Venison Stew & Rolls

Monday we were all feeling a little worse for the wear. We had some stomach thing or something hit us. It was very mild, but it was there. I thought we needed stew, despite the warm weather. I decided to make a Venison Stew with some homemade rolls. 

People often ask me what products and recipes I use for eating gluten free, so I'm going to share some of the ones I like here. (I sometimes get inquiries from people about what to eat when they get a diagnosis that requires them to stop eating wheat and gluten. I have an email that I keep ready and updated for such an occasion. Now that I'm blogging here, I'm going to turn that into a post at some point.) 

I started the rolls first because they really need to rest/rise for a full hour. These went about 90 minutes. One thing I miss is "yeast rolls." I loved the ones at Luby's back in the day and Black-eyed Pea and such. A good substitute I've found is the roll recipe on the Bread Mix from Pamela's Products.

I use avocado oil for my oil (and any time a vegetable or canola oil is required) and add 2 tablespoons of molasses to it as that enhances the hardy whole wheat flavor of it. Again, you do need to let these rest an hour or they will be flat and dense. They will taste fine, but the texture will be off. I brush them with melted butter after I put them in the muffin tins that I've sprayed generously with non-stick spray. Also, I think it's helpful to spray an ice cream scoop with non-stick spray and use that to get the batter into the tin. This is a very sticky batter. Now these will not be as light as white rolls made from wheat, but the flavor is there and I think they are delicious. 

Once the rolls were rising, I turned to the stew. My father is an avid hunter and guide. He keeps my freezer stocked with venison. Game meat is so healthy. I love cooking with it. I chose two packages of "tender ham" as my father labeled it. I defrosted it and then cut it into cubes, dusted it with all purpose gluten free flour seasoned with paprika, garlic powder, pepper, and Pork Chop Seasoning from Penzey's because I like that smokey flavor and was out of the Chicago Steak Seasoning. 

Somehow I didn't end up taking a pic of the browned cubes, but you get the idea. Do it in batches or it'll just boil and not sauté and get nice and browned. You want that fond from the browning process or you will not have a flavorful stew. 

I let the meat rest and added more oil to my Staub Dutch Oven and added the onion to sauté, followed by celery and carrots. I seasoned the vegetables similarly to the meat. I deglazed the pan with our favorite Saldo red wine and reduced that slightly. Then I added the meat back in along with canned green beans (because that's what I had; normally I use fresh) and 3 quarts of my homemade chicken stock (if I'd had beef I'd have used that, but chicken works fine; you don't taste chicken, just the goodness of a homemade stock) that I defrosted from my freezer as well. I mixed everything and let it simmer until the liquid reduced a bit and things were thickened from the flour that was on the browned venison cubes. Later, I stirred in some finely chopped fresh parsley. 

In the interim, I put the rolls in the oven (they bake close to 30 minutes in that tin as it's quite large) and sautéed some mushrooms to go on top of the stew. Sometimes I sauté the mushrooms along with the root vegetables, but sometimes I do it separately so I can get a nice browned, flavored product to add on top. It's sort of like adding a finishing salt to your dish. It's another layer of flavor. 

For this application, I melted some butter and added the mushrooms. Once they browned and cooked down, I added some white wine. I could have used more Saldo, but sometimes I like the brightness of a white wine for this. My favorite white wine is Spy Valley, but I cannot get that here locally and have to travel to Plano. In a pinch, my local supermarket has a few New Zealand Sauvignon Blancs (my favorite region and type of white wine) and I prefer Kim Crawford. It's comparable to Spy Valley. I also added some finely chopped fresh parsley and chives to the mushrooms as well as some dried thyme also from Penzey's. Let the mushrooms cook down until the wine is evaporated and they are drier.

See the difference? The flavor will be more intensified and you don't want to water down your thickened stew. 

If you are fortunate, your sweet husband and littlest will come keep you company while things cook. It's fun to talk over our day as dinner is going and have a bit of family time. They say the kitchen is the heart of the home. That is so true. (They also say that the way to a man's heart is through his stomach. I don't know about that one. I could barely microwave a TV dinner when we got married. But I've come around and my beloved certainly shows his appreciation for my cooking.) 

Soon it was all finished and we sat at table to enjoy it. Sadly, I did not think to take a pic of the final product plated. I am not yet accustomed to both cooking and photographing but I'll get there.

So that was our dinner that produced lovely leftovers for a couple of nights. Last night, I took the last of it and put it between two layers of gluten free puff pastry and made a pot pie. The kids liked it better in that form. (This is a Fast Free week in Orthodoxy given that it is the week after Pentecost, so we can eat a non-vegan meal Wednesday and Friday this week. In fact, we were told that we must! 😉 Being that we aspire to be obedient Orthodox converts, we had to comply with the canon and our priest's instructions.)  

I also did not take a picture of that but thought about it. It was not the prettiest pastry application I've ever done, frankly. I underestimated how much pastry I'd need and had to use a mostly frozen sheet to finish it off when it is supposed to be defrosted. Thus, I had to cut it to fit rather than roll it out properly. The finished product was tasty, but it was very piecemeal - literally! 

Tonight is a taco night! I have some ground venison and will use that. For flour tortillas we like Siete almond flour. But I also like to use El Milagro corn tortillas as well. Toby is going to hit Central Market on the way home and get some avocados for guacamole, refried beans, and queso. In South Texas, we did not use queso like they do up here. We always used shredded cheddar cheese. But my children have grown up up here. So we do both. We'll have some salsa and jalapeños as well. 

And, although it's so hot out we are under a heat advisory, I'm debating about a Mexican Hot Chocolate for dessert based loosely on this recipe. Toby has a ghost pepper I bought him that he's not used yet. I'm considering putting that in his part of the hot chocolate and letting it simmer a bit instead of the cayenne (which I would omit from the kids' portions). I'll use my Vietnamese Cinnamon from Penzey's, as well as Mexican Vanilla from there. (There is simply no other vanilla to use, in my opinion). I'll top it with lightly sweetened whipped cream even though I'll be using coconut milk for the base. For mine and Toby's, we might add a bit of a kick in terms of alcohol. Maybe a rum or something? Not sure yet. 

I hope you're making something delicious and fun for dinner. 

Thanks for reading!