Three Meat Chili with ground venison, beef sirloin steak, and Italian pork sausage
In addition to all the venison, we also recently got some 20+ pounds of grass-fed beef from a cow we shared with family. To be honest, I was vehemently against the cow-sharing idea, because I don't normally eat this much red meat and we already have way too much meat for two people, but somehow the beef landed in our freezer anyway...
So what to do with all this chow? A friend suggested a particularly meat-heavy Paleo Chili recipe from Paleo Table, so I thought I'd give it a try. The recipe calls for ground beef, sirloin steak, and Italian sausage, but I substituted the ground beef with ground venison instead. I can't quite claim that the chili I made is Paleo since I used regular, dairy-containing sour cream, so I thought the name "Three Meat Chili" would be more appropriate, because my version uses three kinds of meat: venison, beef, and pork.
What's distinctive about this recipe is that it uses butternut squash as a replacement for beans (because beans are non-Paleo). I love butternut squash (and not so much beans), so I thought this was an excellent idea. R. likes butternut squash as well but missed having beans in his chili - a Paleo follower he is not.
The olive-avocado-sour cream-onion-jalapeño garnish is a great addition as well. It is very different from anything I've even put on chili, but the creaminess gives provides a nice contrast against the spiced chili.
I definitely think this is one recipe I will use again if I ever feel like something meaty!
Recipe courtesy of:
Paleo Table (get the recipe here)
A couple months ago we went to Ohio to visit family. Our first stop was to spend an afternoon with Uncle Gary, who suggested preparing lunch together. Since we were due to arrive right around noon, however, I needed to come up with an idea for a super quick meal.
My thoughts turned to mobile food vendors, since that is exactly what they do: preparing super quick meals. I immediately thought of Pgh Taco Truck, with its delicious and often unique flavors, and was inspired to create an easy but interesting and tasty taco. Something I can prep the night before and just throw in a skillet the next day.
One of my favorite tacos from Pgh Taco Truck is an ostrich taco served with pumpkin butter, while R.'s favorite is wild boar...with pumpkin butter. So there was no question that pumpkin butter was going to be a must. From there, I chose chicken for the protein, which I would chop and marinate overnight and cook just before serving. I felt I needed one more main ingredient to go with the chicken, and since I was in the realm of fall flavors (don't judge - fall flavors are good any time of year!), I thought apples cooked in cinnamon butter would work well. Place everything in taco tortillas and topped with some sliced green onions, and...voilà! I've got my perfectly easy but tasty taco!
It was a big hit, if I may say so myself!
Cinnamon Apple, Chicken, and Pumpkin Butter Taco
Ingredients:
chicken breast, 1 lb
apples, 2 medium
butter, 2 tbsp
cinnamon, ground, 1/4 tsp
green onion, 2
pumpkin butter, for garnish (we got ours from Loafers)
soft corn taco tortillas, 2 per taco (get 'em from Reyna's!)
salt and pepper to taste
For marinade (adapted from the cinnamon soy sauce marinade recipe found here ):
soy sauce, 1/2 cup
red wine, 1/4 cup
cinnamon, ground, 1.5 tsp
garlic, 1 clove chopped
sugar, 2 tbsp
Prep previous night:
Cut chicken into bite size pieces.
Combine marinade ingredients in a bowl and mix well.
Place marinade and chicken in plastic bag or a bowl and marinade in refrigerator overnight.
Prep just prior to cooking:
Peel and chop apples into small pieces.
Slice green onions.
Cook:
In a skillet under medium high heat, heat butter and 1/4 tsp cinnamon until fragrant.
Add apples, and cook for a few minutes until the cinnamon butter is absorbed. Remove from skillet.
Season marinated chicken with salt and pepper and cook in skillet under medium high heat until cooked through.
Double up tortillas and toast on a dry flat pan. Top with chicken, apples, pumpkin butter, and green onions.
