Winter Dinner for Deer Hunters
Monday, September 6, 2010
Terry Thompson-Anderson

This month’s recipe is a good one for cold weather.  You can prepare the whole meal, which can be done over a period of 2 or 3 days, or just the parts you wish!  Together, it’s a meal that will satisfy a winter’s appetite!

Here in the Texas Hill Country almost everybody hunts deer.  If you don’t, you most likely have a neighbor who does, and often they share the bounty of their hunts.  I love to make these really, really tasty enchilada with the tougher cuts of deer meat – the ones you’d generally reserve for stew.  They freeze well, so you can make up the whole recipe and have some to enjoy at a later date. 

A good Texas Cab or Tempranillo would be a fine partner for the meal.

Menu:

Terlingua Tortilla Soup
Venison and Mango Enchiladas with Black Bean Sauce
Mex-Mex Rice
Leslie Horne’s Cherry Pie

Terlingua Tortilla Soup

Tortilla Soup is one of my favorite Mexican imports.  It is now very popular in Texas, found on the menus of many upscale, non-Mexican restaurants.  There are probably as many renditions of Tortilla Soup as there are of chili.  Who knows, maybe someday we’ll have The Great Tortilla Soup Showdown out there in Terlingua along with the chile!

To Serve 6 to 8.

6 white corn tortillas
Oil for deep-frying, heated to 350 degrees

2 tablespoons, plus 2 teaspoons solid shortening, divided
1 large onion, halved lengthwise, then sliced thin
4 large garlic cloves, minced
4 Roma tomatoes, blistered, peeled and seeded
2 quarts, rich chicken stock, see Pantry section for information on stocks
1 heaping teaspoon dark chili powder
1 heaping teaspoon ground coriander
Salt to taste
1-1/2 cups whole kernel corn
5 dried chilies pasillas, seeded and deveined, snipped into
 very thin julienne strips
Lime wedges, one for each bowl of soup
3 cups (12 ounces) shredded Monterey Jack cheese
2 avocados, peeled, seeded and cut into ¼-inch dice

Begin by frying the tortillas.  If they are very fresh or very moist, then dry them out for a few minutes in a single layer.  Cut the tortillas in half, then slice the halves into ¼-inch wide strips.  Fry in the hot oil until they are crisp, but not brown.  Drain well on absorbent paper towels, or brown grocery bags.  Store in tightly covered container until ready to use.

To make the soup, heat 1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon of the shortening in a 6-quart soup pot over medium heat.  Add the onion, garlic and tomatoes.  Fry until onion is deep golden brown, about 20 minutes, stirring often.  Transfer vegetables to work bowl of food processor fitted with steel blade and process until smooth.

Heat the remaining half of the shortening in the same pot over medium-high heat.  When oil is very hot, add the pureed vegetables and stir constantly until thick and darkened in color, about 5 minutes.  Stir in the chicken stock, chili powder, coriander and corn.  Cover and simmer for 30 minutes on medium-low heat. Taste for seasoning, adding salt if needed.

While soup is simmering, place the pasilla chili strips in any empty skillet and toast over high heat until an aroma emanates from the pan.  Shake pan and toss chilies constantly.  Do not burn the chilies.  Set aside.

When ready to serve, divide the fried tortilla strips between the serving bowls.  Top each with a portion of the cheese and toasted chili strips.  Squeeze a lime wedge into each bowl.  Ladle the hot broth over the top and garnish with a scattering of the diced avocado.  Serve hot.

Venison and mango Enchiladas with Black Bean Sauce

Enchiladas are one of the most popular of all “Tex-Mex” dishes.  These are dishes that had their roots in Mexican cuisine.  As Hispanic families lived in Texas for many generations, the foods began to change subtly.  They adapted to the ingredients available here and to the more modern cooking methods they found in America.  Gradually, a new cuisine was unofficially born and has been referred to as “Tex-Mex”.  This is the type of food that is served in most Mexican restaurants in the state. Enchiladas can be filled with anything from simply cheese and onions to the scraps from the hunt.  They can be served with chili-type sauces, topped with cheese and no sauce, or innovative sauce like this one made from black beans.  If there is a cooking “secret” to making enchiladas it would be that the corn tortillas must be “softened” before they can be filled and rolled.  If they are not, they will crack and fall apart.  To soften a tortilla, heat a glaze of lard or solid shortening in a skillet.  Place the tortillas, one at a time, in the hot oil and cook, turning once, until they are soft and pliable, about 5 seconds.  They may now be rolled without tearing. I further enhance the taste of the tortilla by dipping it in a chili puree before glazing it in the oil.

Makes 20 enchiladas.

Black Bean Sauce:

1 cup black beans, soaked overnight in water to cover
1 small ham hock
1 small onion, finely chopped
2 garlic cloves, minced
½ teaspoon ground cumin
Mild beef stock to cover beans by 2 inches
1 canned chipotle chili in adobo sauce, minced
¼ cup Madeira
Salt to taste

Enchiladas:

2 tablespoons olive oil
2 small-to-medium onions, chopped fine
2 tablespoons minced garlic
½ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
2 pounds deer meat, well trimmed and finely chopped
3 tablespoons minced cilantro
¼ cup pureed Marinated Ancho Chilies, see recipe below
1 large mango, seeded and finely chopped
4 poblano chilies, roasted, peeled, seeded and finely chopped
Salt to taste
¾ pound Monterrey Jack cheese, shredded
20 white corn tortillas
Additional pureed Marinated ancho chilies, diluted with a little chicken stock
Canola oil for softening tortillas
Sour cream, at room temperature, thinned with a little whipping cream

Begin by making the Black Bean Sauce.  Drain the beans after they have soaked overnight.  Place the beans in a heavy 4-quart saucepan over medium heat.  Add the ham hock, onion, garlic, cumin and beef stock.  Bring to a boil.  Reduce heat and simmer for one hour.  Strain the beans, reserving cooking liquid.  Remove the ham hock and trim any meat from the bones.   Discard rind and fat.  Finely chop the meat.  Scoop out 1 cup of the black beans.  Transfer to blender with the meat from the ham hock.  Add a little of the reserved cooking liquid.  Puree the beans until smooth.  Transfer the puree to a saucepan and stir in the remaining reserved cooking liquid.  Cook over low heat to reduce until slightly thickened.  Set aside.

