Deer Meat Sauce Piquante

Sunday morning when I got up, right after starting the coffee, I seasoned a qt. bag of deer meat I had thawing over-night.  The bag was very full so I figure it had 3 lbs of meat in it.  I dusted the meat with Cajun seasoning, splashed in a lil worcestershire (hadda look up how to spell it) sauce, and added a few vigerous shakes of a Crystal Hot Sauce bottle for good measure.

While the coffee was dripping I fried up a 12 oz. pack of bacon for breakfast in our lil black iron pot.  After the smell of the frying bacon and brewing coffee woke Peg up and we had breakfast, I dumped the deer meat into the hot bacon drippings, and flash browned it.

The meat sizzled away filling the house with wonderful smells.  It's funny how smells can trigger memories. I had a fond memory of deer meat sizzling at a camp site over an open fire. (but das another story.)

Once the deer meat had cooked down rendering a rich gravy, I took the meat and about half the drippins and put them in our crock pot on low.  In the black iron pot I put 3 chopped yellow onions and a lb. of smoked sausage cut in little cubes.

The onions and sausage simmered down to a brown caramelized thick sauce, and if I had stopped there and put the deer back in and let it simmer it would be "etouffee".  (But das another story.)

Once the onions and sausage cooked down, I added 2 cans of drained diced tomatoes, and 1 can of Rotel original tomatoes, stirred that in and let it cook and reduce over medium heat.

When the tomatoes were about halfway smothered down I added a heaping tablespoon of minced garlic.  Ya don't wanta add garlic too early or it will scorch and get bitter on ya.

My dad taught me the trick to this Cajun Creole Sauce (but das another story) He always cooked the tomatoes down, stirring more the thicker they got.  The trick he taught me is when done ya can make a hole in the middle of the pot and no tomato juice runs back into the hole.  If anything runs back in it should only be maybe a lil grease.

After the tomatoes were done I dumped them in the crock pot and added half a gallon of water, a cup of catsup, a rough chopped bell pepper, and a big drained can of sliced mushrooms.  Then I thickened it with a half a cup or so of Peg's dark brown roux (how to make dat is another story).  The sauce stewed away for hours in the ole crock pot while me and Peg played in the yard mucking out our asparagus patch and building a fire in the fire pit.  We had a wonderful afternoon, and around 2 pm our friends, Sam and Louise showed up, and then we really started having fun.  Me and Sam sat out by the fire-pit laughing and telling stories, and while we weren't looking Peg and Louise, made a killer coleslaw. In all the excitement what with the foot ballgame and such, we forgot to take a picture of the stuff plated up but trust me it was a thing of beauty.  Thick and rich, spicy and tender and so dang tasty we had the remaining lil bit for breakfast the next day.  Sauce Piquante (pronounced, pea-caw')  is the most complex of the country Cajun sauces and sadly, the original simple country fare of Cajun cooking is fast dying out.  (but.....das another story;-)