Slice of Lime-Don't Fear the Curry

Ok, I know this week has been hard on some of you non-hunting types what with talk of carcass gutting and all. Today I hope to soothe you with one of my favorite venison recipes. If you are not of the ilk to go hunt your own meat don't worry, you can use stew beef for this.

This is a recipe I learned from my dear friend Regina who is from Kenya. She had been in the U.S. for a year or so when she mentioned how much she missed venison because it was a staple in the area of Kenya she came from. I told her when Mr. Lime got a deer that year we'd gladly share some of the meat with her. She was overjoyed and insisted we come share the first meal with her family. This stewed venison is what she made. I fell in love.

So...the ingredients. First you need...some venison all cubed up. How much? I dunno, I didn't weigh it and since it didn't come in some plastic wrapped tray with a meat diaper (You know, those pads that soak up the juices) and a bar code with its weight I can't be sure. A pound? Two pounds? Howzabout we split the difference and call it a pound and a half? That bowl of meat there represents hours spent in a cold tree stand, a box of bullets, a new .243 youth rifle, yards of blaze orange fabric, a kitchen full of butchered carcass, a vacu-seal machine, and yes...even a Butt-Out tool, but we won't think of that right now...

You will also need a big can of tomato puree. What? That looks like two small cans of diced tomatoes? You are so observant. Well I was out of tomato puree. This is what I had. I whizzed it through the blender. Voila! Tomato puree. My friend Regina used tomato sauce but I like to use puree because it has a little more texture to it.

We also need curry powder. This is a curry dish. Don't be afraid of the curry. The tomato balances it out nicely. When the time comes you're going to put a ton of this in the dish. I used Trinidadian curry for it and Regina liked it but she said I cooked it so well I should have some Kenyan curry to make it taste like it's from home. In case you don't know curry is a blend and there are roughly 87 gazillion different blends for curry in the world each with a somewhat different taste. Regina carried this all the way back from Kenya for me when she went to visit so I could have that one in 87 gazillion taste.
The other ingredients are oil, garlic (as much or as little as you want, I use about 4 cloves), and onions (2 medium or 1 large). Oh, It also helps if you have a heavy iron pot with a slightly concave bottom..the kind I carried back in my own bag when I was coming home from Trinidad. Lordy, between the iron pot and the bottles of seasonings and the bolts of batik I had in my bag that was one hernia inducing suitcase. Really, this is a very easy recipe once you've convinced a friend to fly to Kenya for curry and you've flown to Trinidad to buy the pot. Very economical. But I digress....
Pour some oil in, heat it over medium heat, add the onions and garlic and let them get translucent.

Once the onions and garlic are all soft you'll add the curry....a lot of curry. See that spoon? It's a soup spoon. I think I filled it heaping 2 times, maybe 3. Ok, split the difference and call it 2 1/2. Don't fear the curry. I woke up this morning to Blue Oyster Cult's Don't Fear the Reaper. You can hum that while you sashay around sprinkling curry. Then you can think of the SNL sketch with Will Ferrell and shout, "I got a fever. I need more cowbell! I need more curry!" Tap on the side of the curry can if you don't have a cowbell. Da da da da dada....don't fear the currrryyyy.... Keep dancing. This is my kitchen. We dance when we cook. It keeps the cook happy. Happy cooks make better food.

Ok, now that we've gotten you all over your curry phobia, brown it around with just the onions for a bit then toss in the meat, crank up the heat a bit, and brown everything together. Stick your nose over the pot and inhale deeply....aaahhhh.....

Once the meat is all browned dump in the tomato puree and stir it all around.

Turn the heat back down to medium low and put the lid on. Ya like that lid? the knob broke off years ago while I was in the middle of cooking something. I had been dyeing Easter eggs and had one of those wire dipping thingies sitting on the counter so I twisted it up and jammed that sucker in the lid. I have been meaning to buy a nice wooden knob to fix it with properly but then again, this thing has worked for all these years and it has kind of a quirky personality, not unlike its owner. You can have your fancy pots and pans that shine like the sun and have insulated handles. I wouldn't trade my hernia inducing, burn causing pot with the dangerous wire poking out of the top for all the fancy pots in the world.

Ok, now all the hard work is done because you just let it all stew together until the meat is nice and tender. How long? I dunno. An hour? Two hours? Split the difference....whatever. All you have to do is stir it now and again and make sure it isn't burning. While you wait and contemplate the tasty delight the stew will be you can relax. Feel free to enjoy some reading material that stimulates salivation as well. Well, looky who's on the cover of this magazine....mmmm, yum.

When it's done serve it over rice with a side of peas and carrots and have a belly full of good, stick to your ribs food. Now if this meal were to be truly complete I'd have it with ugali (say oo-golly), which is a boiled Kenyan cornbread. Yes, I know that sounds unappetizing but it's delicious and I'd be perfectly content to have a plate of ugali and the gravy from this stew (Regina tells me this makes me very Kenyan and her husband tells me I make ugali better than his sister....ugali good enough to snare me a Kenyan husband. Glad to know I have options in the world.) Unfortunately, when I went to the cupboard I found some "undesirable alternate protein sources" in my cornmeal. Ick. Let's not think of that. I really am hungry for some ugali to go with this stew though and if you're interested here's a recipe.

Happy eats.