A butterflied leg of deer, or lamb, is an impressive and super simple thing to cook on the barbecue. Serve the butterflied leg of deer with tahini sauce and incorporate the flavours of the Middle East. It gives the butterflied leg of deer a creamy, nutty flavour, making it an enticing dish.

BUTTERFLIED LEG OF DEER WITH TAHINI SAUCE

A butterflied leg of deer with tahini sauce is fantastic for larger gatherings. Make sure, once you have butterflied the leg of deer, that each piece is of approximately the same thickness in order to cook it evenly; you can always make a few careful slits in the meat to even it out for cooking.

Serves 8

■ 1 leg of butterflied roe deer split into the three muscles

For the marinade
■ 1 small white onion, peeled
■ 2 garlic cloves, peeled
■ 1 tbs crushed cardamom seeds
■ 1 tbs ground turmeric
■ 2 tbs olive oil

For the tahini sauce
■ 3 tbs tahini (sesame seed paste)
■ 1 garlic clove, crushed
■ 1 tsp olive oil
■ Water
■ 1 pinch dried chilli flakes

First, make the tahini sauce. Place the tahini in a bowl and whisk it with the crushed garlic and the olive oil. Then slowly whisk in enough water to give the sauce the consistency of double cream. Season with salt, pepper and a pinch of dried chilli flakes and put aside until you need it.
To make the marinade for the butterflied leg of deer with tahini sauce, blitz all the ingredients in a food processor and season with salt and pepper. Smear the marinade on to the three leg muscles and leave the venison covered in the fridge for an hour. Remove from the fridge 20 minutes before you want to cook it.
Grill it on a hot BBQ (resisting the temp-tation to turn the meat too many times) for about eight minutes each side; I like to keep it on the rare side of medium.
Leave to rest for five minutes then serve in thin slices the butterflied leg of deer with tahini sauce.