Venison & Mushroom Bourgogne

Ahhh, so I am now in Chicago, and looking forward to eating well. But when I moved, I still made a point of bringing a ton of food with me from the South, including some venison roast (thanks Uncle Paul!). And thanks to my awesome friend, Frank, and this recipe of his, I have something delicious to do with it.



You need a few things first, such as the following (but don't feel the need to be too exact, I never have been and it always works out fine):

About 1-2 lbs of Venison Roast, cubed into 1 inch pieces
1-3 lbs of various Mushrooms-white, cremini and shitakes (I bought mine prewashed and prechopped because I'm lazy)
2 medium onions (or one big onion!), chopped
2T minced Garlic
¼c Sherry
1T Apple Cider Vinegar
1 bottle Red Burgundy Wine (I usually use whatever red is on hand, I've used pinot noir, as well as merlot)
2t Dried Thyme
1t Dried Marjoram
1T Paprika
2t Salt
2t Ground Black Pepper
½t Cayenne Pepper
2T Bacon Fat or Duck Fat or, if you must, Olive Oil
BACON (if you're going the bacon fat route)

Preheat your oven to 350F, and let's get started.


Cook some bacon. Eat it. Save the drippings.

Toss the cubed Version with the Vinegar and a little drizzle of some sort of low-flavor oil then Salt and Pepper it.


Heat some of the bacon fat in a large, heavy pot with a tight fitting lid (Dutch Oven). Brown the Venison in batches being sure not to crowd the pot.


Remove the Venison to a bowl and add the onions (and more bacon fat) to the pot. Sauté the onions for about 10 minutes, adding the Sherry and allowing some of it to cook off, about 7 minutes over medium high heat, stirring. Add the Garlic, Thyme, Marjoram, Paprika, Black Pepper and Cayenne. Sauté for a few more minutes.


Return the Venison to the pot making sure that any liquid that has accumulated is not added to the cooking mixture. Stir to incorporate.


Top the cooking mixture with the mushrooms and then add the wine and maybe some water (depending if you were on the heavy end with your ingredient amounts).


Put the top on the pot and place in the oven for 3 or 4 hours or until the meat is fork-tender. It all just cooks down and blends together.


And it's great if you serve it over some roasted potatoes, in this case Yukon golds. I prep those with some oil and some herbs and stick them in for the last hour.


By this point everything should smell amazing and you will be pretty eager to stuff it all in your mouth. I suggest letting it cool off a little first.

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Meat, Potatoes, and Brussel Sprouts

Been awhile hasn't it?

Anyway, now that I'm unemployed I have no excuse not to waste hours cooking and posting pictures.

We'll start with this lovely dinner I had of pot roast, parsnip-potato mash, and bacon roasted brussel sprouts.




Since I'm free to watch television more often now, I settled into some Food Network the other day and watched 5 Ingredient Fix with Claire Robinson. Then I went to the grocery store for her Sunday Pot Roast and Parsnip-Potato Mash. Added a green element with some brussel sprouts.

Sunday Pot Roast with Mushroom Gravy
1 (4 to 5-pound) boneless beef bottom round roast
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 pound cremini mushrooms, cleaned and quartered
2 medium yellow onions, halved and sliced
4 cups low-sodium beef broth

Preheat your oven to 325. You'll want to heat the olive oil and sear all sides of the meat. Then set the meat aside, and cooked the mushrooms for about 5 minutes. Add the onions and beef broth, and then return the meat to the pot, nestling it down into the vegetables. Include any juices that may have collected while the meat sat. Then cover, and put in the oven for 2 1/2 hours, then flip the meat and do another 30 minutes uncovered to reduce the liquid. To thicken the gravy, run some of the mushrooms and onions through a food processor or mini chopper, and add them back in.

Searing my roast, Claire suggests 4 minutes each side


Mushrooms and onions in the beef broth...I dice my onions small because I have texture issues and don't want to bite into a huge chunk later


Parsnip-Potato Mash
2 1/2 pounds Yukon gold potatoes, peeled and coarsely chopped
1 1/2 pounds parsnips (about 8 small), peeled and chopped
Kosher salt
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter
3/4 cup half-and-half
Freshly ground black pepper

Put the potatoes and parsnips in a pot with cold water and salt generously. Bring to a boil and then simmer 20 - 25 minutes, until fork tender. Heat the butter and half-and-half in a small saucepan until the butter is melted. Drain the potatoes and parsnips, and give them a quick mash. Add the hot butter mixture and mix them up, also adding salt and pepper to taste.

