Venison in Dried Sage, Oil and Garlic

     We don't know a lot of hunters, but even still, a couple times a season I can usually get my hands on a some fresh venison. I absolutely love when I do, it is one of my favorite, rare treats. Per usually, I freeze what I get and throw it into the planning mix. Tonight was one of those nights I had planned for and we made delicious venison tenderloin rounds in dried sage, oil and garlic. To top it all off, tonight was the first night my girls have ever had venison. We hit a homerun, they absolutely loved the enitre meal! In fact my picky eater was the first to finish. The big secrets to this recipe are marinating the venison and the dried sage itself.

      This past Fall my grandfather gave my husband an enormous bunch of sage that he had harvested from his property. There was no way we could ever use that much fresh sage before it went bad. We simply trimmed the stems and hung the bundle to dry. After a couple weeks the herb was dry a ready for use.  

     Typically to use the sage, my husband will pull several leaves and rub them together quickly in his hand in a circular motion; it's almost mashed as opposed to ground. The sage brings a beautiful earthy tone to the mix and has a fragrance (especially once crushed) that is reminiscent of summer breezes, moss, and tyme all rolled into one. It is one of my favorite herbs, fresh or dried and right now I really wish smell-o-vision existed! 

          Ok, it gets added to a bowl with olive oil, fresh minced garlic, salt and pepper and then wisked together. The venison rounds are placed in the bowl and covered in the sage and oil marinade. I covered the bowl and let it sit in the refrigerator for about 2 hours.

     Then we seared it off in one of our cast iron pans and used the drippings, along with some butter, to make a great basting liquid. Because of the size of the venison, cook time was small. They only needed 6 minutes on either side to get a beautiful sear and a nice even medium-well temperature. I always cook on the high side of meat when my girls are eating...which is basically always.

   

     Because it was the girl's first shot at venison (no pun intended), I wanted to give them something I know they like to go with it. Tonight we paired it with creamy mashed potatoes and carrot sticks. There wasn't a single scrap of food left by the end of the meal.

This was one happy mama!

Simple City Sam