Recipe of the Month

by Duane Radford

Polish Style Venison Stew

Marinade
● 1 cup dry red wine
● 1/4 cup red wine vinegar
● 1/2 cup port
● 6 juniper berries (crushed)
● 1 teaspoon allspice
● 4 garlic cloves (crushed)
● 1 teaspoon of salt and 1/2 teaspoon pepper
● 2 tablespoons fennel (crushed)
● Ziploc plastic bag

Venison Stew Meat
● 1 pound venison stew meat
● 3 strips of bacon (chopped)
● 1 cup dates (chopped)
● 1 white Spanish onion (diced)
● 1 teaspoon brown sugar
● salt and pepper
● 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour

This recipe is designed to tenderize tougher pieces of venison such as shoulder cuts but any cut of meat would be suitable. It’s adapted from the “From A Polish Country House Kitchen” cookbook by Anne Applebaum and Danielle Crittenden.

This recipe requires an overnight marinade and a bit longer than normal cooking time of two hours if done in an oven at 350 F. I prepared it on a stove top in 1-1/2 hours. This is an old country sugary recipe for special occasions with a mouth-watering aroma. The authors recommend serving the stew with mashed potatoes. I added a salad.

Marinade
1. Combine all of the marinade ingredients in a large mixing bowl and whisk them together.

Venison Stew Meat)
1. Rinse the stew meat under tap water and pat dry with a paper towel.
2. Place the meat in the plastic bag, add the marinade, slosh it around the meat and refrigerate overnight or for two or three days.
3. Remove the stew meat from the plastic bag and let the marinade drain on a paper towel.
4. Reserve the remaining marinade to be used later when simmering the meat.
5. Brown the bacon in an oven roaster, until crisp. Set aside on a paper towel.
6. Brown the venison in the bacon fat at a medium/low heat. As the meat is browning, add the diced onion and sauté. Add salt and pepper to taste.
7. Add the marinade and scrape the bottom of the oven roaster to free up any of the browned stew meat on the bottom of the roaster.
8. Add the bacon bits, dates, sugar (stir well) and simmer for one hour.
9. Make a paste of flour and water and whisk it into the stew a few minutes before serving to thicken the gravy.

In keeping with the Polish theme, you might want to serve the stew with a variety of Polish flatbread, rye bread, or white bread roll. There are several Polish and Ukrainian bakeries in Edmonton where you can shop for these brands.

A rule of thumb is you can’t go wrong pairing venison with the same red wine used in the marinade, varieties of which are as follows: merlot, cabernet sauvignon, syrah, pinot noir, malbec and tempranillo, of which the cabernet and malbec are among the most popular. For a beer pairing opt for an amber ale, brown ale, porter or a stout. Poland is noted for several popular brands of porter.