Venison Goulasch

This is a dish my mother makes every year during the holidays, and I finally got the recipe. It's one of my all-time favorites, and I think my whole family would say we could probably drink this sauce out of a cup. It's that good.

I never see deer meat for sale anywhere in Indiana -- I think you have to know a hunter to get it -- but I know it's available elsewhere. We have a lot of deer in our neighborhood, so I was thinking I might just trap one of the little ones to make this. Just kidding.

My mom gets her venison -- Hirsch in German -- at her local Aldi, where it's already cut into stew pieces. She said if you buy it that way, cut the larger pieces in half for this. She also said it's possible to make this with wild boar and add mushrooms to the mix.

Serve this with potatoes, potato dumplings, or homemade noodles, as well as red cabbage and salad.

Venison Goulasch (serves 6)

2 pounds venison meat, cut into stew pieces

a little butter

a little sunflower oil

salt and pepper

1 onion, shredded or minced

2 carrots, shredded

1 cup of beef bouillon (enough to cover the meat in a pot)

1 tablespoon B&B Kitchen Bouquet (a favorite ingredient of hers to enhance sauces -- and in my grocery store it's found, mysteriously, by the raisins and other dried fruit)

1 jar of gelee de groseilles or about 12 ounces of red currant jelly

2 bay leaves

2 cups heavy cream

1.) Heat the butter and oil until very hot in a large pot. Put the meat into it, and brown it. Salt and pepper it.

2.) Add the onion and carrot to the mix, and cover with the cup of bouillon. Add the Kitchen Bouquet.

3.) Simmer for about a half an hour. Add about two-thirds of the jelly, then add more if you want. Add more pepper.

4.) Throw in the bay leaves, and keep tasting, adding more Kitchen Bouquet if you like.

5.) You can freeze the dish at this point, then defrost it and continue with the directions. Add the heavy cream and taste for seasoning.