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Mrs. Ansell here with a yummy fall meal of Antelope, asparagus, cauliflower yam and salad:

Ready to Eat, No Sauce

I never cooked Antelope before, but my neighbor shot one when he went hunting a couple of weeks ago and generously gave us some chops and ground meat. I decided to cook the chops, steam cauliflower and asparagus, do a very small salad and sauté yam with onions. Nice fall collection.

I checked out Joy of Cooking, Fanny Farmer and Chez Panisse, but with no antelope listed in the indexes, decided I better hit the internet. There I found out that those who like the taste of the meat (technically called venison, just like deer) agreed that the best way to cook it is quickly and to be careful not to overcook, otherwise it will become hard as shoe leather. Medium rare is as done as it should be. There also was agreement that it is a good idea to brush the meat with oil before putting it on the grill. With small pieces like chops, just a minute or two on each side and it is ready!

The raw antelope meat was much darker than I thought it would be. It looked a little like beef liver in color.

Raw Antelope Chop

I lightly salted and peppered the chops, brushed them with almond oil (good for high heat), heated the grill and dropped the chops on. I was super afraid of overdoing them, so I did two minutes on the first side and a minute and a half on the second side.

I have to admit, I also prepared regular beef burgers, just in case the chops didn’t turn out well, but no worries. They were fantastic. And the wine reduction was wonderful with them, didn’t hide the flavor of the meat. I thought the chops tasted more like veal than anything else.

Steamed the cauliflower on the stove and asperagus in microwave, so that is easy.

Sauteed a medium yam in butter with some chopped onion and black pepper. I peeled and halved the yam and then cut each half into 1/4 inch slices. 1/4 medium onion chopped and sauteed in butter. As it softens, add yams and pepper. Sauteed till yams are soft.  Done in about 20 minutes.

Salad was also simple: lettuce, avocado and some sweet red pepper. Dressing  was balsamic vinegar, olive oil and pepper.

The recipe for the wine reduction is below. It takes 1-2 hours (depending on how high the heat you use is – I like low heat because then I can step out of the room and don’t have to worry about it reducing so much it burns), so be sure to allow plenty of time or make it the day before.

Sauce:

• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1/4 cup chopped onion
• 1 large clove garlic, minced in garlic press
• 2 cups hearty red wine
• ½ cup chicken stock (optional- I will not use it next time)
• juice of one fresh orange
• dash of balsamic vinegar
• 2 cups fresh or frozen berries
• 1/8 cup fresh chopped sage or 1 1/2 tablespoon dried
• ½ to 1 cup of sugar, to taste (the more sugar, the more syrupy the sauce)

Heat olive oil in a saucepan over medium heat.

1. Add and cook onions, stirring, until soft, then add minced garlic and let it sautee for a few minutes.
2. Add wine, increase the heat to high and bring to a boil Add all the other ingredients and bring back to boil, then simmer and allow sauce to reduce and thicken.Stir occasionally, taste and adjust to taste. If the sauce reduces more than you would like, just add more wine.
3. Strain through a fine-mesh sieve or food mill, pressing the solids to extract all the liquid.
4. Serve warm.
5. Freeze leftover sauce.

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When I was young, probably eight or nine, my mom taught me to bake a chicken. I learned that chicken whole chicken is cheap, easy to cook and can feed a family of four (or in my case a family of 3 that eat for 6). Yet I find that many people don’t cook whole chickens. It does take a bit of time, but once in the oven it is hands off.

Idiom #1: Keep It Simple Stupid (KISS).

All you need:

• Whole Chicken
• 1/2 of an Onion
• 2 pieces of Garlic
• Half a stick of Butter
• Garlic Salt
• Pepper

Step One:
Chop up onion and smash the garlic

Step Two:
Cut excess fat off chicken and butter it up!
Use room temperature butter and rub the chicken, push butter under the skin, and put a few chunks inside the carcass.

Step Three:
Add the onion and garlic to the inside of the chicken. Then shake the garlic salt and pepper on to the skin.

Step Four:
Put the chicken a, 350F, preheated oven. Usually three pounds of chicken takes an hour and a half. You can scale up or down: plus or minus 15 minutes per 1/2 pound.

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