Slowly but surely, we've been chipping away at our seemingly endless supply of venison. Still, we had an abundance of ground venison and one can only make so many ground venison pizzas without getting bored! Then, a friend of mine who has been experimenting with venison cooking himself suggested marinating ground venison in bulgogi sauce and then making bibimbap with it. Now there's an idea!
Bibimbap is a classic Korean dish that is basically white rice topped with vegetables, meat, and an egg cooked over easy, which you break and mix in with the rest of the ingredients before consuming. I've only had bibimbap in Korean restaurants and never even came close to attempting it myself. Luckily, I discovered Maangchi.com, a website with a massive collection of authentic Korean recipes that is run by a New York transplant who was originally from Korea. It didn't take too much digging before I found a bibimbap recipe.
But first, I had to make a marinade. Although I had made bulgogi before using a different recipe, I decided to try Maangchi's just for variety's sake. I then marinated the ground venison in the bulgogi sauce overnight in the fridge.
The next day, I made some rice in the rice cooker and prepared the veggies, which included shredded carrots, about 10-15 shiitake mushrooms, 4 small zucchinis, a package of fern brakes (also known as kosari and available at Korean supermarkets), bean sprouts, and spinach. Of course the combination of veggies is not set in stone, but I wanted to follow the recipe exactly in order to replicate the authentic flavor. I did double Maangchi's recipe as I had double the amount of meat.
Veggies for the bibimbap: (L-R) Shredded carrots, shiitake mushroom, julienned zucchini, fern brakes (kosari), bean sprout, spinach
A huge part of making bibimbap involves arranging the bowl in an attractive manner. I don't know that I did a great job with that, as I apparently fail at cooking eggs over easy without breaking the yolk (I tried multiple times, and it was just not meant to be for this non-egg eater!), and I completely forgot to add the gochujang (Korean hot pepper sauce) before snapping the photo! But for what it's worth, here's my bibimbap (the rice is at the bottom):
Venison Bibimbap
Because of all the different ingredients that required preparation, I found the bibimbap to be rather high maintenance and time consuming. It was worth the attempt though, as it was very tasty, and the ground venison which was slightly sweetened from the bulgogi marinade was astoundingly delicious. Though I may be too busy to make this on a regular basis, it was great to have discovered another way to use ground venison.
Recipe courtesy of: Maangri.com (get the bulgogi recipe here and the bibimbap recipe here)
Everyday Noodles opened in Squirrel Hill in late February to much fanfare and excitement. The owner, Mike Chen, is none other than the father of Tamari's owner, Allen Chen, and has himself opened several Asian restaurants around town previously.
What's distinctive about Everyday Noodles, however, is its explicit attempt to follow authentic Taiwanese cooking. Authenticity is something I greatly appreciate, especially in Asian cuisine, as there are few things that annoy me more than being offered fortune cookies at the end of a Chinese meal. (In case you didn't know, fortune cookies originated in...drum roll...the United States!)
I was definitely intrigued, and paid two visits there in its early days. The first thing a diner should know about Everyday Noodles is that there will most likely be a wait. The moderately-sized casual eatery does not take reservations and is nearly always jam packed, to the degree unlike any other restaurant in the neighborhood. But while you wait, feel free to grab some bubble tea and enjoy the fresh noodle-making "show" in the glass-encased area of the open kitchen near the entrance. (That is, if you're not at the end of the line that sometimes stretches out the door!)
Fresh noodles in the making
See the chef in action here:
Between my two visits, I have had the opportunity to sample a few different dishes. I highly recommend the Pork and Crab Meat Soup Dumplings, which Everyday Noodles has become quite known for. Chinese people are very picky about their soup dumplings - the wrapper, in particular, must be thin, but not too thin that it breaks easily on contact. It takes a highly skilled chef to make soup dumplings just right. The ones at Everyday Noodles are excellent, with filling that is juicy and flavorful.
