I ❤️ TACOS
I had the opportunity to try venison heart on my first White-tailed Deer hunting trip. I was quite surprised about how much I liked it. If I rated the cuts on a deer by my personal preference, I would say it is in the prime cut category together with backstrap and tenderloins. It’s not quite as tender, and it has a certain flavor, but its so delicious, and it is a sizable amount of meat.
Deer hunting.
Till today, I have not shot my own deer. I was close enough a couple of times but just couldn’t connect. In addition, I don’t really enjoy the idea of your typical Midwestern deer hunt. Spending all day in a stand or sitting on the ground waiting for a deer to walk by, is not exaclty my idea of fun. I do love to see the sun come up and watch nature become busy around me, but I feel like I put myself into a disadvantage by just sitting. I understand I have no clue about deer hunting, and this might be the best way of doing it in the areas I hunted so far, but it just doesn’t feel right to me. In the words or Rut Daniels: “Love huntin’ but I hate waitin’!”
Nevertheless, I will be out there next season again for the main reason that venison might be one of the best wild game meats out there, and it is very accessible in Minnesota.
The heart for this dish came from a friend of mine. He and his Dad invited me to hunt their land in north central Minnesota this year for muzzle-loader season. I was just not lucky enough to get a deer in shooting distance but my friend did. It was a sizable doe. To my surprise he didn’t just give me the whole deer, but him and his Dad showed me the ropes of butchering it.
Heart full of tacos.
I was contemplating for a while on what kind of extravagant dish I could come up with, to turn this heart into something my wife Natasha would not just try, but maybe also enjoy. I was sure I’d turn it into schnitzel. Everything tastes good breaded and fried. Or maybe a stew. Nothing better in the wintertime than a pot of slow cooked meat with some good root vegetables and a liberal amount of red wine. But I really wanted this dish to bring out the amazing flavor and the great texture of properly cooked heart. I decided I would treat it the same way as a great piece of prime beef. Marinade it’s, cook it to medium over high heat and slice it. Taco Tuesday, here we come.
The cook.
Since this was going to be not any kind of taco Tuesday, but my first attempt on venison tacos I decided to go “all in”.
Thinking about Tacos:
I usually don’t just wing it totally on dishes like this. Often I start thinking about them days in advance. Once I made up my mind that I wanted to turn that heart of mine into delightful tacos I started to build it in my head. I like my tacos simple. Protein, salsa, cotija, done.
I would need some kind of tortilla. I really like those tiny street taco corn tortillas. Mainly since I love building them, and like that I can just eat more tacos. In addition, I believe corn tortillas just have a much better flavor. During my time traveling to Mexico, California and Texas, I had the chance to eat a ton of great tacos and try amazing fresh tortillas. I have been thinking about getting a tortilla press for quite a while now and it was about time to invest in one.
Besides a good tortilla, a taco needs a solid salsa. I really like to make fire roasted salsa. So this was an easy decision. Get some tomatoes, onions, jalapeños, limes and garlic and introduce them to the grill.
Monday:
Salsa time! January in Minnesota is not the ideal time to get your hands on super flavorful fresh tomatoes, but I found some that tasted pretty good. I roast them together with onions, garlic, lime and jalapeños over the open flames of my big green egg till they are nice and charred. If you don’t have a grill you can do it under the broiler of your oven or over the flame on your stove. At this point I throw everything but the lime with some salt, cumin and cilantro into a food processor. Squeeze the lime juice on top and pulse it several times till you get the consistency you like.
Taco Tuesday:
I already trimmed the heart and cut it into filet size pieces. If you want to know how to do it, there is a great video from Danielle Prewett you should check out over at the Meateater page.
Next I rubbed the meat in olive oil and sprinkled some salt and pepper on it. After that I submerged the meat pieces in a marinade of fresh squeezed orange juice, lime juice, garlic, cumin, smoked paprika, fresh cilantro and covered them with orange slices. All this goes into the fridge for about 6 hours.
For the tortillas I made a dough of Masa (white corn flour), water, lard and salt and formed 8 little balls about the size of a golf ball. he tortilla press made quick work of flattening those guys and you can just throw them into a dry cast iron skilled or on a griddle for about 30 seconds each side. Just make sure you either make them immediately when you want to eat them or put them into a covered dish right of the griddle so they don’t dry out.
Take the meat out of the fridge about an hour before you want to cook it. I pad it try with some paper towel and fry it in a cast iron skillet over high heat for about 3-5 minutes each side till it is nice browned and cooked medium. Slice it thin and your tacos are ready to be build. The fire roasted salsa and the acid rich venison heart have enough flavor by themselves that only a little cotija and a spritz of lime is needed to finish it of. Enjoy!
Venison Heart Tacos
Ingredients
- 4-6 large tomatoes
- 2 onions
- 2-4 jalapeños (depending on your heat level)
- 1 head of garlic
- 2 limes
- 1/2 cup chopped cilantro
- 1 tsp cumin
- Salt to taste
- 1 cup of masa flour
- 2/3 cups of water
- 1 tbsp lard or duck fat
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1 venison heart
- 2 oranges juiced
- 1 lime juiced
- 4 cloves of garlic chopped
- 1/2 cup chopped cilantro
- 1 tsp cumin
- 2 tsp smoked paprika
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- Salt and pepper
- Oil or lard for frying
- Cotija cheese as topping
Instructions
- Cut onions and lime into half. Place limes, onions, tomatoes, whole head of garlic and jalapeños over open flame on grill or place on baking sheet under broiler. Turn over frequently.
- Char till outside gets either brown or black. Don’t worry about the tomatoes and jalapeños getting too black since you can easily peel the skin off later.
- Half the jalapeños and take out seeds. Take garlic cloves out of shell and place everything besides the lime into a food processor. Squeeze lime over it, add 1 tsp salt and the cumin and pulse till the desired consistency is achieved. Salsa stays fresh in fridge for several days.
- In a medium bowl mix masa and salt. Add water and warmed lard and form dough. If too dry add more water in small amounts.
- I usually use a kitchen scale to create 8 equal balls out of the dough with about 35-40g each.
- Place each dough ball onto tortilla press lined with wax paper and press.
- Cook them in a hot dry cast iron skillet about 30 seconds on each side.
- Store in covered dish to prevent them form drying out.
- Rub the meat in olive oil, and salt and pepper liberally.
- Combine all other ingredients in shallow dish, stir well and submerge meat in it. Cover everything with orange slices and set in fridge for 5-6 hours or overnight.
- Take the meat out of the fridge about an hour before cooking.
- Heat oil or lard in frying pan or skillet over medium to high heat and cook meat on each side 3-5 minute or till cooked to medium.
- Slice in small pieces.
- Build your taco adding meat, salsa, cotija and finish with some lime juice and cilantro.
- Enjoy!
