dial_m Food Journal

I love to cook. Sunday nights at my house consist of gathering my little family (sister, boyfriend) and concocting delicious [vegetarian] treats. I am still a carnivore at heart though, and look forward to gatherings where meat is prepared.

My favorite recent 'meat' memory happened just before Mardi Gras this year. (I live in New Orleans, where food is very much a religion.) A friend's mother had cleaned out her meat freezer, and so I became a proud recipient of a HUGE VENISON LEG that one of her cousins had hunted, skinned and cleaned the season before.

Now, Mardi Gras is a family affair, where one gathers at whichever friend's house is closest to the parade route, and eats and drinks and makes merry, then at some point wanders down to watch the parades and bands and things. More often than not, the days of parades are marked by what food is being served: Wednesday you can expect Red Beans & Rice (RbR is what I call it), Thursday it's Mardi Gras salad (purple cabbage, yellow peppers, avocado), Friday becomes Fry Day, where we fry the dictator of Krewe d'Etat along with catfish, tofu and anything else that can get crammed in a Frydaddy. Saturday brunch is a necessity - you need a good start of eggs, biscuits & sausage from Lake Charles parish for a long day of parade watching.

As it happened, Lundi Gras (or 'Monday' as you might call it) my friend was already cooking up a huge hunk of ham on the grill. After braising in wine 4 hours it tasted more like corned beef, not that I was complaining. But what of the venison leg? Surely it needed at least 4 hours to braise in a sweet red wine. But what are parades for than to occupy our attention while the delicious meat braises?

Indeed, that evening, after the parade of Orpheus, that venison leg was so tender, so perfectly braised, it simply fell off the bone, right into my belly. My only complaint was there wasn't enough of it. Delish!