Venison Chili

It is mid-December, but the temperature barely creeps above the zero mark and the day begins after I rise and is over before I leave work, so it certainly feels time to start the venison chili going. Because my friends won’t be grinding their venison until January, I put a note on the campus bulletin board looking for someone who had extra. I knew I wouldn’t hear back from any of the professors, but surely a staff member somewhere had deer meat to spare.

Sure enough, one of the administrative personnel just down the hall from me (on the college side, not the monastery) had about 50 packages of ground venison and couldn’t imagine eating more than 30 of them. How many would I like?? I think five will get me through until my friend gives me more at the end of January.

I have always loved meat chili, and haven’t found a better recipe than the simple one. With this 50/50 mix of venison and pork and chipotle chilis with adobo, it is smoky and delicious.

Venison Chili
Saute a chopped onion and chopped garlic in oil until translucent. Add about a pound of venison/pork mix and brown. with a few chipotle chilis with their adobe sauce from a can, as well as a liberal dose of chili powder (2 Tbs at least), salt and pepper. When meat is brown, add a large can of tomatoes, two small cans of red kidney beans, and some frozen corn. (You can also add barley, but cook it first, because it takes too long to cook in the chili.) Simmer until ready to eat!

At the noon hour, unable to listen anymore to politics on NPR, I turned on the local college radio station. A woman was talking about carnivorous culture– basically, the horror of meat-eating. The jargon was so over-the-top, and rolled so melifluously from this woman’s tongue, that it was like we don’t live in the same country or speak the same language. She was talking, of course, about meat production in this country, factory farming, and the attendant evils. OK. I’m down with it. I did feel incredibly lucky to live where I do, having options and being able to know how the animals are more or less raised and killed. I am taking control of that in our kitchen more and more. Then I thought, “If I lived in Chicago, would I ethically have to become a vegetarian?” Hmmm. I just don’t see that happening.