Pork and Crab Meat Soup Dumplings ($11/8 pcs)
Pork and Crab Meat Soup Dumplings
I also enjoyed the Taiwanese Style Pork Belly Slider, topped with chopped peanuts and cilantro, and served in a fluffy white and slightly sweet Chinese bun. It wasn't Momofuku-good, but it was solid nonetheless.
Taiwanese Style Pork Belly Slider ($6)
I've also had two different noodle dishes at Everyday Noodles, for which diners have a choice between thin or thick noodles. I tried the Braised Beef Noodle Soup with thin noodles, which was not bad, but I was really wowed by the Dan Dan Noodles Szechuan Style (with thick noodles) which was served in a delicious peanutty sauce and was not nearly as spicy as I would have imagined.
Braised Beef Noodle Soup ($11)
Dan Dan Noodles ($7)
Overall, I enjoyed the food at Everyday Noodles, and hope to try some desserts next time. I also have no complaints about the service; in fact, on both visits the owner himself was seen working alongside the waitstaff, greeting, serving, and chatting with the customers.
By the way, the Chinese name for Everyday Noodles, 天天見麵, is a clever play on words: The first two characters (天天) in the name mean "everyday," while the third character (見) means "see." The last character (麵), though, is what's most interesting, as it means "noodles" but is homonymous with the word that means "face." In fact, if you look carefully at the design of the Chinese logo (see it on their website here) and focus on just the red part of the name, it actually reads 天天見面, with the last character being "face" (面) in red and the black part added to create the character for "noodles" (麵). The last two characters in red then, together, means "to see (a person)." Thus, when reading just the red part of the restaurant's name, it means "see you every day." Adding the black part gives it a dual meaning - literally to "see noodles every day."
Indeed, Everyday Noodles, I'd love to see you - and your noodles - every day.
We went to see a show downtown a few months ago and decided to make a date night out of it complete with dinner at one of my favorite restaurants, Braddock's American Brasserie at the Renaissance Pittsburgh Hotel. I have written extensively about Braddock's in my past posts here and here, so I will just focus on the delicious food here.
I wanted to try something different this time, and the Whiskey Glazed Salmon caught my eye. The fish was cooked just right and was served on a bed of lyonnaise potatoes and asparagus.
Whiskey Glazed Salmon
R. was not particularly hungry, so he just ordered an Arugula Salad, served with dried cranberries and apricot, and added Grilled Garlic Shrimp to it. He also got a side of the Grilled Vegetables.
Arugula Salad with Grilled Garlic Shrimp
Grilled Vegetable
As always, the food as well as service at Braddock's were excellent. I have now been to Braddock's four times and every time has been a positive experience!
Pittsburghers will probably find this surprising, but I was well into my twenties before I had even heard of kielbasa for the first time, let alone taste it. That momentous "first time" was at a holiday gathering with R.'s family in the Pittsburgh area well before I moved here, and I remember liking the juiciness of the kielbasa and the tanginess of the sauerkraut that went along with it. It took me awhile, however, to realize the prominent place that kielbasa holds in "Pittsburghese cuisine," if there is such a thing.
Now that we are locals ourselves, it seemed fitting to have some of our venison made into kielbasa. We brought some along to a Steelers game tailgate back in December, but I was wholly disappointed by the dryness of the sausage - it was nothing like the juicy stuff I remember from that family holiday party!
While the venison kielbasa did not resemble what I know to be kielbasa, it did remind me a little bit of lap cheong - a Chinese sausage that's smoked and also very dry. (That's about where the resemblance ends, though.)
I decided to pull out an old Chinese fried rice recipe that my dad gave me eons ago and tried it with sliced venison kielbasa substituting for lap cheong. It worked out well, adding a rich layer of flavor to the fried rice. I'm not sure we'll be getting venison kielbasa again, but if we do, this is what I will be making with it.
