Venison and other game meat

[Dejah]

A student just gave me several chunks of venison from his hunt on Saturday. I know how to use it in North American recipes, but how about in Chinese/Asian cooking? My mom always cooked it in an herbal soup, with gai jee, dried longan, etc.

Any suggestions? How about recipes that would appeal to Chinese students from around Shanghai area? I would like to make something for them. It may be their first time trying venison?

[Tepee]

The only venison dish I have eaten in Malaysia is Geong Choong Chau Fun (Noodles fried with ginger slices and lots of spring onion with thick gravy). There are 2 stalls I know here which does a fantastic version. The meat is delicious and velvety, and the noodles have terrific wok hey. Dunno if that's anywhere near shanghainese style, though. Now, you're making me lose sleep....until I ta-pau those noodles.

You are a gem of a teacher.

Edited December 5, 2006 by Tepee (log)

[Dejah]

The only venison dish I have eaten in Malaysia is Geong Choong Chau Fun (Noodles fried with ginger slices and lots of spring onion with thick gravy). There are 2 stalls I know here which does a fantastic version. The meat is delicious and velvety, and the noodles have terrific wok hey. Dunno if that's anywhere near shanghainese style, though. Now, you're making me lose sleep....until I ta-pau those noodles.

You are a gem of a teacher. 

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I wonder if they marinated the venison with something before stir-frying? Sometimes venison can be quite gamey.

I'm a mom first and foremost! Followed very closely by cook-er (as my students all say), then teacher. I like to keep all three parts of myself balanced.

[Ben Hong]

Treat venison as lamb. Use it in Mongolian type dishes ...kabobs, stews (5spicey), stir fried with ginger and scallions. .. I have eaten a lot of venison this year as well as wildfowl, grouse, pheasant, etc.

[hzrt8w]

Any suggestions? How about recipes that would appeal to Chinese students from around Shanghai area? I would like to make something for them. It may be their first time trying venison? 

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Here is what you do: send half of the venison to Ah Leung. He will five-spice the heck out of the venison.

Gamey and toughness are the issues. For #1, use a lot of ginger and strong spices to cover it. For #2, need to use braising method to soften the meat. Bubbly for hours...

[Dejah]

I did get a request for kebabs Chinese style, so maybe I'll marinate the heck out of venison cubes, then grill. An experiment soon.

[Ben Hong]

Gaminess and toughness in venison is not usually a problem, because most whitetail deer that are shot in our neck of the woods are generally young bucks. They are very tender. Gaminess is a subjective appreciation, what I find mild may be gamey to some. I rather like a little wild taste. Two round steaks (leg) that we had last Saturday tasted like veal.

[Dejah]

According to one of my brother's hunting buddies, gaminess also depends on the way the animal is bled and that certain fats must be removed. I check out the meat Emrah gave me. It's well trimmed, but I can't tell what part of the animal it came from. One of the pieces in the freezer looks like it might be a tenderloin. THAT piece will wait until I have time to plan.

How would a marinade of apple cider and ginger work? I want to do kebabs on the BBQ then warmed up in a conventional oven at lunch time on Thurs. It's our traditional pizza farewell party. maybe I should ground the venison up, add Middle East spices and do flat bread?

[Ben Hong]

Ground venison with middle eastern spices wrapped around large skewers is venison shashlik. My favourite Chinese style venison is stir fried with ginger, garlic and scallions, honey, and dark soy sauce.

This fall, I was given a large chunk of young bear. It's been a few years since I enjoyed bear and I forgot how delicious it was.

Edited December 6, 2006 by Ben Hong (log)

[Dejah]

Ground venison with middle eastern spices wrapped around large skewers is venison sshashlik. My favourite Chinese style venison is stir fried with ginger, garlic and scallions, honey, and dark soy sauce.

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Would you marinade the venison before stir-frying? I think ginger, garlic and scallions are the key ingredients.

[Ben Hong]

If you want to eliminate some of the wild taste, or if the meat is a bit stringy, yes marinade. I don't, usually.

[Pan]

The only venison dish I have eaten in Malaysia is Geong Choong Chau Fun (Noodles fried with ginger slices and lots of spring onion with thick gravy). There are 2 stalls I know here which does a fantastic version. The meat is delicious and velvety, and the noodles have terrific wok hey.[...]

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No kidding, venison at stalls? Is that rusa, pelanduk, or kancil? (Three different names in Malay that get translated as "deer," "barking deer," and "mouse deer." I think either the kancil or/and the pelanduk aren't actually deer, in terms of scientific taxonomy.)

[Tepee]

Oh yes, it's venison. But I shall have to ask the cook where they get their meat...not easy to find. I think not many folks here are even aware there are such noodle stalls.

[liuzhou]

This is not going to help you at all, but may be of some amusement value. About nine years ago, I was invited out to lunch by some friends in Hunan.

"Meet us at 9 a.m.," they said.

I thought that was a bit early for lunch, but went along with it. We drove for miles into the countryside and finally arrived at a tiny restaurant on the top of a hill in the middle of nowhere.

"This is wild animal restaurant," my friends announced.

We proceeded to munch our way through several dishes.

"What is this?" I would ask.

They looked at each other, struggled for a while and said, "Wild animal."

The next dish turned out to be wild animal, then we had "different wild animal." Every dish was some kind of "wild animal" except the rice!

On the way back I suggested that they write down the Chinese for the various 'wild animals' we had consumed so that I could look them up in my dictionary.

They looked a bit sheepish and admitted they didn't know what they were in Chinese, either. Anyway, it was delicious, but to this day I have no idea what I ate.

I'm fairly sure no pandas were involved.

[Dejah]

This is not going to help you at all, but may be of some amusement value. About nine years ago, I was invited out to lunch by some friends in Hunan.

They looked a bit sheepish and admitted they didn't know what they were in Chinese, either. Anyway, it was delicious, but to this day I have no idea what I ate.

I'm fairly sure no pandas were involved.

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[Pan]

Thanks for the great story, liuzhou!

[hzrt8w]

They looked a bit sheepish and admitted they didn't know what they were in Chinese, either. Anyway, it was delicious, but to this day I have no idea what I ate.

I'm fairly sure no pandas were involved.

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Don't worry. Not enough pandas can be found.

Dogs? My neighbor's nonstopbarking dogs seem wild animals to me!

[liuzhou]

Dogs? Not commonly eaten in Hunan. Now, I live in dog eating territory. Dog hotpot is very common in winter.

Edited December 6, 2006 by liuzhou (log)

[jhirshon]

There are several Chinese recipes for venison, mostly from Sichuan and Yunnan. There are one or two Laotian recipes that also use venison, from near Chinese border, I believe.

hope this helps - JH

[Dejah]

Here are the venison kebabs I prepared for our year end pizza party. I marinated them with chopped chilis, lime leaves, lemongrass, galangal, oil, and a bit of light soy sauce. It was the first time my students from China had ever tasted venison.

Just ready to go on the BBQ:

Off the BBQ and ready to eat:

Luckily, the weather was mild that morning and I didn't even need my parka to stand outside.

[Tepee]

Oooh, Dai Gah Jeh....love your animal skewers.

Hubby ta-pau-ed geong choong chow luk yuk for dinner tonight. Eat this with sambal and pickled green chillies.....yum!