Heat the olive oil in a heavy 14-inch, deep-sided skillet over high heat.  When oil is almost smoking, sauté the onions and garlic for 2 minutes, or until lightly browned.  Add the black pepper and deer meat; continue to cook until meat is evenly browned.  Add the cilantro, ancho chili puree, mangoes and poblano chilies.  Add salt to taste.  Cook for 1 minute, then remove from heat and add half of the shredded cheese.  Stir to blend well.  Transfer meat to a bowl and refrigerate until well chilled.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Pour enough of the canola oil into a heavy skillet to measure ½-inch depth.  Heat the oil until almost smoking.  Dip each tortilla, one at a time, in the pureed Marinated Ancho Chilies then submerge in the hot oil for about 5 seconds each, just to soften.  Drain on absorbent paper towels and keep warm.

Working quickly, spread a portion of the venison mixture down the center of each softened tortilla.  Roll up the tortillas and place them, seam-side-down, in a baking pan.  Place them snugly together in the pan.  When all tortillas have been filled and fitted into the pan, scatter the remaining cheese over the top.  Cover with aluminum foil and bake in preheated oven for 15 minutes, or until heated through and cheese has melted. 

To serve, place a portion of the Black Bean Sauce in the center of each serving plate.  Place two enchiladas on the sauce and drizzle some of the sour cream over the top.  Serve hot.

Marinated Ancho Chilies:

7 large dried ancho chilies
3 cups orange juice
2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
2 tablespoons good quality real maple syrup

Split the dried chilies open and remove all seeds, veins and stems.  Soak the chilies in hot water for 30 minutes, or until they are very soft and pliable.  Drain the chilies and place in medium-sized bowl.  Stir in the orange juice, balsamic vinegar and maple syrup.  Cover and refrigerate until ready to use.

MEX-MEX RICE

I call this Mex-Mex Rice because this is the way Rosa Ramirez, a former  member of my kitchen staff who is from Guanajuata, Mexico, makes it. It has a lovely red clay color and is a great side dish for perking up a plate of food which, delicious though it may be, has very dull colors.  It’s the real thing.

6 cups water
1 teaspoon salt
3 Knorr brand tomato bouillon cubes
2 large Roma tomatoes, roughly chopped
2 garlic cloves, peeled
1 (1-inch thick) slice of white onion
¼ cup solid shortening
2 cups long grain white rice

Combine the water, salt, tomato bouillon, tomatoes, garlic and onion slice in container of blender.  Puree until smooth; transfer to bowl and set aside.

Melt the shortening in a heavy 4-quart saucepan over medium heat.  When shortening is hot, add the raw rice and cook, stirring constantly, to lightly brown the rice, about 15 to 20 minutes.  Do not let the rice stick to the pan.   When the rice is golden, pour the pureed tomato mixture into the pan and stir to blend well.  Cover pan and bring to a boil.  As soon as the liquid begins to boil rapidly, turn off the heat.  Set pan aside, tightly covered for about 15 minutes, or until all liquid has been absorbed.  Stir to fluff the rice.  Serve hot.

Leslie Horne’s Cherry Pie

My mother, bless her soul, was not a great cook.  Perhaps the reason was because cooking was not something she really loved, or because my dad was a very non-adventurous eater, and did not relish surprises on his dinner plate.  But there was one thing which she cooked which was the best I’d ever eaten until very recently – Cherry Pie.  She only cooked it during the holidays when my sister and I would relish dessert.  That cherry pie made it worth eating the overcooked turkey with its mushy, powdered-sage-dominated dressing, tasteless mashed potatoes, and the roll of canned cranberry jello-like stuff which she served on a pressed glass dish reserved specifically for serving it!  At a recent dinner at the home of my friend, Leslie Horne, the creator of Aurelia’s Authentic Spanish Chorizo, she served cherry pie for dessert.  The minute she set the plate before me I noticed the similarity to mom’s pie. One bite and I almost cried.  It was a dead ringer in texture and taste, right down to the pastry.  Now I have the recipe, and it should be shared with the world!

Makes one 9-inch pie.

Pastry:

2 cups flour
1 tea salt
1/3 cup shortening chilled
1/3 cup cold butter
6 to 7 Tablespoons ice water.

Cherry Pie Filling:

1 1/4 c sugar
5 T flour
1/4 t. salt
3 T butter cut into small pieces
1/2 c. cherry juice reserved from the canned cherries.
1/4 t. red food coloring
8-10 drops almond extract
2 cans tart cherries packed in water drained  (reserving liquid)

Combine sugar, flour, salt. Stir in butter then cherry juice, coloring and
extract. Carefully stir in cherries. Let stand while you make pastry.

Cover the edge of the pie with strips of foil to prevent over browning.
Bake in hot oven 425 degrees. about 35 min. Remove foil then bake for 10
additional minutes.

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