Braised Venison

[fifi]

My nephew got a doe and we are going to do the leg for Christmas. The whole back leg is about 10 pounds which makes it perfect for a braising recipe I have from a friend from Taiwan that I have used for fresh pork ham. It is heavy on the ginger and not so heavy on the soy and is a delightful balance. I have been able to get my hands on a piece of pork skin and some extra pork fat to tie it up in. We are after a long braised dish with tender succulent meat. Am I on the right track? Has anyone done this? We have braised leg of venison before (and it is one of our favorite ways to do a whole leg) but never tried the pork skin and fat thing. We have certainly used bacon, both larding and wrapping, but we didn't want that much smokiness for this recipe.

This is the braising ingredients:

1 large hand of ginger, about fist sized

1 bunch green onions

½ cup light soy sauce (regular Kikkoman will work)

¾ cup Chinese cooking wine (usually labeled “not for consumption”… no kidding)

¼ cup white vinegar

½ cup rock candy

2 Tablespoons brown sugar

½ cup dark mushroom flavored soy sauce

We are also looking at giving some of the sides an Asian twist and think that is going to be really fun. Christmas is our time to play with food. That is our Christmas food tradition.

Comments? Ideas?

[budrichard]

The essential thing is to braise i.e slow cook in some sort of liquid. The rest is just your preferences. I really don't think the fat adds anything but flavor, the tenderness will come from the slow braising. The overally quality will also depend on how well your nephew gutted and butchered the doe. In reality 'Bambi' is one of the best to shoot. I would rather shoot a young(button buck) male or a young doe than a 12 point buck.-Dick

[fifi]

My nephew is our chief provider of game. He is excellent at getting a clean shot and really knows his way around a field dressing knife. He has been doing it since he was a kid, now in his mid 30s. His venison is always the very best. Yeah, we are looking at the pork fat for flavor more than anything else. We just think that this will "work" with this braising liquid recipe and give us a really new twist on the venison. The pork fat and skin is my idea that I literally dreamed up. I don't know that I have ever seen that one before.

[Mabelline]

That sounds as if it will work excellently well. It also sounds delicious. I always use a pork product of some kind with venison. I make a lot of ground venison recipes, and I mix a ratio of 1# pork to 2# venison. There's no reason why the skin should not work just as you anticipate. Be sure to let us know how it comes out. Also I've been using a Phillipine palm and cane vinegar called sarap-asim. It is great!

[fifi]

Thanks, Mabelline. I will be going to my Asian market tomorrow or Wednesday and I will look for that vinegar. It sounds really good. Is it milder than our usual white vinegar? If so, maybe I should use a little more than the original recipe.

Heh. Heh. An Asian twist on venison is a departure from our usual methods but I think the sweetness of the venison should work well.

Now... What kind of fusion would you call THAT?

[Mabelline]

Yes, fifi, it is milder, and it just adds something that the venison just responds well to. Like budrichard said the lower and slower braising game the better it always works for me. Let's call it Bambisian!

[fifi]

Yes, fifi, it is milder, and it just adds something that the venison just responds well to. Like budrichard said the lower and slower braising game the better it always works for me. Let's call it Bambisian!

Bambisian! That one made me spit merlot.

Now I am defiintely going to get that vinegar if they have it. Hong Kong Market is a pretty big place. Have you been able to find it in a general Asian market?

[Mabelline]

You'll flip on this...Biglots! I try all kinds of vinegars, so if I see one I buy it; with this I think I'm the only one who's bought it. I haven't tried the mushroom soy in game- does it add earthiness? You really hit the spot tonight, with this topic- I'm doing a bison roast Christmas and I've been racking my brain of how I'm going to cook it- and I'm cooking a ham, too. That puppy don't need that skin, neither. I'm gonna try it too. The way I see it, if it don't come out right, I won't see some of these folks for a year!

Edit to say Roast, Bison Roast, not a whole bison!

Edited December 23, 2003 by Mabelline (log)

[fifi]

Biglots!!!??? You have to be kidding!

