Ugg. Another Damn Deer

Yes, I knew that he was a hunter before I married him. But, so are most of the men in our family. For me it was commonplace. Something that we grew up with. The difference now that we are married is that we live on a beef farm. And every year when hubby would come home from the hunting camp that is exactly what went through my head. Ugg. Another damn deer. I was getting tired of red meat. Tired of trying to find new ways to cook with it. Thank goodness for Ian and Leticia, at Grants Butcher shop. At least part of our venison each year could be enjoyed in the form of the tastiest venison sausages and meat pies. It was the roasts that I was tired of cooking. It was a trip to our local LCBO where I picked up a copy of the latest Food and Drink magazine that changed my appreciation for venison.

I love red wine. It is my second favourite beverage next to espresso. What I love even more is to pair wines with food. I truly believe that I missed my calling as a sommelier. You can imagine how intrigued I was when I came across the recipe for Stewed Venison with Port and Dried cherries in the Food and Drink magazine. Intrigued but also a little sceptical. I hadn’t been a fan of any of the other venison recipes I had tried before. It didn’t take me long to search for the recommended bottle of wine and ingredients for the dish.

It was a dish that I enjoyed cooking from the start. The kind of dish to make on a cold winters day. From the marinade of red wine, bay leaf, orange peel and gin, to the searing of meat in small batches and then deglazing the pot before placing in the oven to slowly stew. My favourite part was reconstituting the cherries in a pot with port and adding it to the stew at the end. This was what really brought the whole thing together and set it apart from a plain old roast.

And the wine. A big bold red from Venezie, Italy with aromas of dried fruit and chocolate paired perfectly with the dish.

I now ask hubby after the hunt, “did you cut enough roasts?”. And I find myself at the LCBO asking weeks ahead when the next Food and Drink magazine comes out. Which I now read like a novel from cover to cover.