Venison Tenderloin

We had one cut remaining in our freezer from the large gift of venison we got last winter.  It is such a nice, lean cut of meat that I couldn't stand to do anything but roast it nicely.  And that's what I did.  Doing some research, I discovered that the target temperature is right around 140 degrees.  So the technique was to season it, brown all sides in the pan over high heat, and then transfer to the oven until the temp reached 140.  I think this took about 15-20 minutes.  The veggies: carrots, onions, and celery, roughly chopped got a basic seasoning and olive oil and roasted in the pan with the tenderloin.  They take a bit longer so I started them before the meat.  The kicker with this combo is the cranberry relish.  After looking in the Silver Spoon cookbook and discovering that cranberries were a natural pairing for venison, I decided that a normal Thanksgiving style cooked cranberry sauce was not going to be quite right.  Instead, we chose this recipe from Martha, which uses raw cranberries, along with orange and pineapple.  This one we will be making again - it is bright-sweet-tart and refreshing up against venison.  Keep this in mind.

Lumpia

I recall eating lumpia when I was growing up.  It is a Filipino egg roll of sorts, with a filling of all kinds of vegetables... vegetables like cabbage and sweet potato that are easy to find in the winter time but also year-round.  I used to eat these at inevitably international pot luck dinners here in the DC area, where, alongside Argentine empanadas, these were my favorites.  This recipe is from the Washington post, and is pretty good.  Look for the Wei Chuan spring roll warppers - they made these a cinch to roll and were very tasty.  The Post also has a photo collection that shows the whole process very well.  Note how big the wok is in the pictures... the recipe makes a lot of filling.  But I've got some in the freezer which will make frying up my next batch very easy.  This recipe is easy to make vegetarian by simply omitting the ground beef... I don't think it would make much of a difference.

Turkey Shepard's Pie

Shepard's Pie is a great recipe to improvise and that's what we did for this one.  The basic concept is simple and a winter classic: a ground meat base (traditionally lamb) with mashed potatoes on top.  Assuming you can brown meat and have a mashed potato recipe you can take this in whatever direction you want.  The twist with what you are seeing here is that we used ground turkey - the same grind-your-own turkey thighs that I use in the turkey burger recipe.  It's got the juiciness and flavor that make this taste special.  Make your base with the meat, onions, salt, and pepper, then throw in some veggies.  Peas and carrots shown here.  For the potato, I think yukon golds are probably your best bet, but go with what you like.  For the top, Parmesan or Gruyere work nicely.  Brown the whole thing in the oven for a few minutes.  If you have oven proof bowls this would make nice individual servings as well.

Vinegar Glossed Chicken

Snowpocalyse victims: Do you have any chicken?  Any random leftover corn meal in the pantry?  This recipe, originally from the book "Mad Hungry," by Lucinda Scala Quinn is a good warming winter meal.  I was attracted by the "vinegar gloss" which seemed interesting.  In practice, it took a bit longer than I expected to reduce the liquid, but the result was quite tasty.

I used a whole chicken and broke it down into eight pieces, but you can use whatever you want - I recommend rediscovering the thighs.  Thighs are cheap, tasty, and hard to overcook, but they do require some extra attention to trimming since they are often sold with a lot of excess skin and fat.  As for polenta - you can get by with most cornmeals - I find that you pay a lot more if it is labeled "polenta."  Items labeled polenta are often coarser grains which can be nice, but you can find coarser grain corn meals as well.  It's so easy you don't need to bother with the tubes.

Venison Stew

Venison is beautiful meat when raw.  It is dark and lean and looks amazing.  Friends gave us a couple cuts from this year's hunting season and I couldn't wait to cook with it - it's not something you can just buy at the store so it's something special.  This recipe was made from the hams - the upper leg.  The other cut we have yet to try is the tenderloin.  I figured the best thing to do with a leg was to stew it.  It's winter after all, and a warming stew is appealing.  We got a bottle of red wine (for the stew) and some stewing vegetables and followed an Italian recipe from the Silver Spoon.  This we served on a bed of egg noodles.   The stew was tasty - but it took on the taste of the wine and the vegetables and seemed to dull the taste of the meat.   With the tenderloin I think I'll try a lighter touch that will let the meat come through a bit more.

Potato Leek Soup

There is not much to say about potato-leek soup - it speaks for itself.  It is wintry, earthy, warm, humble and seasonal.  When you come home and sit down to a bowl of potato-leek soup, you wash away the week and start again.  Any recipe is pretty good, this is the one that we made this week - it has a little spice in it.

Gingered Brussels Sprouts

This dish was once the vegetable of the day at Vegetate, a really nice vegetarian restaurant here in DC.  As one friend described it, it's more of a "restaurant that happens to not have any dishes with meat in them" than a vegetarian restaurant.  According to their website, they are now in the process of moving and their 9th St location is closed.  I hope they open again soon, and in Southwest!  Anyway, these brussels sprouts were grilled and just bursting with juicy gingeryness and were amazing.  So good, in fact that I am working out the recipe.  What follows is my first attempt.  It needs work, but I will refine it the next time I get my hands on some good b-sprouts.

Gingered Brussels Sprouts
First tasted at Vegetate DC

Pick smaller, dark green, tight sprouts.  If you can find them on the stalk, they are probably fresher. Rinse your sprouts and remove any yellowing outer leaves if they happened to get in your bag.  Trim off  just a sliver of stem to remove the dried part but not cut any leaves.  Place them in a medium bowl and microwave for 2-3 minutes.  Move on to the marinade.  In a small saucepan, combine 1/2 cup water, 1 tsp fresh grated ginger, 1 Tbsp honey and bring to a boil.  Continue boiling to reduce by half.  When cool, cut the sprouts in half and dress with some of the liquid.  Heat a small amount of olive oil on high in a pan and toss in the brussels sprouts, cut side down.  Brown for a minute or two, then turn off heat and mix in remaining liquid, tossing to coat.  Serve hot.

I need to try this a couple more times to refine the amounts and get the ingredients and technique better.  I would love to try this on the grill the way it was intended.  I may need a return trip to Vegetate.