This was my first time working with parsnips


Cooking the potatoes and parsnips until they're "fork tender"


Potatoes and parsnips mixed with the butter and half and half


Bacon Roasted Brussel Sprouts
You'll need:
Brussel Sprouts
Bacon and its grease
Salt and pepper

Other options include lemon juice, olive oil (instead of bacon grease, or along with the bacon grease if you don't have enough), garlic powder, etc. You can even use little chunks of ham instead of bacon, I've had it both ways. You can mix the ingredients together on a pan, or in a big ziploc bag (and then of course pour them out on a pan). Then just roast in the oven at 400 for 30 to 45 minutes, shaking the pan or stirring it around every 5 to 10 minutes to get even cooking. You want them to end up somewhat blackened on the outside.

Brussel sprouts ready for the oven


Brussel sprouts out of the oven


Worth it, don't you think?


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Green Bean Casserole

So I ordered some onion strings while I was at Kona Grill for Happy Hour. They gave me a huge pile and I'm not even sure I ate half of them. My dinner companion had the brilliant idea that I take them home and make greenbean casserole.


So that's what I did.

I imagine most green bean casserole recipes are similar, green beans and cream of mushroom soup. This one also uses cheese (Velveeta!), and that makes it better than all the other recipes. And of course french fried onions (the kind in the can will work if you don't have restaurant leftovers like I did).

You'll need 2 cans of green beans for each can of cream of mushroom soup. For a large casserole dish you would likely use 4 cans of green beans. I am cooking for one in a 9 x 9 pan, so I only used 2 cans of green beans, and 1 can of soup.

Mix your green beans and cream of mushroom soup together, along with some of the french fried onions (make sure to leave enough to spread on top). Go ahead and add a dash (or 8) of Worcestershire sauce if you're so inclined. After you've mixed this all up, and somewhat flattened the top, you'll want to cut up some cubes of Velveeta cheese (not the whole block, calm down). Place the cubes on the top, spread out a bit, and stick the whole thing in a 350 degree oven for about 20 minutes (just until the cheese is melted).

You end up with this.


Now, mix the whole thing up again, so that creamy, yummy, cheesy goodness is evenly spread throughout the dish. Then cover the top with more french fried onions. And back in the oven it goes, maybe for another 20 or 30 minutes (it's all cooked, you're just getting things hot and crisping up your onions).

Once it's out of the oven, you can just inhale the lovely aromas.


Then you pretty much have to eat it. Probably two helpings.


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Homemade Potato Chips

I saw a post about making homemade potato chips and decided I wanted to try it too. But I didn't feel like making the mess of frying so I decided to go the baking route. I'd had some success with baking zucchini and squash slices, so I figured it would work for potatoes too.

Really I was just excited for the opportunity to use my mandoline slicer.



It has 3 sizes! So I made slices of all three sizes.

Laid mine out on a baking rack, and sprinkled them with Tony's. (too much actually)


It occurred to me after I flipped them to spray them with olive oil. I wish I had thought of that before I flipped them, because they ended up sticking to the baking rack.


I pulled them out after about 20 minutes and managed to get most of them unstuck and flipped over with very few casualties.


Put them back in for another 5 or so minutes. They crisped up REALLY well actually. Well, the thin ones did. The thicker ones probably would need to go longer. But in the future, I'll just make the thin ones.


And like I said, a bit too much Tony's. Ended up overly peppery.


But honestly pretty impressed with the end result. Going to have to do this more often.



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Bacon Wrapped Shrimp

These were served at a rehearsal dinner that I did not attend. But ALL I heard the next day was how amazing they were, so I decided I had to have some for myself.

Who doesn't like things wrapped in bacon?

You'll need:
Shrimp
Cream Cheese
Sliced Jalapenos
Bacon
Toothpicks

First I seasoned the shrimp with a little Tony's


It gets better...

I cut my bacon in half...one piece is too long for the wrapping


I used the canned jalapenos...dripping in their own juice. Depending on the size of the shrimp (or the size of your jalapeno love) you may determine that you need to half or third the slices....or you may want to keep them whole.


Take a shrimp, put a dollop of cream cheese in the little crescent, place a jalapeno slice on top of that, then wrap it with bacon and toothpick it. (This may take a few tries before you get the hang of it).


You can either grill or broil these...broiling was easier for me, and I did over-crisp a few of them...but they were still delicious!


EDIT: I've since perfected this recipe a little, and made a few changes based on other recipes I've seen. I run the jalapeno slices (probably 1/4 to 1/2 a cup) through my mini food chopper and add them directly to the cream cheese, along with some of the juice. You can also add a little seasoning, whatever works best for you (cayenne and garlic maybe, or some Tony's). This makes stuffing the shrimp a one step process. Also, Instead of the individual toothpick route, I'll use skewers. It makes flipping them easier on the grill since you don't have to do them one at a time.

