game on

​Several weeks ago, my husband and I visited some friends of his in Delaware. Many years ago, my husband worked for this family when they had a potato and grain farm in Freehold, NJ. As housing developments began to encroach the farm and the third generation wanted to continue farming, the farm was sold and the operation moved to Townsend, Delaware.

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However, over the years finding reliable help become difficult to find and the son switched from potatoes to sod, grain, strawberries, blueberries and some chickens. This farm is now being encroached upon with new housing developments as local farmers sell their land.
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My husband’s friend is a hunter and occasionally bags some deer that he butchers. While there, I mentioned that if he had any extra venison, I would love some. Being very generous, I was sent home with several different cuts, including some ground version. So last evening, with the weather actually still being a bit cool, I decided to prepare the ground venison for supper. My husband found several recipes on a British website called The Field. There were several recipes that he found for venison, and one of them included venison meatballs with ginger, coconut and spinach.

The recipe was quite easy to follow, however, I did have to convert some metric measurements to US standard. Most of the ingredients were pantry staples, however, I did need to purchase a lime, coconut milk and fresh spinach. Non-standard pantry items would include turmeric, fennel seeds, fresh ginger and fresh coriander. My husband and I are particularly fond of the taste of coriander, so I used fresh parsley.
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The meatballs can be made in one pan, which is a great time saver. They’re sautéed first, then the sauce is made is the same pan. Once the sauce has had approximately 10 minutes to simmer, the meatballs are added back to the pan to finish cooking.

The venison meat is very lean, barely any fat. The meatballs cooked up very tender and moist and I served them over some basmati rice, which soaked up the delicious sauce. The coconut milk in the sauce made it creamy. The sauce also contained fresh minced parsley, white onion, garlic, finely chopped ginger, some lime juice and fresh baby spinach leaves. Overall a different and tasty supper.