As with most things in my life, I notice that sometimes I want to blog four or five times a day and other times I can't think of anything to say for days. I'm going to try to remedy this by using the schedule option in Blogger. The days I feel like blogging a million times I'll just go ahead and do it but schedule them to come out at later dates. The only problem I have with this is that it's difficult for me to consciously write in the past tense. So today is Wednesday and I'm going to blog about this sweet stew I've got cooking but the blog won't come out until Thursday. So when I say I am doing this and that, it really means I did this and that. Not that it really matters, you have no idea when I made that stew and you probably don't care. So, on to the post!
I like to cook. I know how to make some basic things pretty well, according to my own tastes. My cooking experience is pretty limited to cooking for myself because when I became a vegetarian my parents supported it as along as I cooked my own meals. The first year and a half of my marriage my husband I were separated by our military duties and I took full advantage of the Army's cooking. My husband and I have been living together since January and I've since come to realize how much he dislikes home cooking. He isn't used to it at all. He was raised by a family who eats out every day and doesn't cook many family meals. He likes spaghetti, but not home made spaghetti sauce. Icky Ragu. So for the majority of the past year I've been living off fast food and boxed or frozen meals. And spaghetti. But I am tired of it! And literally sick of it, my digestive system has really been doing a number on me recently. So I'm starting The Stove Experiments. My attempts to whip up some yummy home cooked meals begins tonight.
My husband got some deer meat from someone in the office. I know nothing about deer meat except my mom cooked it once in a Shephard's Pie and it was freaking amazing. I originally thought it was like one big chunk of meat so I decided to make a stew out of it. I've never made stew but my parents make it all the time and I love it. I started to Google stew recipes but it was just altogether overwhelming how many different options there are out there so I decided to wing it and just pray it turns out okay. To my great surprise this morning, I realized the meat was actually ground... It looked way different when it was frozen, that's all I'm going to say. But I'd already bought all this stew stuff and I was just craving stew. So I decided to go ahead and just have ground meat stew. Whatever. I dumped it into a big pot with a bit of olive oil to brown it--deer meat is really lean I hear so I figured it could probably use some lube so to speak (before I spell checked this I had typed I could use some lube...). After it was mostly browned I threw some chopped onions in there and turned the heat to low.
I started to cut some potatoes, the leftovers we had laying around that looked like they might go bad soon. I threw in a bag of petite carrots, a can of corn and a can of green beans. At this point the pot was like 3/4 full so I added just enough water to cover everything, poured in the slow cooker seasoning mix I picked up and turned the heat up a bit. I figured it would be a good time to light some incense to Hestia. I prayed that it would turn out alright because I have no idea what I'm doing here. I prayed that this food would nourish or bodies and minds. It's just past noon, I plan on cooking it 'til around 5.
So far, it looks pretty delicious. I'll update after dinner :)
Update: Well, the veggies turned out AMAZING. But the deer meat must've been pre-seasoned? It just taste completely different than the rest of it. Gave it a bit of a conflicting taste. Hubs and I picked out all the veggies and had a hearty dinner. I just don't know what to do with all this meat now. I don't want to waste it but it doesn't taste good. Bummer! Any ideas?
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12 November 2009
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12 comments:
Deer meat isn't pre-seasoned, it just naturally tastes different. (My husband is a hunter and got a deer last year. I tried to talk myself into believing the different taste was seasoning. Heh.)
There are a few things you can do with ground venison to mask the gamy taste. You can add a bunch of lemon pepper when you brown it. You also might try using it with more acidic veggies like tomatoes in a chili or spaghetti after it is browned.
When I cook chunks of venison, I tend to use apples, applesauce, or apple cider to remove the gamy taste. I've also cooked it with red wine.
I'm pretty sure that enjoying the gamy flavor of deer is one of those "acquired taste" things. I eat it because I don't dig the idea of killing an animal for no reason, but I don't love it (with the exception of a slow-cooked, apple-infused roast.)
Unfortunately I know nothing about cooking deer meat. I've only ever had it twice, both in jerky form, and one time it was extremely nasty and the other was good, so I'm no help. lol
However, the stew making and the praying sound incredibly homey and awesome. Good for you for "just saying no" to the fast food! ;-)
Oh no! You've traumatized this vegetarian by posting about eating hunks of dead animal!
...joking. :)
If you really don't like it, even after Hannah's suggestion, you could possibly find someone else to give the meat to.
I love deer.
If it is all ground then there will not be much to do with it...deer has a stronger taste but a lot of the taste depends on how the meat was cleaned and processed. I will not go into it here because some of it is gross and I do not want to scar your readers, especially vegetarians lol.
However, if any of the meat is in steaks or stew meat chunks or ANYTHING but ground up, you can soak it in a little salt water, or a little white vinegar and water ( NO it does not make it taste like vinegar ) or soak it in a little buttermilk ( enough to cover the meat ) or even in a little coca cola brand soda. Rinse it before cooking of course.
If the meat is ground, then use it in things like soups and stews and tomato based dishes. I also recommend if it is ground to brown some up plain..and eat some, to get a feel for what it tastes like alone, and then you can better see what to add it to.
If you mix half deer and half ground sausage, it makes KILLER meatballs, and a damn good meatloaf as well.
Hope this helps!
If your hubby is a big restaurant eater why not try looking up some recipes that feature popular eat-out meals that you can make at home. I know Rachel Ray regularly features "take-out" at home meals.
There's always the old standard we used to do the year we ate elk every night. Brown the meat, add a can of cream of mushroom soup. Serve over rice. We also stirred in corn. We just called it "slop", but it was decent. Works well with any ground red meat really.
I agree with Bella - I marinade the heck out of any deer I cook (which isn't much anymore - I grew up on it, and have grown tired of it.) It really is very lean though - good for you!
I can't eat deer. Only because I get to see the process of it being a beautiful animal to being served on a plate every year. Deer is big here because everyone hunts. However, I will say that somehow my grandfather manages to get it to taste exactly like beef. I can't eat at their house because I never know if I'm eating beef or deer and they wouldn't tell me the truth.
I've never cooked deer...but my family eats it frequently.
It's a very 'gamey' tasting meat...not like domesticated animals at all. It might take some getting used to.
I hope you were able to find something to make! How about trying the Shepherd's Pie?
)O(
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I would like to pass along an award to you so come on over to my blog and grab it when you get a chance :)
55 gal
I am not a big game meat eater, but I have had deer and elk hamburgers before, and they where pretty good...
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