If you want to try that braising mixture, What the recipe calls for is slicing the ginger (you can't do too much, use a lot) and put it in the bottom of the pot. Oh, don't bother to peel the ginger. Sit the meat on it. Then you tuck the green onions around the sides. We do the pork at 275F but I am inclined to do the venison at 250F. Baste with the liquid every now and then just because that seems like the right thing to do.

The leftover braising liquid when it is done makes a killer soba noodle soup.

For sides I am thinking something like the following:

Sweet potatoes with ginger and maybe Chinese Five Spice or cardamon.

Roasted brussel sprouts with water chestnuts added at the end and maybe a splash of good soy sauce.

Watercress salad with a rice wine vinegar vinegrette. (The watercress at Hong Kong Market is supposed to be beautiful.)

Maybe some steamed baby bok choy because we love it and they are so cute.

edit to add: Do you mean a bison ham? How big is that sucker?

[Mabelline]

I was pretty tired when I wrote that, so as soon as I read it I thought, yep, that was bright- sounds like a whole damn critter(first, dig a BIG hole...). But no, fortunately it's a hump roast- have not done one, but what the heck. Also, the difference with this was it was arrow-shot in the old way. Came from the Dakotas via a friend at Crow Agency. So I'm anxious to do well. But your roasting brainstorm sounds wizard to me- and your braising sauce is very similar to red pork,is it not? This is going to sound ridiculous, too, but the rock sugar around here is more precious than platinum, so I buy 79 cent boxes of rock sugar candy from the Cracker Barrel General Store. Works for me! In response to the post about their hiring practices, it must've changed cuz I know a lesbian couple in their kitchen, and a couple of gay waiters (I just wanted to get that out of the way).

But, I don't see any reason the ham skin and fat won't work for this, too. Have you got yours thawed? Do you marinate or just start it fresh? This is going to be killer, I can tell right now. Mine is over in my landlady's fridge- I make her dinner for her, so she's got the space. I wiped it down with vinegar,covered it in an old enamel basin, and now it will sit till Wednesday afternoon. I too am going to use 250 for my temp.

"a killer soba noodle soup"-is not Christmas soba addict70, elyse,and one other eGer's birthdays? Maybe we could send some for a present...

Edited December 23, 2003 by Mabelline (log)

[Mabelline]

Ooh, just thought of something else- have the ham in my fridge,so I'm going to get the skin and the fat off, and wrap that up so it'll be ready. I'm going to be crazy tomorrow,because I'll be at the food bank most of the day, and I'm plotting out all my moves..I have a helpful list (#1: put on clothes, #2: make tea water, etc. etc.--- I think I'm gettin' old-timer's, cuz I've got to write everything out anymore.

[Suzanne F]

Girls, if I may break in here:

Biglots????? 'Splain, please.

Otherwise, carry on. This is great stuff!

[Mabelline]

Biglots is like a Tuesday Morning kind of place where they sell all kinds of overstocks of E.V.E.R.Y.T.H.I.N.G. (well, almost) and it's ridiculously low. They've got a snacks, sodas, canned goods,box mixes,spices ( I scored a 3 oz. bottle of Spice Islands' Cream of Tartar for 69c). I never thought I'd see one in Billings, now I know we're headed for the big time-also, folks drive like 250 miles to shop here. We have no state tax as well, so a LOT of luxe vehicles and Rolexes stop here momentarily.

Oops- and a gourmet and/or imported foods area. Last time I picked up some wine and cherry vinegars.Under 3 bucks each. In the cool bottles I can use later.

Edited December 23, 2003 by Mabelline (log)

[fifi]

Sorry, I forgot some details. I am not sure that the mushroom soy adds a whole lot. At least I can't tell. That is just what KJ does. And I wouldn't worry too much about the rock sugar either. I mean, sugar is sugar, right? That is just what he uses and I can get it at the asian market, cheap. This is about pea sized and a little larger.

[AzRaeL]

add truly asian spices like Cordyceps, Wolfberries and maybe dried orange peel.

[fifi]

add truly asian spices like Cordyceps, Wolfberries and maybe dried orange peel.

