Red Wine Braised Venison Medallions

This is a great recipe to enjoy the venison meat you have in the freezer. It can be stew meat, a cut up roast, or loin like I used for this Saturday night feast. The creamy polenta with fresh herbs, parmesan cheese and peas is a great flavor of spring and goes really well with this dish. It beats mashed potatoes or rice anytime!! I made a large batch and had 6 big eaters for dinner. There was enough leftover that everyone took a small container home with them. It’s also really easy to ½ the recipe for a smaller batch………….Chef Forrest

2 shallots, chopped fine

2 medium onions, medium dice

5 stalks celery, medium dice

10 carrots, peeled, and medium dice

2 parsnips, peeled medium diced

2 rutabagas, peeled medium dice

1 ½ cup flour

3 tsp Salt

3 tsp black pepper

3 tsp granulated garlic

¼ cup vegetable oil

4-1/2 # venison cut into 1” chunks

½ cup water

2 cans, 3oz. tomato paste

1 bottle Red Wine

4 cups water

2 bay leaves, crushed with your hand to release flavor

½ cup sugar

•  Peel, wash and cut all vegetables

•  Cut venison into chunks, removing all fat and sinew

•  Add flour, salt, pepper and garlic to large zip lock bag, add venison and shake to coat well. allow to rest 5 minutes so the moisture in the venison can adhere to the seasoned flour

•  Shake off excess flour from venison and set aside

•  Preheat large Dutch Oven on HIGH and add oil

•  Add flour dusted venison all at once and brown well, stirring often to prevent burning

•  remove browned venison and set aside, scrape down Dutch oven to remove browned bits, reserve for later

•  Add onions first and brown then add reminder of veggies and sauté till browned

•  Add tomato paste and sauté with vegetables to help intensify the flavor

•  Add bay leaves, wine, sugar , browned bits and water bring to boil

•  return browned venison to the Dutch oven, cover and place into a 350 oven. Cook for 4 hrs.

about 1 hr before you want to eat go ahead and make the soft polenta

5 Cups water

½ cup olive oil

2 tsp salt

2 tsp granulated garlic

2 tsp black pepper

1 cup chopped fresh parsley

8 oz parmesan cheese

16 oz frozen spring peas

•  Bring water, olive oil and seasonings to a boil

•  While the water is coming to a boil chop the fresh parsley, rinse well before chopping to remove all dirt and sand

•  When the seasoned water comes to a boil, reduce heat to simmer. Add corn meal in a stream, whisking to prevent clumping. Stir vigorously with the whip to cook the polenta and make it smooth and creamy.

•  Add parsley, parmesan cheese and peas. Stir well.

•  serve polenta topped with braised venison and enjoy!!