Team Espinoza

My friend Wendy killed her very first deer over Thanksgiving weekend. In fact, she got a 10 point buck. So what better way to congratulate my friend then by cooking her deer meat? It seems so organic and natural to know exactly where the meat came from, how it was killed, and cleaned.

A few friends and I get together to eat and watch So You Think You Can Dance. This tradition started with a 13 pound brisket and has been coined MEAT & DANCE. So we decided to cook Wendy’s deer meat at our next MEAT & DANCE party. This is how we did it.

Prep Work

Monday night Wendy dropped off the deer meat at my house. It arrived frozen and I left it out a bit to thaw out.

The meat comes pre-cut into medallion sized pieces of varying thicknesses.

Once the meat is thawed or at least thawed enough in my case, it is time to tenderize the meat with a mallet. I had to borrow one from Zandi, my neighbor. My arm was sore the next day!

Seriously, this takes a while.

I have no idea if I did this right, but this is what the meat looks like in the bowl.

Next I poured some milk in to bowl to cover the meat. I had Organic 2% on hand.

Then I put in some Tabasco. I don’t know how much, maybe 8 squirts.

Stir it up and stick in the fridge to hang out until the next night.

Cooking the Backstrap

Make 2 bowls. One bowl has egg, milk, salt, and pepper. The second bowl is flour.

Be sure to double batter them in this order: egg, flour, egg, flour

Also don’t be skimpy on the salt and pepper. Taste one done and add more if needed.

Enlist some friends to help batter the meat.

So they can do the dirty work. : )

Heat up a big pan of vegetable oil and stick the battered fillets in the hot oil.

IMPORTANT: You have to cook them until they are almost black in the pan. The ones in the back of this photo are almost done. Turn them over every once in a while.

Wendy helped valet the meat into the pan here. She was also teaching me how to cook them.

Perfection! I wish I could eat this photo.

I set up a drying rack over a cookie sheet to catch the grease. Apparently, if you put them on paper towels the meat will re-absorb the oil as it sits on the paper.

Eat!

Delicious-ness. Serve them with Roasted Garlic Mashed Potatoes and Country Gravy. I used the Pioneer gravy mix which Kara so kindly helped to make.

Here is Ian with his first bite of chicken fried deer ever. I think he was a little scared.

I think this photo means that he liked it!

Yeah, check out these clean plates in front of Zandi and Wendy. Kara already had hers (with ketchup of course.)

Melia is now an Official Member of the Clean Plate Club! Daniel is shocked.

Miss Wendy the hunter herself and Daniel.

Happy bellies! Zandy, Wendy, and me.