Dear Meat,
Venison Stew
Deer meat or Venison as it is sometimes called, is not all that common to find in the grocery stores or markets in the area. If you are lucky enough to have a vendor that carries venison, you will notice it is more expensive than the common meats purchased for dinner. I do have friends that have access to the ground venison through their local grocery store. This recipe does not call of that, as ground venison is used for other dishes like a bolognese sauce, meatloaf, meatballs or venison burgers. This recipe deals with roasts and steaks that you will cut into 1” cubes.
Venison is a very lean meat and with this dish, fat(s) will needs to be added. In this case, the main source of fat is pork belly. In addition to the pork belly i also used some EVOO, sesame oil, butter and some bacon grease to provide a smokiness to the flavor profile and aromatic of the stew. Regarding game meat, I do not find venison to have a strong taste. Bison and lamb to me has a stronger taste, where the latter, has the strongest of the 3 game meats mentioned. The very first time I made venison stew I followed this recipe by Scott Rhea. What I am about to write and what you are about to read is NOT that recipe but there are some techniques that I have used over the years as well as keep this recipe one of my playlist on YouTube as reference.
Ingredients:
1-2lb of Venison Meat (Cut into 1” Cubes)
Suggested cuts:
Roasts
Steaks
Back Straps/Loins
Pork Belly, I used 10% of the venison weight (Cut into 1” Cubes)
1 whole onion, course to medium dice
1/2 head of garlic, minced or pressed
1-1.5lb of Carrots
3-6 stalks of Celery
2-4 Yukon Potatoes
1tub of Bella mushrooms
2 baby bok choy
Seasoning:
Kosher NaCl
Fresh Ground Black Pepper
Cumin
Mustard Powder
Lea & Perkins Worcestershire Sauce
1-2 Tablespoons of Jack Daniels (drink the rest of the bottle)
1-2 Tablespoons of Beef Bullion
Fats:
2-3 Tablespoons of Butter (Unsalted)
1 Teaspoon heaping of Bacon Grease
EVOO
Sesame oil
Liquid:
In preparation to the cold/flu season and the on going C-19 pandemic, I made Venison Bone broth earlier in the year and froze it. I used approximately 3-4 cups. You can use any stock you like and or water. The bone broth was a light broth so I needed to add a little more umph to it, hence the beef Better than Bullion.
Assembly Directions:
Prep the meat..
Generally speaking, I am the one who processed the venison. Processed means that I have received a quartered deer and I am the one who deboned and butchered the quarters to usable portions. As I am not a professional butcher and have some experience processing game meat, there is still some silver skin to be taken off the cuts. Silver skin is the “sheath” that covers the meat or muscle. Smarty pants individuals out there will say…hey that sounds like fascia and your guess would be right! There is also some connective tissue still attached as the processing of meat is time sensitive and having a small kitchen, workspace and limited refrigeration, final “cleaning up” of any fascia and connective tissue is done prior to cooking. Why clean up the fascia and connective tissue? Fascia and and some connective tissue are not very edible, i regards to texture…it needs to be removed.
Once the silver skin has been removed, cut both venison and pork belly into 1” into your favorite 3D shape of your liking. Place the cut meat into a mixing bowl
Season the meat:
Add some EVOO (I believe I use about 1Tbs…I have a squirt bottle and just squeeze
Add some sesame oil, approximated the same as EVOO.
Add some NaCl
Add some fresh ground Black pepper
Add 2-3 teaspoons of powdered mustard, I used Coleman’s Mustard
Add 1Tbs of Jack Daniels
Toss thoroughly, place in a container or cover and place int he fridge
Prep some aromatics and vegetables
Medium dice a whole onion
Peel your garlic and mince, if you are not using a garlic press
Clean, peel and medium chop your carrots
Clean your celery, make sure to clean the inside! And chop to about 1/2 - 1 inch
Clean and rough cut the potatoes. No need to peel but take the eyes out
It’s searing time. I used a 7qt Dutch oven for this meal. I was planning on running errands once this meal was assembled. To keep the meal cooking, I was going to though it in the oven to slow cook throughout the day at 250deg. F.
Heat the pot to a high medium and add 1Tbs of unsalted butter. Place the meat in the pot to sear. I suggest using the technique in the Scott Rhea video, placing the meat down in a clockwise manner so that you can keep track of each individual meat’s cooking time. You want a nice crust on those 3D quadrilateral meat pieces. It will add texture and tends to keep the meat softer throughout the cooking process. Once you are done place the seared, meaty deliciousness in a bowl. There will be some brown and black goodness on the bottom of the pot, leave it there for the next steps!Lower the heat to a solid medium add butter and sweat out those onions.
Add some NaCl
Fresh ground Black Pepper
Cumin
Several 2-3 squirts of sesame oil
Place and garlic in the press and press away!
