu loin steaks and a shoulder of kudu. More about the latter later. For now ..."
type: "NewsArticle"
publisher: "Daily Maverick"
site: "https://www.dailymaverick.co.za"
section: "TGIFOOD"
author: "Tony Jackman"
author_url: "https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/author/tonyjackman/"
canonical_url: "https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2021-06-09-whats-cooking-today-kudu-steak-with-a-port-juniper-sauce/"
published: "2021-06-09T13:26:58"
lang: "en-ZA"
word_count: 422
---

# What’s cooking today: Kudu steak with a port & juniper sauce

> The Merino Slagtery in Graaff-Reinet is tiny but punches above its weight. I always stop there to see what’s interesting. This week the blockman cut me some kudu loin steaks and a shoulder of kudu. More about the latter later. For now ...

By Tony Jackman · Published 9 June 2021, 15:26 SAST

## Content

Kudu is as lean as meat can be, so cooking it in butter is a fine idea. It needs some sweetness, so I caramelised red onion, glazed some julienne carrots and made a quick deglaze sauce with Boplaas port, a few juniper berries and some ground black pepper.

*(Per 1 portion)*

**Ingredients**

1 x 250 g kudu loin steak

5 or 6 juniper berries

Ground black pepper

1 heaped tsp Dijon mustard

3 Tbsp quince (or apple) jelly (2 for the steak sauce, 1 for the carrots)

¼ cup/ 4 Tbsp white wine

¼ cup/ 4 Tbsp port

2 or 3 sprigs thyme

1 medium red onion, halved and then sliced thinly

1 Tbsp olive oil

1 large carrot, cut into julienne strips

2 Tbsp butter

Salt and pepper to taste

**Method**

Peel and julienne the carrot and put it in a pot with a thyme sprig, a tablespoon of quince jelly and water just to cover. Bring to a boil and cook rapidly until most of the liquid has cooked away; you’re looking for a syrupy glaze. If the carrots are tender (but not too soft) before the water has boiled away enough, remove them with a slotted spoon and continue boiling. Return the carrots once the glaze is perfect, and season with a little salt and pepper.

Slice the halved onion and sauté in olive oil until caramelised. They don’t need sugar or anything else sweet added to them; their own sweet juices, as it were, will come to the fore.

Make sure the steak is dry, and season it with salt on both sides. Melt butter in a hot skillet and cook the steak until tender and rare or medium rare, as per your preference. Remove the steak and keep it warm.

Add a little white wine and juniper berries to the skillet and cook on a high heat until reduced by half, then whisk in the mustard. Add the port and quince jelly and reduce until you have a sticky sauce, not too runny. Whisk in the mustard.

Multiply the recipe according to the number you’re feeding, and drink a toast to small-town butcheries that take the trouble to source good quality meat. **DM/TGIFood**

*To enquire about Tony Jackman’s book, foodSTUFF (Human & Rousseau) please email him at*[*tony@dailymaverick.co.za*](mailto:tony@dailymaverick.co.za)

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