Venison Slow Cooker Stew

A recent Question of the Week on foodtv.ca/blog got me thinking about venison. It's almost hunting season again and I still have a shitload of it in my freezer so it's time to do something about it. I cut up the meat, carrots, celery, onions and garlic and set everything out the night before. I left the potatoes, celery root and squash 'til the morning 'cause I didn't want them to turn colour (I'm not too sure if celery root or squash will turn colour but I didn't want to take the chance.)

Ingredients
6 medium potatoes (Yukon Gold)
4 large carrots
2 medium onions
1 small squash (Sweet Potato Squash)
1 celeriac (celery root)
6 cloves garlic
venison (2 packs chops and 1 pack stew)
salt
pepper
dry rosemary
dry thyme
1 can tomato paste
2 bottles of beer (McAuslin Blonde)
1 large box of beef stock

Directions
1. Peel the carrots, onions, squash (you'll need a friggin' sharp knife here), celeriac and garlic. Leave the skin on the potatoes if they're new). Chop all of the vegetables except the garlic into bite-size pieces. Leave the garlic whole. Put all of the vegetables in the slow cooker. Add salt, pepper, rosemary and thyme.

2. Trim and de-bone the chops and cut into bite-size pieces. Obviously this would have been easier if I had a bunch of pre-cut stew meat, but I didn't. Just the one pack. Add the chopped chops and the stew meat to the slow cooker and add more salt, pepper, rosemary and thyme.

3. Add the tomato paste, beer and stock to the slow cooker, cover and set on low for 10 hours.

Notes
1. This recipe filled a large slow cooker to the rim.

2. It was delicious but I think it would have been better with a bit more venison and a bit less potato. 3 packs (~3lbs) of venison seems like a lot but there's not that much left of the chops once they're trimmed and de-boned.

Chicken Tacos

I decided I wanted chicken tacos for supper so I stopped by the Produce Depot on my way home, and with tomatoes and habaneros from my garden, this is what I came up with. This recipe makes way more salsa than you need for a few tacos... but a little leftover salsa never killed anyone. By the way, it was spicy (especially the salsa), but damn tasty.

Ingredients
6 plum tomatoes, blanched, peeled and finely diced
1 mango, peeled and finely diced
1 medium red onion, finely diced
1 bunch fresh cilantro, finely chopped
7 cloves garlic, minced
2 habanero chiles, minced
2 limes, juiced
2 avocados, mashed

3 Tbsp olive oil
1 pkg ground chicken
1 Tbsp dried oregano
1 Tbsp dried thyme
1 Tbsp ground cumin
2 Tbsp flour
3/4 cup chicken stock

salt & pepper

1 cup yogurt or sour cream, drained in paper towel to thicken
grated cheese
tortillas or taco shells


Salsa
Mix all the tomatoes and mango, 1/2 of the onion, 2/3 of the cilantro, 1/3 of the garlic and 1/2 of the habanero with salt, pepper and 3 tablespoons of lime juice. Let stand.

Guacamole
Mix the avocado with 1/4 cup onion, the rest of the cilantro, 1/3 of the garlic, 1/2 teaspoon habanero, 1-2 tablesppoons of lime juice, salt and pepper. Cover plastic wrap, touching the surface of the guacamole. Let stand.

Meat Mixture
1. Brown and crumble the chicken in the olive oil, with the rest of the onion.

2. When the chicken is about half done, mix in the rest of the garlic, the rest of the habanero (or less), oregano, thyme, cumin, salt and pepper. Continue cooking until the chicken is done.

3. Stir in the flour and cook for 2 minutes. Add the chicken stock, simmer and stir until nice and thick. Stir in 1-2 Tbsp lime juice at the end.

Assembly
Line a tortilla with yogurt, salsa and guacamole a la Mexican flag. Top with chicken. Sprinkle with cheese. Enjoy.