Smoked venison with pickled blackberries

Method

Begin the pickled blackberries 2 hours ahead: warm the sherry vinegar with caster sugar, pink peppercorns and 2 thyme sprigs until the sugar dissolves, then cool completely. Pour over the blackberries with a pinch of salt and leave to macerate. For the venison, pat the loin dry and season generously with sea salt and cracked pepper; sear it in a hot cast-iron pan for 90 seconds per side until deeply caramelised, then set aside. Prepare your smoking setup (a stovetop smoker, barbecue or wrapped foil parcel with smoking chips over gentle heat) and cold-smoke the seared venison for 8-10 minutes until pale smoke just coats the surface; the venison should remain rare. Rest for 5 minutes. Meanwhile, gently sweat the diced celeriac in butter with juniper berries and remaining thyme until tender (8-10 minutes), then whisk in cold vegetable stock to create a silken purée, seasoning to taste. Slice the venison against the grain into 5mm pieces. Plate the warm celeriac purée as a base, arrange venison slices in an overlapping line, scatter the pickled blackberries and 2-3 tbsp of their pickling liquor around the plate, and finish with fleur de sel.