I first made this stew from a whitetail doe I shot in an alfalfa field in northern Wyoming. She was a magnificent animal — with a thick layer of sweet, grain-fed fat — and this is a magnificent stew. Everything falls into place together, and the flavors, seasoning and texture of this dish all come out perfectly.
I make so many stews from so many different animals I have developed a set of rules I rarely stray far from. One of these is a deep browning of the meat before the liquid enters the stage. Another trick I picked up from the Greeks is to grate my onions. Run a big onion through a coarse grater and deglaze the pot with it. Magic.
Tomato paste is an absolute. Most of my stews have at least a tablespoon. I make my own, too, which is worth the time. Cover it with oil and homemade tomato paste will last a year.
Add ingredients gradually. Learned this one from my mum. Put everything in the pot at once and you will have some things soft and lovely and other things soft and mushy. That’s why I add a second batch of onions and garlic an hour or so into this stew.
Use odd herbs; they add a certain intrigue to your cooking. In this case, I used lovage. Lovage is among my favorite stewing herbs because it is aggressive and very deeply flavored — like Neanderthal celery. Lovage needs to be tamed with other aggressive ingredients. This I learned from Apicius.
Don’t overcook pepper and potatoes. Both will dissolve if you let them stew too long. Think al dente pasta.
Game meats and tough domestic cuts suitable for stews require a long time before they will submit. You cannot stew game on a schedule. Sometimes it’s done in 90 minutes. Sometimes, like when you have an old boar or graybeard buck, it can take upwards of 4 hours. Slow and low are the keys. Don’t worry, just kick back and let the stock and herbs do their thing.
That’s another reason why you add your veggies later — game meats can stew for several hours once they’ve become tender, giving you all the time you need to cook your veg.
Add another dose of herbage right at at the table, and if it is a stew that lacks bright flavor notes, you could do worse than hit it with a little squeeze of lemon right at the end. Your family will not really notice it, but they will notice a wider range of flavors than they would have otherwise.
A final suggestion: Big wines. This is not the place for Pinot Noir. Lusty reds are the ticket here, like a Portuguese Touriga Nacional, a Spanish Rioja or a California Cabernet Sauvignon.
North African Venison Stew
Ingredients
- 2 pounds venison stew meat or beef or lamb
- Salt
- 1/4 cup olive oil
- 1 quart venison broth or beef stock
- 2 tablespoons tomato paste
- 1/2 large onion, grated
- 1/2 large onion, sliced root to tip
- 10 garlic cloves, chopped
- 2 green peppers, chopped
- 2 pounds fingerling or Yukon Gold potatoes
- 3 tablespoons chopped lovage or celery leaves
- 4 bay leaves
- 2 tablespoons Harissa or ground chiles
- 1 teaspoon crushed juniper berries
Instructions
- Heat the olive oil in a Dutch oven or other large pot with a lid. Brown the stew meat — I like 2-inch chunks — on all sides over medium-high heat. Do this in batches and take your time. Set aside the browned venison while you do the rest.
- Heat the oven to 325°F.
- When the meat is all browned, return it to the pot and add the grated onion — this will deglaze the pot. Stir it around until no browned bits are left in the pot. Add the tomato paste, venison stock, bay leaves and juniper berries, bring to a simmer, cover and put into the oven for an hour.
- After an hour, add the chopped onion, chopped garlic and the lovage. Return to the oven for another hour.
- At the two-hour mark, turn the heat down to 300 degrees and add the potatoes, green peppers and harissa. Check for salt and add some if needed.
- Cook for another 45 minutes to an hour. Remove from oven and let cool, while still covered, for 15 minutes.
This is my all time favorite venison stew recipe. I’ve probably made this dozens of times over the years and lately my husband just said, I could eat this every day!
Wow this turned out great!!! Did a few different things, I only had green bells and celery leaves. I halved the Harissa as I was also feeding my 2 year old. Very tasty! I should’ve made more stock as the potatoes really sucked it in! Thanks Hank. This one will certainly be a regular.
you got that color without some sort of curry powder?
Made this two nights ago. It was delicious! Full of flavor and complexity. Added a little celery since I was using the leaves and also added two carrots. Added a little fresh lemon juice and fresh chopped parsley at the end because I always do with stew, though I’m not sure this one needed it. Everything else, I did exactly as written. This is my new venison stew recipe! I love the spice of the Harissa and the perfect texture of the vegetables. Thanks Hank,
I must of done something wrong. I got a slight bitter aftertaste. Im wondering if my juniper berries are going bad.
Grating the onions makes all the difference. 🙂 Hank, this stew sounds and looks FANTASTIC! I am salivating just reflecting on it.
My oh my, that sounds great. I am a fan of crock pot stews and finally the weather is starting to turn. Your culinary skills are way beyond mine, yet I will venture out of the norm and try some of your recipes. Thanks for your wonderful descriptions and details. Much appreciated.
I’ve enjoyed Holly’s blog for a long time but every time I clicked over here all the fonts looked weird and the page was hard to read – until today! I’m glad and I’ve got a lot of reading to do…
The stew sounds good – and it sounds like you do a lot of the same things I do, but I learned a few new things too!
i love that you can not only eat a delicious dish, but you can eat it knowing you killed it and it brings back memories of that day. this looks killer.
hank.
happened to accidently stumble on this page after an already planned meal of venison stew. Looking forward to using your suggestions.
Dear lord, I wish my frezzer was like your freezer. I have chicken and veggie stocks in there. =P
Hank —
Great ideas, and your stew absolutely made my mouth water. It is getting close to stew season here in Sac, isn’t it? I am planning to try your grated onion and lovage ideas out on my next stew. I’ve also found that a cinnamon stick in the stew adds a nice flavor, as does a dash of fresh orange juice just before serving. Cheers!
Good post. Stews are fun. I agree that browning the meat is essential. Will try the grated onion trick and tomato paste. As for overcooking, I learned the hard way recently with some inferior Trader Joes potatoes.
Thanks, Nuria! Hey — do they have any special vension stews in Spain? I know the Spaniards are big hunters…
Hola Hank! Thanks for the stew tips! That picture up there looks awesome, comforting, flavourful, tasteful… MagnÃfico!
Hank, the stew looks fab and I like that you used small, skin-on spuds.
The critter done good in this dish.
I like your rules and share many of them like deep browning, the bit of tomato paste, and cooking ingredients for just the right amount of time. Will have to try grating onions … I usually slice or mince mine but juicy gratings sound like a smart way to deglaze.