Chef Kenny
Senior Cook
This is NOT gourmet of course. This is just good ole home cooking, and easy. My first shot at a blog style post here.
Every so often I am lucky enough to be given some deer meat. I have a buddy who will bring me skinned quarters of a kill because I actually prefer to cut the meat off the bone myself. I “process” the deer meat and we split anything that comes from it. I also make sausage out of the lesser cuts and small bits (I’ll share that another day if this whole posting with pics thing works out). I don’t hunt, not because of the killing or blood and guts…I just don’t like getting up so early and sitting out in the cold with no guarantee I’ll harvest something!
My dad actually gave me this particular meat. He DOES enjoy sitting in the cold waiting for deer. But, sadly that will be lessening as he ages.
So I had this beautiful little roast in the freezer. I matched it up with my small crock pot. Of course everything I am doing here can be scaled to a larger, say, beef roast, in a larger crock pot. For my wife and me, this little 1 pound roast will make two meals. You will notice in this post, there is no recipe. This is all method and eyeballing.
In the pot I start with a fat teaspoon…probably a half a tablespoon of beef Better Than Bouillon of beef bouillon. I have started using Better than Bouillon when I’m not making broth or stock from scratch. It requires less storage space, keeps for a very long time and tastes great. America’s Test Kitchen actually ranks the BTB Chicken product as best among store-bought broths they tested, beating out even the famed Swanson brand. I’m sure there are other brands and specialty products that may be better…but this is what I’m using.
I added some beef tallow, that’s the white stuff there. I render that myself. Deer is very lean, the fat is a good thing, plus I’m on a low carb high fat diet.
About a cup to a cup and a half or water, a large smashed garlic clove, coarse black pepper, granulated garlic and onion powder, dehydrated onion bits and red pepper flakes. Shaked and pinched in, no measures.
In goes the roast. Most of the sliver skin removed. The remaining silver skin is not even noticeable in the final product.
I love this tomato bouillon, and use it in many circumstances. I prefer to use granulated bouillon in place of salt whenever possible. It’s salty, plus brings so much more flavor. My diet is NOT low sodium.
The bouillon and some more pepper, garlic and onion powder goes on top to “skeep” (a technical term) in to the roast as it heats.
I tossed in a bay leaf and some celery tops/scraps
Covered and cooked on high for 4-5 hours, then shifted to low for 2-3 hours (basically until its tender and we’re ready to eat it.
To go with this protein, I made smashed cauliflower. This of course is a staple in low carb cooking because it simulates mashed potatoes.
This was a pathetically small head of cauliflower, but really good looking. Cut in to somewhat even sizes it goes in to a pan with some water and brought to a boil. No need to be real technical here, it needs to be cooked very soft so it’s easily smashed. I was not feeling well the week I did this one, so I didn’t put the cauliflower in the food processer to make it really creamy (a hand immersion blender can also be used…I didn’t want me or my wife to have to clean either this day), so it was important that this cook super soft.
While the cooked cauliflower is draining in a colander in the sink, in the same pot I added butter, heavy cream and sour cream. Again, totally eyeballed.
Tossed this beautiful cauliflower back in the pan
Then smashed it with this plastic masher…because a metal one would of course not be appropriate for this Pampered Chef non-stick pan’s surface.
In that, I added granulated chicken bouillon, black pepper, granulated garlic and onion powder, accent/MSG (I know some people are going to cringe at that, but it doesn’t affect me and my wife negatively and if you really read up on it, the stuff is not as sinister as its been demonized), red pepper flakes and “shaker” parmesan cheese (the grated stuff in the canister), and some dried chives (freshly dried this season myself). (fuzzy pic, sorry)
The cooked deer roast is removed from the pot, picking out any bits of celery leaf, etc.. The pot juices strained and poured back in the pot. These juices were perfect, zero seasoning adjustments were needed. I pulled the meat apart and even used kitchen shears to cut the meat strands further. It wasn’t necessary, the meat was melt in your mouth tender…but that’s just what I did. The shears were just sitting there on the butcher block screaming “use me!”.
A very minor carb alert here. I used arrowroot powder with a little cold water as a base thickener. Only about a teaspoon so not too many carbs. I bought this stuff for another recipe and once I learned more about it, decided I want to get it in my diet wherever it makes sense.
