Venison Steaks and Polenta Cakes

This summer, as with any break, I've done a whole bunch of cooking with Stefan, one of my best friends since elementary school. He's got his eye on the Culinary and I wish him the best of luck. Sometimes I wish I had the guts to drop college and go to the Culinary. It's not conventional, but it is a passion we both share; he chose to follow it.

His neighbor hunts deer, giving us a constant supply of venison. Yes, I do like eating Bambi, especially if he's on the grill. Haven't cooked Thumper yet, but I bet I can find him at Arthur Ave in the Bronx (next post) Unfortunately I forgot the camera so there are no pictures of this one.

We grilled the venison steaks very simply. The meat is incredibly lean and needs a good high flame to get it seared while leaving it rare or medium rare. Any point beyond that and its going to get tough. Stefan took care of the venison, while I worked on the polenta and broccoli rabe, our vegetable that isn't unconventional enough to mention further.

I wanted to emulate a grilled polenta that I had in Italy, soft on the inside, nicely crisped and charred on the outside. In Florence, it was topped with fresh porcini sauteed with butter and herbs. Tonight we opted for some fresh mozzarella from the deli Stefan works in. It's just as good as in the Bronx at Casa di Mozzarella, a place I contend to be the America mozzarella champion. Ideally, we would have had the time to make our own polenta, cool it down in a tray, then cut it to squares for the grill. We didn't have that kind of time so I bought a polenta log (creepy) in the store. That way we could just slice and grill. A few things went wrong here.
1. Polenta log. A mixture of cornmeal and water, maybe some salt, should not be shelf-stable, but thats how its sold. There was some sort of preservative that was definitely tasteable. The polenta was a bit acidic.
2. Stefan's grill crapped out after the venison was done. I couldn't get enough heat for crispy outside, soft inside. Instead the polenta was just warm.
Despite those setbacks, I warmed it on the grill and topped it with a slice of fresh mozzarella and a piece of fresh basil. These things will make everything taste good. The mozzarella still melted nicely and the polenta was more than willing to soak up the cream the melting mozzarella released.

I doubt I will have time before my trip to Japan to use real polenta on a real grill but its something I can keep in mind for next summer.