This Months Recipes

This Months Recipes:

CHILI. The name can impart many adjectives, hot, spicy, torrid, but it is also delicious. The author of a well know chili cookbook, Jane Butel, said it all." Whenever I meet someone who tells me they don't like chili, it is because they have never had a good chili". And I would have to agree. The one good thing with having alot of wild game on hand, it I thinks imparts a particularly good taste to chili. Chili was first introduced to many people with using venison, antelope and other wild game meat. From the same book, there were different stories of how chili came about. One story, was that a nun in 1618 entered a convent in Spain at the age of sixteen. She use to go into trances which would leave her body motionless for days. When she would awake from these trances she would talk of a land that she visited. While there she would preach Christianity and implore the natives to seek out Spanish missionaries. She never left Spain physically, but visiting missionaries who would return to Spain would tell of the story the natives would tell of the beautiful woman in blue. The name" La Dama de Azul" ( the lady in blue), was given to this apparition and many believed that Sister Mary was this woman. According to the legend, while she was in one of her trances she wrote down the recipe for chili con carne. Lets see if we can do it justice!

Santa Clara Chili

3 Tbls. lard	2 lbs. venison cut into 1/2 in. cubes
3 Tbls. flour ( in a paper bag)	1 med. onion, chopped
3 cloves of garlic, chopped	5 Tbls. ground red chili's (hot)
3 Tables. ground red chili's (mild)	1/2 teaspoons salt ( sea salt is best)
1/2 tsp. dried oregano (Mexican if you can find it)	pinch of ground cumin
4 cups beef broth	6 cups stewed pinto beans, stewed or canned

Melt the lard in a large heavy skillet over medium heat. Coat the cubes with the flour that has been put in a paper bag. Shake well to evenly coat the cubed venison.. Add the venison to the melted lard and brown well. Add the onion and garlic and cook till the onion is soft. Remove from the heat and stir in the ground chili's, coating the venison and onion mixture well. Add the remaining seasonings and stir, then add a small amount of broth. Over low heat cook, stirring, until the mixture is smooth and thick. Continue to add the broth a little at a time, stirring until all is added. cook, uncovered for up to 2 hours.

Serve with a dish of stewed pinto beans. The way this dish was originally planned to be served was to ladle the beans into a dish and then top with the chili mixture. Not all chili dishes have to incorporate tomatoes.

Venison Chili Beans

3 slices of thick bacon or nice chunk of salt pork	3 Tbls. chili powder
2 Lbs. venison, diced	1 Tbls. ground cumin
1 Lb. red kidney beans	1 Tbls. dried oregano
2- 12 ounce cans of beer	2 Tsp. Worcestershire sauce
6 large, fresh tomatoes, chopped	1 tsp. cornmeal

Rinse and cover beans with 2 quarts of water and soak overnight. Boil beans with the liquid, lower the heat and simmer for 2 hours. Cook bacon until crisp, remove bacon from pan and brown venison in bacon drippings. Add beer, tomatoes, chili powder, cumin, oregano and Worcestershire sauce. Add beans to sauce. Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer 1 hour. Crumble bacon and add to chili. Then stir cornmeal into three tablespoons of water and add to mixture. This will thicken the chili. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer 20 minutes more. This is a really good chili.

This last recipe is not for chili, but a chili sauce to use on your rabbit, the one of course you had a grand time chasing with the dogs on your last rabbit hunt.

Grilled Rabbit with peanut chili sauce

Marinade

1/4 cup olive oil	1/3 cup soy sauce
1/3 cup sherry ( good sherry)	1/3 cup chopped onion
3/4 tsp. dry mustard	1 tsp. chopped fresh tarragon or 1/2 tsp. dried
1 tsp. thinly sliced garlic( real thin)	1 rabbit ( cut into 6 pieces)

Peanut-chili sauce

1/3 cup dry sherry	1/4 cup heavy cream
3 Tbls. creamy peanut butter	3-4 Tbls.bottled chili sauce or chili salsa
1 1/2 tsp. fresh lime juice	Salt and pepper to taste

Combine all ingredients for marinade and marinate rabbit. Refrigerate from 6 hours to overnight. Heat up the grill. Remove rabbit from marinade and pat dry with paper towels. Grill over hot heat, turning once and basting frequently with the marinade from 10 to 12 minutes. Check the loin pieces for doneness. When done remove from heat and keep warm. Baste the legs again and continue cooking until done about 5 to 7 minutes longer. Hopefully the leg meat with stay moist and meat will easily pull away from the bone. To make the sauce: combine sherry, cream and peanut butter in a small heavy saucepan and bring to a gentle simmer. Add chili sauce, and lime juice and continue simmering, stirring frequently, until the sauce thickens. This shouldn't take anymore than 10 minutes. Season with salt and pepper To serve, cook up some thin spaghettis or linguini. After pasta has cooked to your liking, place some on each plate, place a serving on rabbit on top and serve the sauce on the side for dipping. You will really like this, especially with rabbit. If your tired of rabbit cooked the same old way, try this way. You won't regret it.

A good beverage with these dishes can range anywhere from Sangria, Mexican beer, or a nice Sauvignon Blanc. A fruity flavor is great with spicy foods. Until next month, Keep well, and stay happy.

( Elizabeth Wiesemann is part owner of Pleasant Mtn. Guide Service based at ChaMaCha Lodge in Denmark, Maine. She is a member of the New England Outdoor Writers Association, writes for 2 outdoor publications and 6 outdoor web sites. She will be hosting the first Women in the Outdoors event in Maine, next June. The National Wild Turkey Federations women's organization. You can email her with questions at her email address pmgspmt@nh.adelphia.net or www.mainelodges.com. )

Here's another way to make your Wild Game taste GREAT!

View a list of all recipes here!

Liz Wiesemann (Aiming and Angling Recipes)
co-owner of Pleasant Mountain Guide Service and ChaMaCha Lodge, located in Denmark, Maine. Member of the New England Outdoor Writers Assoc., also columnist for the Northwoods Sporting Journal, and other sites.

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