Venison Chili

Well, tomorrow is the church Oyster Roast!!  I am more than ready to go eat my $25 worth of the succulent yummy oysters.  There is also a Chili Cook off and I entered, the winner gets a free massage (of the legal type of course, this is a church event).

There are going to be many healthy chili's there.  I have heard speak of a couple of vegetarian entries, a couple of chicken or turkey chili's so I decided that we need something different!!!  Our entry will be a Venison chili.

Venison was not something I grew up eating and as a matter of fact I had it for the first time a few years ago at a restaurant downtown.  I am in love with it even though I did need to get over the whole Bambi thing.  I assume you can go buy venison but we have been fortunate enough the past couple of years to make friends with folks that hunt and enjoy sharing their bounty!  This year it is the boyfriend of our next door neighbor and he gave us 4 pounds of meat (3 ground and 1 looks like a roast of some type).  At first I was going to bring a venison and black bean chili in a Mole sauce but the initial attempt pretty much wound up in the trash (yes it was that bad),  the recipe I started with was for chicken and has cinnamon in it which is what I think did the whole thing in.  So after that attempt it was decided that it would just be a plain venison and black bean chili.  This makes a lot so if you try it you may need to cut the ingredients back to suit your needs (or you can just put it in freezer bags for later).  I am also making a fairly mild chili for the masses, if you like it spicier go for it!!

Venison and Black Bean Chili

2 lbs ground venison
2 medium onions chopped
1 tablespoon chili powder
1 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1 large can tomato sauce
1 large can diced tomatoes
1 large can chopped tomatoes
1 cup medium salsa
salt and pepper
2 tablespoons olive oil

In a large stockpot heat the olive oil, add the onions and the venison.   Cook the venison thoroughly (the onions should be done when the meat is finished).   Add the chili powder, cayenne, salt and pepper.  Stir thoroughly than add the tomatoes and the salsa.  Heat to boiling than reduce to a medium simmer.  Let cook for many hours (I cooked mine on the stove for about 4 hours and than put it in the crock pot and let it go on low all night).

Chili is one of those foods that tastes better the second or third day and you could substitute any meat you want, I have made this with ground chicken before and it turned out great!  If you are using a meat with more fat content (venison is very lean) you may need to cut down on the olive oil.

I will let you know how it goes!!

Coming Up For Air

I am coming up for air for a few moments!  Somehow no matter how long I do it, retail takes over your life during the holidays.  Add to that its dark out so early and gets light so late I almost feel like I come and go in the dark.  I left work at 4 ish today and ran to do some errands landing in the house sometime after 5.  Michael is doing a home buyers seminar tonight (did I mention he is the BEST Real Estate agent in the entire world?) so I put away the things I bought and put a pot of chili on the stove.  We were truly excited when a friend gave us 10 1lb packages of venison sausage.  Now it is just up to me to figure out what to do with it!  It is loose, not in casings, so one night last week I made a meat loaf and tonight there is Venison and Black Bean chili on the stove.  I had never experienced venison before a visit to a wonderful restaurant downtown and now I am in love! 

I need to digress for a moment.  Thanksgiving was a wonderful crazy day.  I think our friend out did herself as always preparing a the de-boned turkey wrapped in prosciutto.  Fantastic is the only word to describe it and my husband had the forethought to hide it from most of the people there!  When you have 30  people over for dinner it is a feeding frenzy.  The soup turned out great but I don't think it was the right crowd for it and I wound up bringing about half of it home.  I took it to work and pawned it off on some of the folks there who have now asked for the recipe.  I guess it was a winner.  We went over to the same friends house on Sunday to help her eat some of the leftovers.  I don't think I have ever had turkey wings and legs simmered slowly in gravy but...I will definitely have to eat that again.

The lunch was a major hit at work this weekend with enough food (except for the meatballs) to last through the entire weekend with a little left for Monday.  The staff gave me a wonderful card and gift basket with a wine I have been dying to try, I think I may have to save this one!

Now for the Venison and Black Bean Chili

1 med onion chopped
1/4 green pepper chopped
1 lb Venison
1 Tbl Cayenne pepper
1 lg can crushed tomatoes
2 cups water
1 Tbl tomato paste
a glug of Pace Picante Sauce
1 Tbl Olive Oil

Heat the oil in a fairly large pan over a medium heat, when hot add the onions and peppers.  Saute until soft, add the venison, stirring to break up and brown.  Add the remaining ingredients, bring to a boil and simmer for about 2 hours or so stirring occasionally.