Egyptian Venison in Rich Onion Sauce

This is our version of Lahma Bil Basal, or Beef In Rich Onion Sauce. It's a favorite in Egyptian households and now we know why! Since this is a wild game blog, we of course used venison for this dish. The end result was a house full of awesome smells, tender, melt-in-your-mouth chunks of venison in an onion sauce that was out of this world. This dish was also very easy. You basically throw all the ingredients in a pot and let it cook for 2-3 hours. Remember that infomercial from years back? "You set it, and forget it!" 
Ok, I lied. Maybe it's not THAT easy. But it's something pretty darn close, almost as easy as cooking an entire chicken in a Ronco Rotisserie and BBQ Oven. Not that we've tried.

Anyway, you gotta have this dish with couscous, pita bread and our Tarragon Tomato Salad. It's a meal fit for Cleopatra. 

Servings: 4

Prep Time: 15 minutes

Cooking Time: 2-3 hours

Ingredients:

- 1 lb. venison stew meat

- 4 onions, sliced super thin

- 2-3 cloves of garlic, slightly crushed 

- 2 tsp. chicken bouillon 

- 1 bay leaf

- 2 tbs. butter

- 1 tbs. vegetable oil

- 1 1/2 cups of water

- kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste 

Onions: How thin? THIS thin.

Maybe con someone else into doing this for you. Slicing up 4 onions is no joke. Ouch. 

1. Remove as much silver skin and fat from the stew meat or roast as you can.  Cut them into standard stew meat cubes. 

2. Heat butter and vegetable oil in a dutch oven over medium-high heat. Cook stew meat until lightly browned on all sides. Do not cook through. 

Remove meat from dutch oven and set aside in a bowl. 

3. Add sliced onions, bay leaf, chicken bouillon, crushed garlic and a pinch of salt into the same pot.

Cook over medium heat for about 15 minutes, or until onions are quite soft. Stirring often. 

4. Add venison back into the pot with the onions. Add salt and pepper, to taste. Remember that you can always add more salt, but you cannot take away. 

5. Add in 1 1/2 cups of water. Lower heat to a simmer, cover and cook for 2 1/2 hours or more. Venison should be melt in your mouth tender.  

Check occasionally, just in case if the mixture gets too dry. If so, add more water, but we doubt this would happen.

Cook uncovered for the last half hour to thicken up the sauce, if needed. The onions should break down into a nice, thick sauce. Add more salt and pepper, if needed.

Discard bay leaf.

We hope you will enjoy this dish as much as we did. We hear it goes great with pasta as well. You must try the Tarragon Tomato Salad! 

Remember to share our recipes with all your family and friends. Thanks!

 





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