Venison steak is so amazingly lean, tender and succulent it is the obvious choice for a romantic dinner for two.

Ingredients - serves 2 2 x 150g venison steaks olive oil 100ml red wine knob of butter salt, pepper 3 medium carrots ½ small butternut squash pinch of chilli flakes (optional) 2 handfuls of mixed leaves (young spinach, mizuna, rocket, watercress - take your pick of what you like best!)

1 Preheat the oven to 220°C
Peel the carrots, cut in half then diagonally into wedges. Peel and deseed the squash and cut into 2cm dice. Toss both carrot and squash in a little olive oil and spead them on a roasting tray, season with salt, pepper and a touch of chilli flakes (if you prefer, leave them out) then roast for 20-25 minutes, turning once, until tender and colouring at the edges.

2 Heat a skillet to very hot. Brush the steaks with a scant amount of olive oil, season with salt and pepper and sear for 1½ -2 minutes per side then leave to rest for 5 minutes in a warm place. While the steak rests, remove the vegetables from the oven and add the greens to the hot roasting tray, turn all a couple of times and some of the leaves will wilt - divide between two warmed plates. Heat the steak skillet and add the red wine, scraping meat residues and reducing over medium heat to make a sauce - finally adding a knob of butter to enrich and make the sauce glossy. Halve the steaks and sit astride the vegetables and spoon over a little sauce.