Venison Stew with Dumplings

If you like root vegetables, then you'll love this stew! Hearty, earthy and unpretentious, this venison stew is slow cooked with subterranean favorites such as yams, potatoes and carrots. This stew is great with dumplings, or just served with some garlicky crusty bread. We did both! Either way, this dish will not disappoint! 

Servings: 4

Prep Time: 15 minutes

Cooking Time: 2 hours

Ingredients:

- 1 1/2 pounds venison roast,cut into large cubes

-  2 sweet onions, diced

-  2 cloves of garlic, crushed

- 2 stalks of celery, chopped

- 1 large russet potato, cubed

- 1 large yam (or 2 small, cubed

- 2 carrots, chopped

- 2 tbs. lard

- 2 1/2 cups of beef stock

- salt and freshly cracked pepper, to taste

- 2 bay leaves

Dumplings:

- 1/2 cup creme fraiche 

- 1/2 cup milk

- 1 tsp. dried (or 2 tsp. fresh) thyme leaves

- 2 eggs

- 2 cups of self-rising flour

- 1/2 tsp. nutmeg

- generous pinch of salt

1. Clean venison of all silver skin and fat. Cut into large cubes, about 1 1/2 inches. Dab dry with paper towels. Season with salt and pepper.

2. Heat 2 tbs. of lard over medium-high heat in a Dutch oven. Brown venison on all sides. Then remove venison and set aside. 

Then, add onion to the pot with a pinch of salt. Saute until it starts to caramelize, stirring often.

Next, add crushed garlic and saute for another 30 seconds. 

3. Once onion and garlic are cooked, return venison to the Dutch oven. Add 2 1/2 cups of beef broth. Cover and simmer for 1 hour. 

4. While you wait, prepare the potato, yam and celery.

Rule of thumb is to cut all your vegetables the same size for even cooking. You also don't want to cut too small that they get lost in the meat. The vegetables are just as important as the meat.

Anyone else heard of "Ants On a Log?" Rick swears he's never seen this before. I remember eating it for lunch all the time in preschool. It's a childhood classic!-- or at least I thought it was. Celery smeared with peanut butter and topped with raisins. Yeah... we were bored. It's a good way to get rid of leftover celery. Healthy, too.

5. Once the first hour is up, add the chopped vegetables and bay leaves. Cover and simmer for another 45 minutes to 1 hour, or until meat and veggies are tender. Adjust seasonings.

6. Meanwhile, incorporate all dumpling ingredients, just until the mixture comes together. Do not overwork the dough. Probably easiest to whisk wet ingredients together first before adding dried, which we failed to do. :-/

During the last 10-15 minutes of cooking your stew, scoop dollops of the dumpling mixture on top of the stew. Adjust stew's seasonings first.

Increase heat to medium-high. Cover and simmer for 10-15 minutes, or until dumplings look light and fluffy. With a toothpick, poke through one dumpling to see if it comes out clean. If it does, it's cooked.

Enjoy!