Venison Salami Calzones

What do you do when you have an over abundance of wild game salami in the fridge… you can make these easy salami calzones with fontina cheese, parmesan cheese, ricotta cheese, red bell pepper and carmelized onions. I’m pretty sure that I just gained on an average of 5-7lbs after in-hailing 3 of these Venison salami calzones.  3 for dinner, 1 for breakfast and 1 for lunch. Yum.

INGREDIENTS
8-10 Calzones

• 2 Pizza Crust Class by Pillsbury (or your favorite pizza dough recipe)
• 1 cup vension salami chopped
• 1 cup fontina cheese chopped
• 1 cup mozzarella cheese shredded
• 1 cup fat free ricotta
• 1/4 cup parmesan cheese
• 1 cup Mezetta roasted pepper strips with carmelized onion
• 1/2 cup fresh basil leaves chopped
• 1/2 cup cornmeal
• red pepper flakes (optional)

DIRECTIONS
Heat oven to 400

1) Heat oven to 400 degrees.

2) Cut pizza dough up into 8-10 squares or cirlces and place on lightly floured surface. Sprinkle both sides of dough with cornmeal to help from sticking.

3) One each edge of the calzones top with the ricotta cheese, basil, parmesan cheese, fontina cheese, venison salami and roasted peppers. Top with a few red pepper flakes to add a bit of heat. Fold edges of dough over filling and seal. Brush tops of calzones lightly with olive oil.

4) Place calzones on non stick cookie sheet in 400 degree oven and bake for 15 minutes or until golden brown. Remove from oven and serve hot with a side of marinara sauce or alfredo sauce.

Make these calzones with any other wild game salami or burger.

Venison salami calzones baking in oven roughly 11 minutes.

Calzones hot out of the oven. Serve alone, with marinara sauce or alfredo sauce.

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There’s nothing better than a heavenly hearty meal on a Sunday night. Mozzarella stuffed elk meatballs drowned in red wine tomato sauce served up with some fried basil and crusty bread. What else could you ask for?

You could also make this dish using venison, beef or veal.

INGREDIENTS
13/15 – 2 inch meatballs

• 1.5 lbs ground elk or venison burger
• 5 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 white onion diced
• 2 garlic cloves diced
• 1 teaspoon thyme
• ¼ teaspoon rosemary
• 3 slices white bread without crusts
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1 egg beaten
• ½ cup grated parmigiano-reggiano cheese
• Mozzarella cheese balls (size of cherry tomatoes)
• 1 – 28oz. can diced plain tomatoes
• Fresh basil chopped
• ½ cup dry red wine

DIRECTIONS
1) Heat 2-3 tablespoons olive oil in cast iron skillet over medium-high heat. Add diced white onion and 2 diced garlic cloves. Cook until onions are soft and translucent, add thyme, rosemary, salt and pepper and then remove from heat. Set aside to cool.

2) In a separate bowl tear bread into small pieces and soak in milk for 5 minutes. Squeeze milk from bread and place in another larger bowl. Add elk burger, egg, parmigiano-reggiano, onion mixture and mix with your hands.

3) Take elk mixture and begin to form meatballs being sure to add a mozzarella cheese ball in the center of each meatball. The meatball sizes are up to you. You can make them small, medium or large depending on how you want to serve this dish up. Place meatballs on a cookie sheet and refrigerate for 30 minutes to an hour.

4) Add remaining oil to cast iron skillet over medium high heat. Place each meatball into skillet and cook on all sides. Remove meatballs from pan when browned.

5) Add ½ cup dry red wine to skillet to deglaze pan. Add canned tomatoes and ¼ cup fresh chopped basil. Bring sauce to a simmer, add meatballs and reduce heat to low. Continue to cook on low heat for 10 minutes.

For a garnish, you can quickly flash fry some basil leaves in a little oil and serve up with crusty bread or a side of pasta. Trust me — you’ll love it!

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Simple cooking with the simple ingredients and easy technique can make for an extraordinary and flavorful meal. It’s a winning combination for anyone who enjoys wild game cuisine. Prep time took me just under 15 minutes and the cook time to plating time was another 15 minutes in total.

I suppose you could call this Wild Game Cuisine in 30 minutes flat!

Elk or Venison steaks with mushrooms and mustard Marsala sauce
INGREDIENTS

• 6 – 1/4inch thick elk or venison steaks
• 4 tablespoons butter
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
• ½ cup diced white onion
• 1 cup sliced mushrooms
• ¼ cup Marsala wine
• Salt and pepper

DIRECTIONS
1) Take steaks and rub a light coat of olive oil on both sides. Add fresh cracked pepper, kosher salt and set aside for 30 minutes to be sure to bring to room temperature.

2) Heat cast iron skillet over medium-high heat. When the pan is hot, sear the elk steaks for about 1-2 minutes on one side. Turn steaks and cook another 1-2 minutes. Steaks will be medium rare. Remove from heat and allow resting for 3-5 minutes. (It is very important to try not to overcook your wild game. While your game rests – it will continue to cook. Thicker pieces of meat will need more time to cook but thinner slices need much less.)

3) Add butter to the cast iron skillet over medium-high heat. Add diced onion and sliced mushrooms and cook for about 5 minutes being sure to turn so not to burn. Add 1tablespoon Dijon mustard and ¼ cup Marsala wine to onions and mushrooms.  Turn heat to low and simmer for another 5 minutes or until sauce thickens.

4) Plate your elk or venison steaks and top with a heaping spoonful of mushroom marsala sauce. Add a few slices of crusty French bread or whole grain bread and enjoy!

Tomato, Cucumber and Avocado Salad — Simple is good.
Chop your tomato, cucumber and avocado, add 1 tablespoon of good olive oil, salt and pepper, stir and then serve.

• 2-3 tomatoes
• 1 cucumber
• 1 avocado

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In my opinion, all food is desirable… I wasn’t introduced to game meat and game birds until 1998. Once we started bringing the meat home, I knew I had to think up some tasty recipes that would have everyone wanting more and more. This recipe is a spin on the same recipe we use for waterfowl whether goose meat or duck meat. It all tastes great mostly becuase everything tastes good when it’s cooked with bacon. Right?

INGREDIENTS

• 1 1/2 pounds Venision (Backstrap, round, sirloin)
• Soy Vay Veri Veri Teriyaki
• Bacon
• Mushrooms
• 1 Large Onion (Red or White)
• Bell Peppers
• Garlic powder
• Kosher salt and pepper
• BBQ Sauce (optional)

DIRECTIONS
Marinade the venison in Soy Vay’s Veri Veri Teriyaki sauce or any teriyaki sauce that you prefer, garlic powder, salt and pepper. I like to marinade my venison meat for 1-2 days. Sometimes I’ll soak the meat in milk for a few days and then wash off and marinde in the teriayaki sauce. It all depends on how much time you have to plan for your meal.

Heat BBQ to high and be sure that it’s good and hot before BBQ’ing skewered meat and vegetables.

Cut venison meat into 1 ½ chunks. Cut peppers and onions into appropriate sizes for skewers.

Wrap each piece of meat with a 1/2 slice of bacon, skewer venison, mushroom, pepper, onion, venison, mushroom, pepper, onion…etc until skewer is full.

BBQ skewer’s until meat and bacon is cooked thoroughly. (Just a side note – don’t overcook your meat. If the bacon is not cooked completely but your meat is – remove bacon before eating.)

Remove from skewers and cover in your favorite BBQ sauce and serve immediately.

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