Venison kielbasa
Chinese Fried Rice with Shrimp and Venison Kielbasa
Chinese Fried Rice with Shrimp and Venison Kielbasa
Ingredients:
1½ cup long-grain white rice
½ lb venison kielbasa
½ lb shrimp, peeled
4 eggs, beaten
½ cup frozen green peas
1 bunch scallions, chopped
½ lb fresh pineapple chunks
2 tbsp peanut oil, divided (may substitute with canola oil or corn oil)
Cook rice in rice cooker or according to package directions. Let cool before frying. (Better yet, cook a day ahead to let the rice dry some before frying.)
Preheat oven to 350˚F. Place kielbasa in a pan and cover with aluminum foil. Roast for 15-20 minutes, until done. Slice kielbasa using a serrated knife. Spray a skillet with cooking spray and heat on medium high, and cook each side of the kielbasa slices for 2-3 minutes.
Cook green peas according to package directions.
Wash and season shrimp with salt and pepper. In a wok or a skillet, fry shrimp in 1 tbsp peanut oil for about 3 minutes. Remove shrimp from wok/skillet and drain excess liquid.
In the wok/skillet, add 1 tbsp peanut oil, and fry ¾ of the eggs under high heat; chop them with a spatula as you fry. Add salt to taste.
Lower heat to medium, add rice and cook. Add 2 tbsp soy sauce, 1 tbsp sesame oil, and salt to taste.
Add kielbasa, shrimp, green peas, scallion, pineapples, and the remainder of the eggs. Mix well and fry for 3-5 minutes.
Serve with Sriracha sauce and/or fermented bean curd.
Some of the venison meat we got out of R.'s deer was made into maple sausage. R. likes eating it as is. Me, I'm not much of a breakfast sausage kind of person, but he raved about it so much that I thawed a package of the maple sausage and cooked a little bit of it just to try, foolishly wondering if this was the wonder sausage that would turn me into a breakfast sausage kind of person.
Well, though tasty as it was - and boy, did it smell wonderful! - I thought the sausage was far too salty to stand on its own.
So no, this did not turn me into a breakfast sausage kind of person. Now what am I going to do with more than a pound of just-thawed venison maple sausage??
The original recipe calls for just 3 oz of maple sausage, so I had to multiply everything by 6 in order to use up all the venison maple sausage I had on hand. This means making a big batch with plenty of leftovers...but now we have another problem: Chopped raw apples turn brown quickly and don't last as a leftover dish.
So I made a slight modification by cooking the chopped apples in cinnamon butter. I also cooked the quinoa in a rice cooker rather than on the stovetop, as I find the consistency to be much better this way- probably a reflection of my subpar ability to cook grains or anything grain-like without a rice cooker.
Cinnamon Apple Almond Quinoa with Maple Venison Sausage
So here is my version of the the Cinnamon Apple Almond Quinoa with Venison Maple Sausage:
Ingredients:
3 cups quinoa
3 cups chicken broth (water is OK too)
3 teaspoon extra virgin olive oil
18 oz maple breakfast sausage
12 green onions, sliced
6 small apples, chopped
1.5 cup chopped almonds
3/4 cups dried cranberries
2 tbsp butter
1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
Directions:
Rinse quinoa in a fine mesh strainer under cold, running water. Cook quinoa in rice cooker with chicken broth. When finished, transfer to a large bowl.
Meanwhile, heat olive oil in a skillet over medium heat. Add sausage then brown and drain, if necessary. In another skillet, melt butter on medium high heat. Add cinnamon, and cook until fragrant, about 30 seconds. Add apples and cook until the cinnamon butter is absorbed.
Add cooked sausage, green onions, apples, almonds, and cranberries to the quinoa. Toss to combine then serve.
Yields about 9 hefty servings. Recipe heavily adapted from: Iowa Girl (get the original recipe here)
I love the North Hills. I love Pittsburgh food trucks. And I love Coffee Buddha.