As you sauté these two aromatics together, you should be smelling the toasted cumin and sesame oil. While you move those things around incorporate the delicious brown and blackness from the seared meat.
Add the following:
Carrots
Celery
Bacon grease (if you do not save your bacon grease then butter or EVOO)
Add the seared meat, sauté with everything. If needed, add more seasoning and or fat (oil/butter/bacon grease)
Add liquid, it should just cover the mix. Cover the concoction and let it simmer for 15min-20min.
While your are simmering…
Heat up the oven 325deg. F. I know I said 250deg F! I was home to monitor and in the event someone….like The Bugoy wants to eat, he can have a little before the errand run.
Chop up the mushrooms. I quartered them out. Remember, I have a toddler and the smaller the better chances he will eat it without issues.
Once you are done simmering, add the mushrooms, taste and adjust the seasoning before you place into the oven to slow cook. This is where I sampled the broth and decided to add beef Better than Bouillon. I let it simmer for an additional 5min to incorporate the beef concentrate. At the end of the 5min, I taste again and adjust if necessary. Each time you add seasoning, let it simmer and taste again.
Once the taste of the broth meets YOUR expectations, then move to the oven. Leave at 250deg for 3-8hrs. In my case, I went out, treated the teenager for lunch went to the grocery store, brought MBW to Sephora and finally came home. Once we opened the door…the smell of deliciousness our lungs!
After slow cooking take the stew out of the oven, dice up the baby bok choy and stir in. You do not have to place back into the oven, the heat of Dutch oven and the stew will cook the veg.
Serve and Enjoy!
Venison Clean Up…
Note the cut on the left, those white connective tissue needed to go so they were promptly sliced off. The texture of this uncooked tissue is thick and if cooked along with the meat, will make that side of the meat very chewy.
Cubed…
Once cleaned and split, I cut the venison into cubes and place in a bowl to be weighed. Note the redness, and lack of fat. Venison is a very, very delicious lean meat.
Pork makes everything taste better…
Cube these bad boys as well.
I like to weight the meat…
I’m looking for about 10-12% pork for this dish. Feel free to add more or make it 100% venison.
Contrast…
Fat helps with the taste of the dish. You can adjust by adding more or less!
Seared Pork and Venison…
Note the delicious crust from searing. This is all temperature related. Set your stove to Medium-High and do not have too many pieces of meat in the pan/pot. This is one of the reasons the whole placing the meat in a clockwise formation working your way to the middle, helps.
Note the bottom of the pot…
Those brown and black bits on the bottom are GOLDEN! Keep them and DO NOT wipe down the pot.
Sauté the veg
Do NOT worry about scrapping the bottom of the pan. It will release from the bottom once the slow cooking is in order.
Bella Mushrooms…
To chop or not to chop. If all the adults were the only ones eating then I would just float these bad boys in the stew. Because I have kids, the best thing to do is to chop into quarters so everyone gets a little taste.
Bok Choy
Cut the leaves, roll them together and slice. I did not want large pieces of bok choy. For my situation, it is easier to feed a toddler smaller pieces of vegetables AND easier to mix in with everything else.
Mix it all in..
5 minutes before I serve the dish, I throw in the bok choy and let it sit.
Venison Stew with Rice
My lunch the following day, I garnished the dish with some scallions.
This was an absolute delicious dinner and even more delicious lunch the following day. You can serve it with some nice crusty sour dough or with the good ole Asian reliable, rice. Whatever it takes to sop up that delicious liquid.
As I was cooking, I decided to test out some AV equipment and did a livestream. A question came up, if this dish is gluten free. The answer is yes. I did not dredge the meat through an egg wash and some sort of gluten based powder, like flour. I believe Scott Rhea flours his meat, you DO NOT have to do this. Also, some may feel they want a thicker sauce. So a thickening agent might be added. Most common things are corn starch and flour. Corn starch, as long as it is pure corn starch, it is gluten free. The latter, flour…not so much. Other thickening agents is potato flour or potato flakes. All those thickening agents a an also be used to crust up your meat when searing. I did not choose to do this because I knew I would be out doing errands and the crust would be soft by the time I got home.
This meal can easily be made in an Instant Pot or Slow Cooker/Crock Pot. Love the set it and forget it, especially when time is a factor and or I cannot give the process my full attention. My choice was not to go that route this time...I wanted to sear the meat to a nice crust and have those brown and black golden bits in the pot. You cannot do that in a slow cooker/Crock Pot. As for the choice of not using my Instant Pot, I wanted more control to create the taste I wanted for the sabaw, the gravy/liquid part of the stew.
Like all my recipes, these are just guidelines. Experiment, get creative and make it your own!
T