Other than the orange peel, what is that stuff? I am intrigued.

[Mabelline]

I too am intrigued. What's a common or Asian name for them? I've a Korean market, a health-y food store, and some Chinese acquaintances with a restaurant, so I might even be able to find some.

[fifi]

Well, guys. The deed is done. Now a critique. The flavors worked very well with the venison. There was one dissappointment. It wasn't moist and luscious like pork. We were not surprised there. I wouldn't say it was dry, we are just enamored with pork. Our theory is that the venison is just such a dense muscle that the fat doesn't really permeate. Next time, we will use a larding needle and insert strips of pork fat parallel with the grain. We had some beautiful white pork fat to lay on the venison prior to wrapping it in the skin. The skin wrapping worked very well for keeping the fat in place and the final texture of the fat was just like that under the skin of a fresh ham. One thing we did do after a couple of hours was to cut some slits in the skin so we could get some of the braising liquid under there to flavor the fat. The meat acted quite a lot like pulled pork. What we are going to do with the leftovers is chop it with some of the fat sort of like Carolina style BBQ and add a little of the braising liquid.

We pretty much cooked all day, prople came and went. Everyone kind of grazed through the day. Some of what we did: Quiches, the family favorite hot dips (artichoke heart, dried beef and cream cheese, if we don't do these we are dead), roasted brussel sprouts (will never cook them any other way again), yams, a couple of batches of fudge, glazed spiral sliced ham (picked up on a great sale to add to the quiches).

My feet are tired but it was a good day. I hope everyone's Christmas was as happy.

Nephew is going on a hunt again in the morning. We told him to shoot a pig.

[Nick]

Too bad it came out dry. A friend gave me a hindquarter a few years back and I put it on the table and pretty much steaked the whole thing out. There's a lot of good meat in a hindquarter if you look at it right and have a sharp knife.

[fifi]

Well... It wasn't really dry for venison. What we were after was the unctuousness of pork. That may be an unattainable goal given the differences in muscle fiber structure and not as much connective tissue to turn into gelatin. If the larding doesn't work, the next step may be confit.

Yeah... We do steak out the leg a lot of the time.

[budrichard]

Venison is venison and larding using larding needles may help but it will still be venison and not pork which we are just not used to eating. I appreciate it for what it is.-Dick

[fifi]

You are right, Dick. And almost all of the time we appreciate venison for what it is. However, that doesn't keep us from trying to do the impossible or even, sometimes, the absurd. You never know what you will stumble upon in the process.

[Mabelline]

Yep, my roast turned out a roaring success. It was pretty big, and I came home with a couple of hunks(eensy hunks). No pork skin- it was nailed. Everyone there complimented me-which sometimes does not mean to let it go to your head,Indian folks will compliment some pretty execrable stuff so as not to hurt your feelings. The proof to me were the people going back for more. The ginger was great! Don't have any idea why I haven't used it before now. The older ladies told me they never saw that before, and I wish I had a picture of their faces when I told them it was invented by "ikway Wabiska" (white woman-not derogatory). They told me to thank you.So I add it to my thanks.

Wish someone would post back about the Chinese spices.Have heard of wolfberries, don't know what they are, but Cordyceps is too much for post-Christmas brain.

Had taken a hummingbird cake, a Boston cream pie, tamales, dates stuffed with chiles and cream cheese, the ham and the bison. Came home with posole and some of the most excellent green chile pork I've ever eaten. SO is still in a food coma, bless his heart!

[Pan]

A hummingbird cake? What are hummingbirds like to eat? How many do you need for a cake? Did you hunt them, or can they be bought at butcher shops near you?

[Mabelline]

Hummingbird cake is like the only fruit cake I make for kids. It's so simple it's embaressing. Make a yellow cake batter, add 2 or 3 mashed bananas,1 small bottle of drained, chopped maraschino cherries, and one can of crushed pineapple(use that liquid for your cake), and 1/2 t.'s of nutmeg and cinnamon. You either glaze it or frost it. Sorry I forget it might be taken literally. I suspect it got it's name because of it's colors. Kids love it!