Therefore, I can confidently say that my favorite new event as of late is the North Hills Food Truck Roundup at the Coffee Buddha parking lot, which is organized by my buddy James of Pgh Taco Truck and debuted in February with four participating mobile yummy food vendors: Pgh Taco Truck, BRGR Truck, Oh My Grill, and the Pierogie Truck. The first go-round generated so much buzz and was so well-attended that it is now becoming a monthly tradition. The March event attracted four additional trucks: the Fukuda Truck, the Franktuary Truck, Dozen Bake Shop Truck, and the Pittsburgh Ice Cream Truck, filling the parking lot to full capacity.
Here are some scenes from the first two roundups:
North Hills Food Truck Roundup (February 23, 2013)
North Hills Food Truck Roundup (February 23, 2013)
North Hills Food Truck Roundup (March 30, 2013)
Enjoy food truck food
The BRGR Truck at the North Hills Food Truck Roundup
These kids had a tough time deciding what treats they wanted from the Dozen Bake
Shop Truck
Fukuda Truck at the North Hills Food Truck Roundup
Owner Hoon Kim greeting customers of the Fukuda Truck
Although I haven't had a chance to try all the trucks yet, what I've had has been fabulous so far!
Butternut Squash and Smoky Salsa Taco from Pgh Taco Truck
This taco made its debut at the first roundup, for which I waited 1 hour and 45 minutes!
It was well worth it, and the wait time has since improved. By the way, this photo was
previously featured in this post.
Wine and Cheese from Oh My Grill
Mild and Creamy Brie, smoked ham, and bosc pear slices on white bread served
with a red wine reduction dipping sauce
Indian Butter Chicken Taco from Pgh Taco Truck
As exotically delicious as it sounds!
Okonomiyaki from Fukuda Truck
Napa cabbage, dashi, chicken, ginger, qewpie mayo, topped with kasuobashi
flakes (fish flakes that "dance" on top of your pancake!)
Robatamiyaki from Fukuda Truck
Grilled chicken on a bed of grilled scallions, served with a homemade
yaki sauce
Spicy Tuna Roll from Fukuda Truck
It is truly exciting to see that mobile food is becoming a trend Pittsburgh - and not just any mobile food, but extremely high quality, carefully crafted, gourmet mobile food.
Pumpkins: It is what brightens the fall season when the skies get dark earlier.
I love pumpkin smoothies, and I try to extend my personal "pumpkin smoothie season" for as long as possible by stockpiling pie pumpkins every fall weekend, puréeing, then storing it in the freezer. When the winter ended (finally!), however, it was also time to say goodbye to the last bit of my frozen pumpkin purée and pray that fall comes around again soon.
I had just enough pumpkin purée left to try something different with it: a pumpkin pasta sauce, to go along with some fresh pumpkin fettuccine I had gotten from Penn Mac. I figured it might work well with sausage, fall spices, and some herbs, and came across this Rachael Ray recipe that seemed to fit pretty much what I was trying to go for. I used my own pumpkin purée, of course, as opposed to the canned variety called for in the recipe, and was a bit more generous with the cinnamon and nutmeg, because, well, I like my fall spices.
Pumpkin and Sausage Pasta
Next time I might try it with spicy Italian sausage and use parsley instead of sage. I didn't mind the sage, but I think I might prefer something a little less dominant.
One of the cuts of venison we got from my husband's kill was simply marked "steak" on the package. Now when I think steak, I think beef sirloin or filet mignon, so naturally I had assumed that this would be a similar cut. Once thawed, however, I discovered that it was more like bone-in flank steak, with tendons running down the length of the meat. As venison is already a tougher meat, it looked like the only way to enjoy the steak was to slice it thinly across the grain and marinate the heck out of it.
So the next question was, how does one serve meat this way? Well, like Korean bulgogi!
