[gardengalrn]

Of course best served with a fresh tomato;P
Anyway, I was watching Martha the other day and she had a chef on there (I can't remember his name but he studied in Italy, long red hair pulled back in a pony tail) talking about venision. I love the flavor of venison but it seems that no matter how I cook it, it is rather tough and sometimes too dry. He was saying that you NEVER marinate venison in an acid, which I didn't know.
You take your venison steaks and put them in a shallow pan. Cover with virgin olive oil, extra virgin is better. Thinly slice several (I'm a garlic lover and used quite a bit) garlic cloves, bruise several rosemary twigs and throw that around in the pan. The original recipe called for crushed juniper berries which I would never find in any grocery around here but he said you could substitute just a tiny splash of gin. You let this marinate at least 2 hours, over night is best. He fried it up on a cast iron grill which I don't have, so I fried it in my cast iron skillet. I was afraid the rosemary would be too strong for my taste because it had a strong aroma but it was WONDERFUL. It is the first venison I've made that you could cut with the fork, tender and juicy. He said not to salt/pepper until just before cooking and be generous with it. This whole thing was a revelation to me, so I was tickled to tell people about it, LOL.
The original recipe came with a hubbard squash side and a wine sauce which I felt was WAY too involved for the average family meal and my people here would never go for. I did a much revised version of the squash recipe which can be found on the Martha Stewart web site.