Rosemary Venison

My anti-inflammatory diet is not vegan, or even vegetarian. I eat chicken and fish and red meat occasionally as well, but I do try to make sure the meat I eat is clean and healthy as well. Just like people are healthier if they eat naturally and get exercise, the same is true for animals and game. And while I don’t have data to back this up necessarily, it makes sense that wild (fish and venison for example) or pasture raised sources where animals are treated well, eat healthily and have room to roam would produce healthier meat than sources with other practices.

For this recipe I used venison, but it would also be good with pork chops or steak, or even duck probably. It is pictured above with zucchini pesto, roasted brussels sprouts and yams, and polenta. The zucchini pesto isn’t great reheated so better to just make as much as you plan to eat.

Ingredients:

• Venison (or pork chop, steak or duck)
• 1/4 cup Red wine
• 1 tsp Balsamic vinegar
• Powdered rosemary, sage, savory
• Salt
• Date paste

Start by marinating the meat, if you marinate overnight in the fridge you can get more flavor and tenderness, but even just 1 hour is ok. This recipe was enough to feed 2 people. For the marinade mix together 1/4 cup red wine, 1 tsp balsamic vinegar, about 1/8 tsp powdered rosemary, a pinch of sage and savory and 1/2 tsp salt. Mix together and put in small bowl with about 8oz meat. Add 1/2 – 1 cup water to just cover meat. Refrigerate and let stand 1 hour or up to overnight.

After marinating, heat a pan over medium-high heat with olive or avocado oil. Using a fork, remove meat from marinade and place in the pan, cooking for 2-3 minutes on the first side, or until browned then flip over to the second side and brown, again about 2-3 minutes. Add the marinade to the pan and cook until reduced to just a few spoonfuls, if this takes more than 5 minutes, remove the meat from the pan and set aside, covered to keep warm. Adding about 1 tsp of date paste to the reduction gives a nice hint of sweetness, but is not necessary. Spoon reduction over the meat, add your desired sides and serve. I think the blueberry, beet, fennel salad goes well with this meal, but with all the other veggies I served with it, you don’t really need a separate salad.