Moroccan spiced braised venison, page 44

Prunes and lemons and cardamom, oh, my. This Moroccan stew was going to have some zip to it, it looked like. Venison round steak is used in the recipe, so we used the first venison from Fred's opening day deer. Actually, I'd previously made sloppy Joes with some of the burger, but that wasn't out of this cookbook. Nope, I'm wrong. We used Fred's deer in the venison in a pumpkin dish, too.
The recipe suggested cooking the round steak 2-3 hours. After that amount of cooking, the round steak could still have used some more softening up, but was reasonable enough in texture to be still tasty. We just had to help Oliver cut up his meat! I often do that with beef, too, by cooking stew meat about 2/3'sof the amount of time it would take to actually make it tender. Usually, I start late enough in the day we have to go ahead and eat it that way.
Anyhow, we served the stew with couscous, green chutney and sauted green beans, 'cause you know what? I really have no idea what veggies are eaten in Morocco and the green beans had served their time in the fridge long enough.

The next day I had left overs as a sandwich at lunch and you know what it reminded me of? A meat loaf sandwich. Funny, eh? But, the tomato in the sauce plus onions plus sweetness from the prunes made for a nice sauce surrounding the steaks that was meatloafesque. Venison's red meat is very satisfying yet the leanness of it helps one not feel greasy the way beef can. Let me tell you, it was a good, warm lunch on a cold, cloudy day.

How exotic and delightful  is Morocco, any way? Apparently, their food is tasty. The name is fun to say. And, this past weekend Fred and I went on a Christmas home tour in Columbia . One of the families whose home we toured collected mammoth sized (not literally speaking here) geodes and fossils from Morocco. One of the geodes was about six inches shorter than me and filled with purple crystals. And, they had this slab of a fossil with ocean plants looking like they froze in time as they waved in the . . . well, waves.  The slab was about the size of our car hood. I'm now picturing Morocco as a place where life-size geodes and fossils litter the ground and wafts of spicy food fill the air. Sounds fun to me.