Recipe: Ellie's Deer

Deer steak with blueberry reduction. Served with a twice baked cheese potato and steamed broccolini.

“Ladies of the world try things.” This has been my persuasive dinnertime mantra for pretty much as long as our girl has been eating solids. This summer, she started saying it back to me. The first time, it was regarding a peach from the Manchester Farmers Market. That was a fortuitous start for the expression and now, though she wants mac n cheese or peanut butter sandwiches more often than not, she still does like to try new foods, even if she doesn’t always like them.

This fall, when we talked about hunting season, she declared her fervent wish to try deer. “Girls of the world try things, mom!” She’d bring it up out of the blue, asking if we’d acquired any for her to try yet. She told me several times about wanting to work at a slaughterhouse: “It’s a little sad…but it’s for eating!” Just when I thought she’d forgotten about it, she’d bring it up again. Luckily for us, some kind friends offered to share some of their family’s hunt.

Ellie was ecstatic; I was grateful but daunted. I’d never prepared venison before and when I’d eaten it, just as often as it was delicious, it was terrible - stringy, tough, and gamey. I was intimidated by the prospect of getting it right. But ladies of the world try things (and apparently so do I)!

So I spent a few weeks reading recipes and ultimately concluded I should treat the steaks like…well…steaks. I found a Jamie Oliver recipe I liked, got the ingredients I was missing, and adapted it lightly for my quantities (and to account for the fact that I didn’t have any red wine in the house).

I explained to Ellie that, for delicacy’s sake, deer meat is usually called “venison”. My girl of the world wanted no part of that semantic delicacy, but she did declare her deer delicious.

Elliott Miller, girl of the world, gives the deer a thumbs up.

For the Steaks:

3 lbs. deer steaks, trimmed

large handful fresh thyme, leaves removed

8 dried juniper berries, crushed with the flat side of your knife

2 tsp. salt

ground pepper

3 Tbsp. olive oil

2 shallots, peeled and finely sliced

3 cloves garlic, peeled and minced or passed through a garlic press

pint fresh blueberries

1 Tbsp. butter

1 c. water (or other complimentary liquid — beef broth, chicken broth, red wine, or even pomegranate juice would work)

Mis en place.

Combine salt, pepper, juniper berries, thyme leaves, and olive oil. Rub on the steaks and let sit, covered, in the fridge for a few hours.

When you’re ready to cook, bring them to room temperature first, then heat up a cast iron skillet over medium-high heat. When the pan is hot, put steaks in, but don’t crowd the pan. If you need to cook in batches, that’s preferable to overcrowding.

Cook, more or less as you would any steak — until the red is gone and there’s a bit of char on each side. This will be about six minutes per side, but will depend greatly on your pan and the thickness of the meat. If you cut into it before removing from heat, the interior will still be a sort of purple-y red, but not bloody.

Do not overcook: it will taste like a hockey puck made of charcoal. In order to avoid this, when in doubt, take it off the heat. (You can always put it back on.) It will also continue to cook a bit after you remove it from the pan, so factor that in when deciding when to take it off the heat.

Once all the meat is cooked, remove it from the pan and let stand, covering with foil as needed. Add the blueberries, about a cup of liquid, and bring to a boil, scraping down the sides and bottom of the pan for the garlic and shallots. Lower the heat and let simmer over medium-high heat until thickened. Add butter and incorporate. Serve over or next to the meat.

I served the steaks with twice-baked potatoes and steamed broccolini with olive oil and lemon juice.

Deer steaks, almost ready to be removed from the pan.

For the potatoes:

4 russet potatoes

¼ c.half & half

¼ c. plain Greek yogurt

salt and pepper

shredded cheese, optional

Bake 4 whole russets at 500 degrees for an hour, then cut the potatoes in half lengthwise and scoop out the flesh into a mixing bowl. Set the skins aside, intact. Microwave ¼ c. each of plain Greek yogurt and ½ & ½ in a pyrex measuring cup until almost boiling (about 2 minutes) then whisk it together. Add mixture to the smashed potatoes, mashing and stirring it in. When consistent and smooth, scoop it back into the halved potato skins and dab with butter and cheese, if you're using it. Bake at 375 until warmed through and lightly browned on top.

The following day, my husband, James, improvised a terrific stir fry with the leftovers.

For the stirfry:

¼ c. grapeseed oil

1 Tbsp. minced garlic

1 tsp. minced ginger

1 ½ c. sliced onions

3 c. mix of cabbage(s) and/or bok choy

¼ c. soy sauce

2 Tbsp. rice wine vinegar

1 ½ - 2 c. leftover meat, cut into bite sized pieces

Heat oil in a cast iron skillet over medium-high heat. When oil is hot, add garlic, ginger, and onions and cook, stirring occasionally, til translucent. Add cabbage mix and cook til soft, stirring occasionally and adding the soy sauce and rice wine vinegar. Add meat and cook til heated through.

Serve over rice or other grain.

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