Here are a couple of venison recipes (I mentioned one in another thread, and here it is in full).
They are paleo-diet friendly but not necesssarily locavore (unless you have a very elaborate garden).
The second recipe will be in the next post, to make it quicker/easier to distinguish the two recipes.
French Style Marinade for Venison
Ingredients:
salt
two 3/4" venison round steaks
1.5 T French dressing spice mix**
3/4 cup oil (olive preferred, or 1/2 veg, 1/2 olive)
2/3 cup vinegar
small handful of chopped fresh sage
2-3 fresh rosemary sprigs
1/4 c. purple onion cut into large chunks
2 cloves minced garlic
1 tsp Worcestershire sauce
2 tsp dried thyme (or fresh equiv.)
1 tsp dried marjoram (or fresh equiv.)
2 bay leaves
lemon pepper seasoning
ground mustard
black pepper (all spices to taste)
1 T. honey
**The mix I have is from Market Spice in Pike Place Market. Its ingredients are paprika, mustard, powdered garlic, and pepper. Here’s an approximate recipe for what I am talking about: http://www.cookingforcompany.com/Salad_Dressing.html (Find the Basic French Oil Salad Dressing, use only the dry ingredients, and leave out the sugar.)
Instructions:
Sprinkle about 2 T. salt into a large pot and add 2-3 inches of water; mix well. Add steaks and pierce multiple times with a fork. Let steaks soak for a few hours before preparing the marinade. (The salt water will extract blood from the venison, improving the taste.)
Add the remaining ingredients to a medium sized bowl and whisk/mix together.
Remove steaks from salt water, drain, and trim off fat (important: the fat is neither tasty nor healthful). Place one steak in the bottom of a large bowl and cover with half the marinade. Add the other steak and the rest of the marinade.
Cover bowl with saran wrap and refrigerate overnight. Do not marinate steaks more than 24 hours, or they will become mushy and too flavorful.
Remove venison from marinade and cook on stove over medium-high heat, 6-7 minutes per side. Cook just until the temperature in the middle of the steak is 160 degrees Fahrenheit. Venison should be cooked medium-rare or medium, neither rare (for health concerns) nor well-done (well-done venison is dry and tough). It should be a little bit pink in the middle.
While the venison is cooking, you can add vegetables to the skillet, such as chopped carrots, onions, mushrooms, parsnips, brussels sprouts, etc. You might want to experiment with cooking wine–I highly recommend adding some old Merlot.
Venison is also good when served with wild rice and tart fruit.