Tunisian Venison Tangine with toasted almonds
Buy “The Hunting Widow’s Guide to Great Venison Cooking” today
One of the unexpected perks of getting married was that I got on the subscription list for a magazine call The Nest. It’s a great lifestyles magazine with all sorts of tips on home and life. In the Winter 2008 (page 59) I came across an interesting looking recipe, but I wasn’t sure I’d make it because it contained many, many ingredients that Rick doesn’t like. But when he said it looked good, I went to the store.
This was one of the tastiest dishes I’ve made yet. I served it for some friends, and everyone went nuts for it. Definitely make this one!
The original recipe calls for lamb. The only thing I changed from the recipe is that I did not brown the meat first…venison is so lean that I find if I brown meat that’s going into a slow cooker it comes out too tough. So, if you make this with lamb, you brown the lamb and then brown the veggies in the same skillet.
Recipe: Tunisian Venison Tangine
Ingredients
- 1 lb venison, cubed
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 3 tbs virgin olive oil
- 5 parsnips, peeled and cut in chunks
- 2 large sweet potato, peeled and cut in chunks
- 1/2 cup celery, cut into 1-inch slices
- 2 medium onions, cut in 1 inch cubes
- 4 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 tbs cumin, ground
- 1 tbs coriander, ground
- 1/2 tsp allspice, ground
- 1 1/2 cups beef broth
- 15 oz diced tomatoes, with juice
- 1 tsp black pepper, coarsely ground
- 1 3-in stick cinnamon
- 1 dried red chili pepper
- 1/4 cup almonds, toasted and ground
- juice and zest from 1/2 lemon
- 1/4 cup Italian parsley, chopped
Instructions
- Season venison with salt, put in slow cooker
- Heat olive oil in skillet. Saute parsnips, sweet potatoes, celery and onion until lightly browned, about 4 minutes. Stir in garlic, cumin, coriander and allspice. Cook until vegetables are coated, about 1 minutes. Put vegetables in slow cooker
- Put broth in skillet and bring to boil. Pour into slow cooker, including scrapings from pan.
- Add tomatoes, black pepper, cinnamon stick and chili pepper to cooker. Cover and cook 6 to 8 hours on low, until fork tender.
- Mix toasted almonds with lemon juice and zest in small bowl.
- When stew is done, remove cinnamon stick and chili pepper. Stir in almond mixture and cook on high until slightly thickened, about 15 minutes.
- Serve stew on a bed of couscous and sprinkle with chopped parsley.
Number of servings (yield): 8
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