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Thursday, January 13, 2011

Wild Eats

This was one of the venison backstraps I saved from deer season this year.






I remove the silver skin and cut a section of backstrap from the thickest end...
butterflied the piece to lay flat.



Pounded the backstrap with a meat tenderizer to flatten more.. then sprinkled with 1 TBS of tenderquick mixed with 1 tsp of turbinado sugar for a quick cure.

I let the meat cure for 2 hrs in the fridge, then rinsed well.




Placed some of my dried morels from Morel hunting in water to hydrate...


Made a wild rice stuffing by cooking a few minced onions, minced garlic and morels in a butter/olive oil mix. Then adding cooked wild rice and cracked black pepper.

Spread the morel, wild rice mix onto the cured venison and sprinkled with green onions...




wrapped in a bacon weave.. (that was tricky, it's easier to wrap a fatty. lol )




into the smoker with some mild apple wood...





I smoked the venison low at first then cranked the heat up to crisp the bacon in the end...
total cooking time was 1hr and 45 minutes.

made a sauce with the morel infused water..

drippings from the smoke pan, minced onion, a pinch of rosemary, a pinch of thyme and a good shot of wild grape wine ...

then thickened with a cornstarch slurry.




both the smoke and the cure give the venison a pink look...the meat is so moist and tender..




I really, really liked this. :)


.


Reminded me of the fun I had during the year while harvesting the meat, shrooms and wild grapes. :)

36 comments:

Rabid Outdoorsman said...

OMG that looks incredible! AND here I sit eating a can of sardines for lunch. :(

cowgirl said...

lol Thanks Rabid Outdoorsman! It was a tasty meal. :)
Your lunch sounds a lot like mine.. I usually open up a can of smoked oysters and douse them with tabasco. lol
Hope you are having a great week!

Rocco said...

wow jeanie, looks like a fine meal, your the best!
p.s. i'm a big fan of smoked oysters too.

Nick said...

Jeanie, That looks and sounds delicious. I made a backstrap a couple of weeks ago. Much simpler than yours. Cut into 2" filets, marinated in apple cider, coated with venison rub from Oakridge BBQ (first time w/ the rub and really liked it)and grilled over charcoals. My wife and others who normally don't eat venison ate it all up. Now I want to try your recipe.

Drew @ How To Cook Like Your Grandmother said...

Forget Alton Brown. That's good eats.

Big Dude said...

That looks toooo good Jeanie and you harvested the two main ingredients yourself. What impact does the 2 hour Tenderquick have?

Marc van der Wouw said...

OMG that looks really great!!! Deer is a nice piece of meat...nice job..

cowgirl said...

Thanks Rocco! Hope you are having a great winter.
Yeah.. those little smoked oysters are kind of tasty with tabasco and a cracker. :)

cowgirl said...

Nick, Thanks! That sounds great! I've not heard of Oakridge rub but will look for some.
I like your apple cider idea too.
The other day I grilled some venison and dove breasts with two different rubs.. one was a cinnamon kind and the other a chipotle. They were both good. I wish I would have known about your cider trick. I'll try that next time.
Thanks again Nick!

cowgirl said...

Drew.. Thanks!! :)

cowgirl said...

Thank you Larry! The quick cure added a lot of flavor to the meat. It firmed the meat and I'm convinced quick curing adds moisture while cooking.
I rinsed it well and didn't use salt in any of the other ingredients. The cured meat usually has enough salt flavor.

Hope you give it a try sometime.. it's good on pork and chicken too!
Thanks Larry :)

Mrs. JP said...

That looks delicious. I'm going to have to go back on the "you should write a cook book" bandwagon! No, really, you should.

Nick said...

Jeanie,

Here's the link to Oakridge BBQ:
http://www.oakridgebbq.com/

cowgirl said...

Larry I forgot to say.. the 2 hrs worked fine for this piece of meat.. it weighed about onelb so it wasn't very big.

cowgirl said...

Thank you Marc! I love venison too. :)

cowgirl said...

:) Mrs JP, Thanks! I think I will. :)

cowgirl said...

Nick Thanks so much for the link! Can't wait to try the dry rub. :)

LindaG said...

It looks and sounds really good. Thanks for the directions! :-)

David P. Offutt - The Gastronomic Gardener said...

Really lovely Cowgirl! Love the morels!

cowgirl said...

Thank you Linda... Hope you give it a try sometime! :)

cowgirl said...

Thanks David, I've been dreaming about morel season. lol Hope it gets here soon. :)

Ssteppe said...

Ya' outdid yourself on this one, Jeanie!
You should enter that in Big Poppa's pelletsmoking contest.

cowgirl said...

Steve, Thanks! :)
It was pretty tasty.
lol My cooking isn't quite good enough for contests... but thanks for the thought. :)

Ohiofarmgirl said...

WOW! trying...to....get...thru...computer... to... have...a.... bite.....
;-)

WildBabs said...

This looks and sounds amazing...love that you stuffed it with wild rice...mmm!

Old Smoke said...

"My cooking isn't quite good enough for contests... but thanks for the thought. :)"

Are you trying to tell us that your cooking LOOKS better than it tastes? I don't beleive that for one second....:)Sooooooooo
I too am waiting patiently to be included in the first run of the cook book. :)
Sunny and warm (high 50's) here for a few days.
See ya :)

Becky said...

Amazing!!!

cowgirl said...

Haha.. Ohiofarmgirl, Thanks! :)

cowgirl said...

Thank you WildBabs! I love that GooseValley wild rice.. it's sooo tasty. :)

cowgirl said...

LOL Yes Rick, my cooking stinks. :P
I'll be sure to let you know when that cookbook is finished. Maybe I could put a section in about burnpit cookin'. lol
Thanks Rick....

Bushman said...

Wow. That is pure wild. Ingenius idea with morels, wild rice and venison. Theme cooking at it's best. Iron chef eat your heart out. Thanks for the great idea. I so wish I had a backstrap left!

pid said...

you have a way of making mouths water! that looks so good!

pid

cowgirl said...

Thank you Bushman! :) Seems like venison and morels go so well together. Sorry to hear you are out of backstrap!

cowgirl said...

Thank you Pid, It's good to see you. :)

Chris said...

Can we please please please call this a Bambi Fatty? It sounds so perfect :)

Your improvisation and creativity on the smokers/grills astounds me, as always!

cowgirl said...

Haha... Chris, Bambi Fatty sounds great to me!
You are so kind... Thanks Chris.
(((HUGS))) :)