I found this great bulgogi sauce recipe online and used it to marinate my meat overnight. Once the meat is marinated, I cooked it on a preheated, oiled grill (pan frying in an oiled skillet under high heat works too) until slightly charred on both sides. I served it with rice, topped with more bulgogi sauce (I made a second serving for the topping).
Venison marinating in bulgogi sauce
Venison Bulgogi
Super delicious!
Recipe courtesy of:
Savory Sweet Life (get the recipe here)
I know what you're thinking: This is a food blog, so what does it have to do with running?
Well, a lot. When you eat like I do, the calories have to be expended somehow, you know?
Truth be told, I don't identify myself as a runner, for my version of "running" is nothing more than moving at a slightly higher pace than walking. I have only ever entered one race in my life - a 5K back in 2004 or 2005 - and have been confined to treadmill running since I started having problems with my prematurely aging knees. I have never run a marathon, or even a half-marathon, and I'm pretty sure I never will. But, running is an important part of my routine, and is pretty much the only reason I am not overweight right now.
Like many, I was saddened by Monday's unspeakable tragedy at the Boston Marathon, not just as a sort-of runner, but as a human being. I wanted to do something to help...but what? On Monday night, I received an invitation to a virtual Facebook event called Runners United to Remember encouraging the running community to run or walk wherever they are, to "both honor the victims as well as display an act of unity and solidarity in the running community." Great idea, I thought, but I wanted to go beyond supporting the victims in just a symbolic fashion. After mulling this over for a day, I came up with this:
Between April 17 (today) and May 5, I pledge to run a minimum of 26.2 miles in support of those affected by Monday's tragedy. In addition, for every mile I run, I will donate $1 to One Fund Boston which provides financial support to the victims and their families.
Why am I announcing this on my food blog? Well, now that I've shared my plans with the whole world, I can't back out now, can I? ;) Also, I'm hoping there is a small chance that someone reading this might be interested in joining me in supporting the victims. This can be done in any way you wish - either by running or walking, or donating whatever you can afford. Join me!
I completed my first 3.95 miles today, which means I have 22.25 miles left to go. I will update my progress on Twitter on the days that I run. So, cheer me on, for the more I run, the more money will be donated!
In an earlier post, I wrote of my experimentations with the perfect whole wheat pizza crust. Naturally, part of that experimentation also involved trying different pizza toppings. In my google search for creative pizza topping ideas, I came across this post by Iowa Girl Eats and was tempted to try it right away! My first attempt was good, but I felt it could use more peanut sauce, so the next time I doubled the amount of peanut sauce and it was absolutely perfect! Even R., who had initially been skeptical about tofu on a pizza, was sold after he tried it, proclaiming this to be his favorite pizza!
I've also filled crispy wonton cups with a variation of this topping and it was a huge hit! More on that in a future post.
Some of the ingredients
Ready to bake!
Thai Peanut Tofu Pizza - the finished product, garnish and all
Thai Peanut Tofu Pizza
This is becoming one of my favorite pizzas, too! Thanks, Iowa Girl!
Recipe courtesy of:
Iowa Girl Eats (get the recipe here)
Marriage equality has been a hot issue these past couple of days, as the U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments regarding California's Prop. 8 banning same-sex marriage and the federal Defense of Marriage Act.
Marriage equality is an issue near and dear to my heart - because equality is an issue near and dear to my heart. I have always been supportive of LGBTQ rights, but the issue rose prominently to the forefront of my mind a little over a year ago when someone very close to me came out. Someone who is courageous, intelligent, determined, compassionate, and inspiring. Someone who hoped that her own story would help bullied gay teens realized that it gets better. Someone who is truly one of the most beautiful people I know, inside and out, even if she may not realize it.
Soon after, I came across this blog post - a moving account of one blogger's coming out story and a written contribution to the It Gets Better Project. The recipe attached to the post - Purple Carrot and Apple Soup - was meant as a tribute to the LGBTQ community, as lavender is a color often associated with gay pride. I was immediately inspired to make this soup.
