Yes Deer!

This year my husband took a dear hunting. The processor turned a good bit into sausage so my goal was to find some new ways to use deer. Today, amongst finding boxes and more unpacking, I managed to come up with some decent dishes. I know what you're thinking... Deer? Eww. Not so much! Bambi is good, y'all!

Number 1: Ragu very much...

Ingredients:
1 Onion, diced
3 cloves of garlic, minced
about a foot of deer sausage, casing removed and sliced into medalions
1 inch of peeled chopped ginger root
1 tbsp paprika
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1 tbsp fresh coriander (ground in a spice grinder or mortar)
about 2 cups of carrots, sliced into thin medallions
1 can chickpeas
1 zucchini, diced
1 yellow squash, diced
1 can stewed or diced tomatoes (whatever is in the pantry works!)
1 can tomato paste
2 cups chicken stock (much better if home made)

Saute everything but the tomatoes in about 2 tbsp of olive oil. When it starts to get a little crusty (not burnt, this is NOT a Cajun dish) add some of the stock to deglaze (this is foodie talk for get all the crusties off the bottom)the pot. Add the rest of the ingredients and cook for about 10-20 minutes. If you have more time, well go ahead and leave it on. Nothing will really hurt it at this point. Just turn the heat down low.

I served it over some mashed potatoes. I kind of like the Idaho boxed potatoes. They don't have anything but dehydrated spuds and none of that weird junk. Add your own weird junk!

Makes a great hearty meal for a cold day. Even my husband, the squash hater, liked this one. He did however want to trade out the chick peas for green beans, which is totally acceptable! Throw whatever you have in the pot so long as it's a veggie.


Number 2: Can you Deer? Chili

This one is super hard. You'll need a crock pot, can opener, and possibly a knife. That last one is up to you.

Ingredients:
1 ft long section of smoked deer sausage (substitute whatever meat you like here if it isn't available)
2 cans of black beans
2 cans light kidney beans
1 can dark kidney beans
2 cans corn
1 onion, diced
1 pack taco seasoning
2 cans diced tomato and green chili
1-2 fresh diced jalapeno

Throw everything (including liquid from cans) in a crock pot on high for like a minimum of 4 hours. This stuff is great the next day. Make some corn bread for it though. It tends to get a little warm. You can tone it down with some extra corn or beans. If you want to use fresh, go for it.

I also made some of Jen's famous chicken soup. I'll let her tell you about that one. Sufficed to say, it's like, awesome.