by David Cecelski
This is a recipe for a kind of venison stew that is popular in hunting camps from the Roanoke River bottomlands to the Great Smoky Mountains.
Ingredients
2 lb. venison
1/2 lb. kielbasa, sliced
2 Tbsp. vegetable oil
½ cup chopped onion
¾ cup chopped celery
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 tsp. sugar
¾ tsp. rosemary
½ tsp. basil
½ tsp. black pepper
32 oz. canned whole tomatoes
12 oz. dark beer—stout is best
4-5 carrots, sliced
3 large potatoes, cubed
¼ cup flour
6 Tbsp. water
Trim all the fat and silver skin from the venison and discard. Cube the venison and cut up the kielbasa. Heat the oil in a heavy Dutch oven and brown the meats. Add onion, celery, and garlic. Cook until tender. Add salt, sugar, rosemary, basil, and black pepper. Cook for 1 minute. Add tomatoes and beer. Bring to a boil, reduce the heat and simmer, covered, for 30 minutes. Add carrots and simmer, uncovered, for 30 minutes. Add potatoes and simmer, covered, for 45 more minutes. Mix flour and water until smooth. Add half to the stew and boil 1-2 minutes. Keep adding the rest of the flour mixture until the stew has thickened a little. Serve with hearty bread.
A friend gave us a venison shoulder last week and I made this stew with it tonight. Whenever I fix the stew, I always think of my cousin Tommy and his last months at the VA Hospital here. That autumn, he was dying of diseases linked to his exposure to Agent Orange while he was in Vietnam. His mother and father moved into a hotel next to the hospital and my wife and I brought them home cooking as often as we could. Of all the things we fixed them, this venison stew was their favorite. That was more than a decade ago, but somehow that was enough to bind together the stew and all my memories of Tommy’s time at the VA Hospital
