[30 Day Challenge] Something with Venison

Random Observation/Comment #386: People say venison is gamy, but that’s probably because they’re eating frozen, thawed, and refrozen venison. The fresh stuff is just like a steak.

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Recipe: Something with Venison – Venison Stroganov

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When my parents gave me a package of venison to bring to my brother’s, I looked up a couple of recipes that I thought would be pretty good. What I wound up doing, as with all my meals, is make something up. First, I thawed the venison and cut it against the grain into little bite sized chunks. Next, I marinated it with salt, pepper, flour, garlic powder, and some of the leftover curry powder and cream of chicken soup from the curried cauliflower recipe.  Next, I used some butter to cook up some diced onions. Then I threw in the meat to sear on high heat for about 3 minutes.  Lastly, I added in the tomato paste, coconut milk, and a bit of salt to taste.

Lessons Learned:

  • Do not overcook the venison. I was already smart enough to turn off the heat when it was medium so it would cook the rest of the way while waiting to be served.
  • Definitely eat venison cooked in this manner while freshly hot. It probably does not go well when reheated because the meat becomes chewy. The first few taste tests with the venison were excellent because it maintained the moisture and tasted like steak.
  • Always add diced onions and a bit of garlic before adding the venison. I think the extra water from sweating the onions gave the venison some extra flavor and kept it from getting too tough.
  • Coconut milk was such a great idea. The tomato paste by itself would have been too thick and red. I was inspired to add this from the chicken tikka masala lessons learned.

Final Thoughts:

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I didn’t think I’d like the venison cut in chunks. To be honest, this was very experimental from the beginning because I’ve never made venison before. Fortunately, the cooking gods smiled upon me and brought forth a very tasty concoction. The sauce was the right amount of tangy and the meat didn’t have a gamy taste to it at all.  Next time, I’m going to try to make a teriyaki-based sauce to it and cook it a little bit less.

~See Lemons Eat Venison