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Vegetable Chips

Start with some vegetables, such as zucchini and squash.


my oh my mandoline


pretty slices


dredging station...start with Italian salad dressing mixed with an egg, then move on to seasoned bread crumbs


They'll go in a 425 oven for about 25 minutes (no need to flip if they're on a baking rack like this)


Vegetable chips!


A dipping sauce is nice, and marinara works well (as would any jar of spaghetti sauce).


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Pork Carnitas

This carnitas recipes is from my friend Frank. I begged him for it after he served these for dinner. The recipe is easy, but by easy I mean it's very simple to do. It does require some amount of work, so you'd probably have to enjoy cooking to an extent. However, the process can be spread out over 2 days, so it's really not that bad.

6-7 lb Boneless Pork Shoulder, also called a Boston Butt (mine was actually 8 lbs)
3 c Water
¾ c Orange Juice
2 T Tamarind Paste
½ c Cane Syrup
2 T Fresh Cumin Seeds, toasted and ground (I just used cumin out of my spice jar)
6 Garlic Cloves, minced
1 T Salt
2 T Olive Oil



Remove excess fat from the pork. Put the pork in a large Dutch Oven or Crock Pot and add the water. Cook it for 5-6 hours (at 325 for your Dutch oven, or just on your counter in your crock pot) until it falls apart when you stick a fork in it. Set it out on the counter (or in some container to keep animals from eating it) and let it cool. When it is touchable, pull it apart, into bite size pieces, removing the bone and all the extra fat and nasty parts. At this point you could put it in the fridge overnight and continue the recipe tomorrow.

Next (or in the morning) combine all the other ingredients in bowl and whisk together. The mixture should emulsify a little. Toss the meat with the marinade and place in the refrigerator for a few hours. (I just put it in the marinade before I left for work one morning, and left it all day until I was ready to cook it that night).

Heat your oven to 375F, place the marinated pork on a baking sheet or roasting pan (I used a large Pyrex casserole dish) and put it into the oven. Allow the meat to crisp for about 30 to 45 minutes. Keep an eye on the on it as the sugar in the cane syrup can burn easily. I just made a point of stirring it up every 10 or 15 minutes.


Serve with whatever you like, but it's easy to just make fajitas with it, so consider tortillas, pico de gallo, sour cream, cheese, etc. When I first had this it was served with tortillas, avocado, lime wedges, and cilantro.


It's super yummy delicious.

And this is what you'll have by the end of the night


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Wine Steak

An excellent dinner to be having is wine steak and roasted potatoes.

Start with 2 ½ lbs round steak/top round/London broil, sprinkle all surfaces evenly with meat tenderizer, and pierce deeply and generously with a fork. Let it stand at room temperature for about an hour.

Your meat does not have to look like America minus Florda.


While the meat is sitting, combine all of this in a small pot:
1 cup red wine
1 garlic clove, minced (although I used about 5)
1 Tbsp worcestershire sauce
1 small onion, minced (I've used dried minced onion before as well)
1 tsp salt
1/3 tsp pepper
2 Tbsp prepared horseradish
2 Tbsp minced parsley
2 Tbsp prepared mustard
1 Tbsp sugar
2 Tbsp butter or margarine



Heat it until the butter melts, then let it cool to room temperature (til about when the meat has finished sitting for an hour).

Pour sauce over meat (I usually marinate mine in a gallon ziploc because it's easier to deal with). Chill several hours, turning steak several times. (It can also be frozen in the sauce to cook later).


Remove meat from sauce and strain the sauce, keeping the solids and the liquids separate.

Broil the steak on one side, basting occasionally with liquid.


Turn over and spread the top surface with the solids. Broil to desired degree of doneness.




Slice to serve. The remaining sauce can be brought to a boil and then served to go on top of the meat.

There's really no way you can mess up this flavor. The cooking time will vary depending on your method (grill or oven) and how "done" you want it. I did about 8 minutes each side for medium, perhaps medium rare in places.

As for the potatoes, mine are more like slices instead of chunks because I like them to end up a little crispy. I spray them first with some olive oil so it all "sticks" (it's also amazing if you toss it all in bacon grease). Then I go through the spice rack and add some different things...parsley, thyme, basil, rosemary, paprika, minced onion, pepper, garlic powder, salt, pepper...some combination of all that. Then it goes in the oven for about an hour.


Then enjoy. A lot.





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