Stuff it!

A couple of months ago our neighbor John rang the doorbell and asked if we wanted some venison. My husband said we did, and it wasn’t until I poked my head into the garage a bit later that I realized he had dropped off not packages of meat but a whole deer - with fur, a head and everything. It was blanketed in a plastic tarp, and after making uneasy peace with the beady, faraway eyes, I embraced the idea of wild game as food. I’d be eating quite a lot of it in the near future.

I’ve never been a big fan of venison, the purplish color and gamey taste has always turned me off. But over Christmas Andy made a tender, delicious roast out of a big hunk of venison his parents brought from Pennsylvania. It simmered lightly in the crock pot all day and was amazingly tender for being such a lean meat.

A few weeks ago received the processed meat back from Echo Valley Meats in Bartonville. They did a great job - two big boxes of venison, cut various ways and packaged in tidy camouflage wrapping. To start, we decided to make stuffed peppers with some of the ground venison. We made this mostly from stuff we already had in the fridge, except for the big, fat green peppers that I ran out to the store for.

Venison-stuffed peppers

1 pound ground venison

3 to 4 tablespoons fresh parsley

1 tablespoon Italian herbs (mixture of thyme, oregano, basil)

Juice of half a lemon

1 diced medium onion

2 gloves garlic, finely chopped

3 tomatoes, diced

1 cup rice cooked in chicken stock instead of water

2 ounces pancetta, finely diced

3 ounces dry red wine

4 to 5 large bell peppers with tops cut off and insides scooped out

¾ cups mozzarella, diced

4 to 6 ounces Parmesan cheese, coarsely grated

Cracked pepper to taste

Cut the tops off peppers and scoop out the seeds. Blanch the peppers in boiling water for 3 to 4 minutes. Remove, and set upside down to drain.

Brown one pound of ground venison, seasoning generously with fresh cracked black pepper, adding parsley and lemon juice near the end. Do not overcook. Set aside.

In large pan, fry pancetta over medium heat until most of the fat is rendered. Add onion and garlic and cook until onion they begin to caramelize. Deglaze with red wine.

Mix in tomatoes, cooked venison mixture, rice and Italian herbs. Simmer a few minutes then remove from heat. Mix in diced mozzarella.

Stuff peppers with mixture, sprinkle tops with Parmesan, and set in baking dish filled with a half inch of chicken stock. Bake at 400 degrees for 25 minutes or until peppers are tender. 

Serves 4 to 5.