Locating purple carrots turned out to be more difficult than one would think, however. It wasn't until recently that I found purple carrots at my local Whole Foods, and so I was finally able to try this recipe in all its deeply lavendered glory, as my way of showing support, and my own little tribute to this dear person in my life.
Although I dutifully followed the recipe, my purple carrot and apple soup turned out to be...a burnt orange color! (Purple carrots are only purple on the outside, it turns out.) And burnt orange was not quite the shade I was going for! As something of a quick fix, I decided to add some beets. I knew the result would be more red than lavender, but I didn't want to use food coloring or dark colored foods (like blueberries or blackberries) simply to "lavenderize" the soup for fear that the flavors wouldn't mesh well. And so, I left it at that, content that red was at least closer to lavender than burnt orange. And for what it's worth, the end result was delicious.
Purple Carrot, Apple, and Beet Soup
(Yes, Oxford commas are important to me as well)
I include the recipe below, which is really the original recipe with the addition of beets as well as chopped peanuts (just to shake it up a bit). As the recipe author noted, "It’s a dish that as you cook and eat it, all seems right with the world."
And with that I toast: To equality!
Ingredients
5 medium purple carrots, peeled, ends trimmed, and cut into 1 inch circles
2 medium sweet apples (such as Gala apples), peeled, cored and cut into 1 inch cubes
3 medium beets, peeled, cut into 1 inch chunks
1 tbsp. olive oil
1 1/2 tsp. honey
1 tsp ginger powder
24 ounces vegetable stock (have more on hand to thin out soup, if needed)
Salt and white pepper, to taste
Greek yogurt, optional
Coarse sea salt, optional
Chopped peanuts, optional
Directions
Heat olive oil in a medium pot and set to medium heat. Add the purple carrots, apples, honey, and ginger to the pot and toss to combine. Add beets and vegetable stock and simmer over medium heat. Let simmer for about 30 to 40 minutes. Once the beets, carrots, and apples are tender, take off of heat and let cool.
Using an immersion blender (or you can do it in batches in a regular blender), puree the soup until it is smooth. Add more vegetable stock if it is too thick. Season with salt and pepper, to taste.
Let the soup simmer for another 15 minutes before serving. Ladle into bowls and serve with a dollop of Greek yogurt and chopped peanuts.
Original recipe courtesy of:
A Thought for Food (get the original recipe here)
Along with experimenting with a whole wheat thin crust pizza dough, I have also been playing around with different pizza toppings. I had come across an amazing full-bodied pizza sauce recipe in my search, and had tried pairing it with some hot sopressata - but the sauce was so strong it masked the flavor of the sopressata!
Then, an idea came to me to pair the sauce with ground venison. As I had mentioned previously, we have meat from a whole deer in our freezer, and so I have been trying use it up in creative ways. Ground venison was particularly abundant, but I wasn't a fan of the gameyness that I could still taste in it. (Interestingly, I don't have the same problem with any other cut - just the ground.) Hence, I thought the rich pizza sauce might help take the edge off of it.
The result turned out quite well! The sauce and the meat were a good balance for each other flavor-wise, and while the gamey flavor of the meat was largely gone, one can still taste the unique flavor of the venison. I suppose ground beef would do well with this sauce also, but I haven't tried it.
To make the sauce, combine tomato paste, water, Parmesan cheese, garlic, honey, anchovy paste, onion powder, oregano, marjoram, basil, ground black pepper, cayenne pepper, red pepper flakes and salt in a small bowl; mix together, breaking up any clumps of cheese. Let sit for 30 minutes to blend flavors.
Lightly coat a skillet with cooking spray and cook ground venison on medium high heat until browned. Drain.
Spread sauce over pizza crust. Top with venison, mushroom, onion, and cheese. Bake for 15 minutes. Remove from oven, and top with rosemary.
