Taste of the Wild: Hot and sweet venison kabobs

A longtime contributor to the Outdoor News Taste of the Wild feature, and author of several wild game cookbooks, Eileen Clarke shares this recipe for summer grilling season.

Ingredients:

1 pound venison steak, cut in 1½ inch chunks

1 red onion, quartered

1⁄2 cup white balsamic vinegar

1⁄2 cup oil

1⁄4 cup Chipotle Tabasco sauce (Not the red sauce; use the smoked version)

1⁄4 cup honey

1⁄4 teaspoon salt

1⁄4 teaspoon coarse black pepper

1 head of elephant garlic, separated and peeled, for assembly

Preparation:

1. Trim the steak chunks and dry with paper towels.

2. Purée 1⁄4 of the red onion in a mini-grinder and add it to the oil, vinegar, hot sauce, honey, salt, and pepper. Place about a half cup of the mixture in a separate container and refrigerate, placing the rest of the marinade in a re-sealable plastic bag. Shake to mix, then add the steak chunks. Marinate 24 to 48 hours in a refrigerator, turning the baggie every 12 hours.

Cooking:

1. Preheat your grill to medium-high, about 450 degrees. Separate the quartered onion layers and slice the elephant garlic into 1⁄8-inch slices.

2. Remove the meat from the marinade (don’t rinse or dry the pieces) and place on skewers, alternating chunks of red onion and slices of garlic with the meat. Discard any marinade left in the baggie. Remove the marinade you held back during your prep work from the refrigerator to warm up in a separate bowl.

3. Place the kabobs on the grill, and cook 3 to 4 minutes on the first side and about half as long on the second side, 6 to 8 minutes total. (Meat cut that small is done way before you think it should be.) Cut into a piece of meat to test for doneness, or check with a meat thermometer – it should read about 135 degrees.

4. To serve, slide the meat and veggies from the skewers onto a serving plate. Mop some of the reserved marinade on top of the kabob to serve. When you take a bite, have some of each component on the fork, the elephant garlic, red onion, and some meat. Getting the full flavor in one bite is a treat!

Tips from the kitchen:

The marinade: You can use the same marinade recipe as a mop when serving, but it’s important to mix it separately, or as recommended here, scooping a half cup out before adding the meat. Why? Once you add the meat to the marinade, it has raw meat juices in it. Because raw meat is one of the things that can cause stomach distress, never use that part of the marinade as a dipping or finishing sauce.

Why elephant garlic? Elephant garlic is the bigger, more subtle brother of the garlic cloves we use every on a regular basis. Even if you’re not a big garlic lover like me, when you grill those big guys, they’re very tasty. Plus, they’re big enough to skewer without falling apart.

Why red onions? They’re sweeter than their yellow siblings though not as sweet as Walla Wallas, for instance. In this recipe, they counter the heat of the Chipotle in the marinade/mop nicely. However, they’re also colorful, and warm-weather meals should be colorful.

Like all onions, though, remove all the dead, dying, and sickly skin layers from the outside. What’s left is vibrant, shiny, moist, and bright red. That’s the part you want to eat.

Bonus Recipe:

You could serve the kabobs with coleslaw or potato salad, but here’s an ultra-simple baked bean recipe.

Doctor E-Z Beans

15-ounce can Van Camp’s brand pork and beans (or your favorite classic pork and beans)

1⁄2 teaspoon chili powder

2 teaspoons dark molasses

2 teaspoons maple syrup

1 teaspoon Chipotle

Tabasco sauce

Combine all the ingredients, heat on the kitchen stove – or over a campfire or your grill’s side burner – until bubbly hot.

Both of these recipes and lots more are in “Slice of the Wild: 100 venison recipes” – just one of Clarke’s wild game cookbooks. Purchase online at www.riflesandrecipes.com or call 406-521-0273.

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