To be continued in a reply. I just found out 15 pics is the max I can upload at a time. Give me a few minutes to upload and post the rest.
Every so often I am lucky enough to be given some deer meat. I have a buddy who will bring me skinned quarters of a kill because I actually prefer to cut the meat off the bone myself. I “process” the deer meat and we split anything that comes from it. I also make sausage out of the lesser cuts and small bits (I’ll share that another day if this whole posting with pics thing works out). I don’t hunt, not because of the killing or blood and guts…I just don’t like getting up so early and sitting out in the cold with no guarantee I’ll harvest something!
My dad actually gave me this particular meat. He DOES enjoy sitting in the cold waiting for deer. But, sadly that will be lessening as he ages.
So I had this beautiful little roast in the freezer. I matched it up with my small crock pot. Of course everything I am doing here can be scaled to a larger, say, beef roast, in a larger crock pot. For my wife and me, this little 1 pound roast will make two meals. You will notice in this post, there is no recipe. This is all method and eyeballing.
In the pot I start with a fat teaspoon…probably a half a tablespoon of beef Better Than Bouillon of beef bouillon. I have started using Better than Bouillon when I’m not making broth or stock from scratch. It requires less storage space, keeps for a very long time and tastes great. America’s Test Kitchen actually ranks the BTB Chicken product as best among store-bought broths they tested, beating out even the famed Swanson brand. I’m sure there are other brands and specialty products that may be better…but this is what I’m using.
I added some beef tallow, that’s the white stuff there. I render that myself. Deer is very lean, the fat is a good thing, plus I’m on a low carb high fat diet.
About a cup to a cup and a half or water, a large smashed garlic clove, coarse black pepper, granulated garlic and onion powder, dehydrated onion bits and red pepper flakes. Shaked and pinched in, no measures.
In goes the roast. Most of the sliver skin removed. The remaining silver skin is not even noticeable in the final product.
I love this tomato bouillon, and use it in many circumstances. I prefer to use granulated bouillon in place of salt whenever possible. It’s salty, plus brings so much more flavor. My diet is NOT low sodium.
The bouillon and some more pepper, garlic and onion powder goes on top to “skeep” (a technical term) in to the roast as it heats.
I tossed in a bay leaf and some celery tops/scraps
Covered and cooked on high for 4-5 hours, then shifted to low for 2-3 hours (basically until its tender and we’re ready to eat it.
To go with this protein, I made smashed cauliflower. This of course is a staple in low carb cooking because it simulates mashed potatoes.
This was a pathetically small head of cauliflower, but really good looking. Cut in to somewhat even sizes it goes in to a pan with some water and brought to a boil. No need to be real technical here, it needs to be cooked very soft so it’s easily smashed. I was not feeling well the week I did this one, so I didn’t put the cauliflower in the food processer to make it really creamy (a hand immersion blender can also be used…I didn’t want me or my wife to have to clean either this day), so it was important that this cook super soft.
While the cooked cauliflower is draining in a colander in the sink, in the same pot I added butter, heavy cream and sour cream. Again, totally eyeballed.
Tossed this beautiful cauliflower back in the pan
Then smashed it with this plastic masher…because a metal one would of course not be appropriate for this Pampered Chef non-stick pan’s surface.
In that, I added granulated chicken bouillon, black pepper, granulated garlic and onion powder, accent/MSG (I know some people are going to cringe at that, but it doesn’t affect me and my wife negatively and if you really read up on it, the stuff is not as sinister as its been demonized), red pepper flakes and “shaker” parmesan cheese (the grated stuff in the canister), and some dried chives (freshly dried this season myself). (fuzzy pic, sorry)
The cooked deer roast is removed from the pot, picking out any bits of celery leaf, etc.. The pot juices strained and poured back in the pot. These juices were perfect, zero seasoning adjustments were needed. I pulled the meat apart and even used kitchen shears to cut the meat strands further. It wasn’t necessary, the meat was melt in your mouth tender…but that’s just what I did. The shears were just sitting there on the butcher block screaming “use me!”.
A very minor carb alert here. I used arrowroot powder with a little cold water as a base thickener. Only about a teaspoon so not too many carbs. I bought this stuff for another recipe and once I learned more about it, decided I want to get it in my diet wherever it makes sense.
To be continued in a reply. I just found out 15 pics is the max I can upload at a time. Give me a few minutes to upload and post the rest.
