Venison: Round II

In my last post I shared a meal made with fresh venison liver that came from a deer Dad had shot and cleaned that morning. The liver is only the first of many meals to be made from that deer so expect to see a few more venison posts… Like this one. After hanging the deer in the garage for a few days, Dad butchered it himself which means there’s a whole lot of venison in my freezer right now. Since I enjoyed bringing the liver into work last week and watching Chef create whatever he wanted with it, I thought I’d challenge him to make another venison meal, this time with some chops. I think challenge night needs to become a weekly tradition at work. It’s fun, I get to learn some new things and I figure it keeps Chef on his toes, I wouldn’t want him to get rusty in his old age…

So what’d he do with the venison this time? Poached it in olive oil and served it with apple cinnamon sautéed red cabbage, a bacon and veg hash and a foamed sauce (bonus points for using bacon). Although poaching meat in olive oil is something I’ve read about, I haven’t actually tried it before. Turns out it’s not hard to do, (or at least Chef made it look easy, I haven’t decided) and it yields pretty perfectly cooked venison. But I guess I have to say that now that Chef and the rest of my coworkers know I have a blog, (sometimes I wonder why I don’t keep my mouth shut). Hmmm, maybe I shouldn’t have made that old age comment either? It’s a good thing they have a sense of humour, otherwise I might find myself peeling bags and bags of onions or worse, shucking oysters or picking thyme for hours on end. Seriously though, the poached venison chops were quite nice and I’ll have to try making them at home so that Dad can enjoy some of the great venison he’s been providing me with.

Wondering what next week’s challenge ingredient going to be? That’s a secret. But I can tell you I’ve already got it picked out and it’s not going to be venison.