Rack of Venison with a Caramelized Shallot Blackberry Sauce
By Bobbie Jo Wasilko
He Hunts She Cooks

A perfect pairing:  A roasted venison rack and fresh blackberries!
 
Caramelized Shallots

• 10 Shallots (peeled and sliced)
• 3 Whole cloves garlic (peeled)
• 3 Tbs. Butter
• 2 Tbs. Sugar
• ½ Cup beef or venison stock
• 3 Sprigs of fresh thyme

 
Blackberry Reduction

• 1 Cup Cabernet Sauvignon wine
• 1/2 Cup Port wine
• 1 1/2 Cups beef or venison stock
• 1 Tbs. Allspice berries
• 1 Tbs. Black peppercorns
• 1/2 Tbs. Juniper berries
• 4 Sprigs fresh thyme

 
Venison Rack

• 1 Eight rib rack of venison (substitute antelope, elk, boar)
• Grape Seed Oil
• Kosher salt and fresh ground pepper

 
Additional Items

• 2 Pints of fresh blackberries
• 2 Tbs. butter
• 1 Tbs. Sugar

 
Directions
Generously salt (fresh or defrosted) rack of venison with Kosher or Sea Salt 24 hours ahead and wrap in cling wrap and place in the fridge overnight.  Salting the meat 24 hours ahead really brings out the flavor, and makes it juicy!

For the Caramelized Shallots
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.  In an oven safe sauté pan, add butter, shallots and garlic and sauté for 2 minutes over medium high heat.  Add sugar and coat shallots, then add fresh thyme and stock.  Place the pan in the oven and roast shallots for 45 minutes.  Remove and set aside.
 
For the Blackberry Reduction
In a small pot, add both wines, and stock.  Lightly crush allspice, peppercorns, and juniper berries to release their flavor, and then add to the pot, along with the fresh thyme, and bay leaf. Reduce by half over medium heat (this could take about 1 hour).  Once the reduction is reduced by half, pour it into the pan with the shallots and heat the mixture on medium high heat, until it becomes syrupy about 7 minutes.  Then place a small strainer over a clean pot, and pour the shallots/liquid over the strainer, and discard the shallots, herbs, and peppercorns ( they have done their job).  Reserve the sauce in the fridge overnight, if desired.
 
For the Venison Rack
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.  Remove the rack from the fridge an hour before cooking to bring to room temperature.  Re-season the meat with a bit more salt and fresh cracked pepper.  In an oven safe pan (cast iron), heat 4 tablespoons grape seed oil over medium high heat.  Sear the meat on both sides then place in the oven and roast, until desired doneness.  I recommend cooking no further than medium rare (about 25 minutes).
 
To Finish
While the roast is cooking, place the reserved sauce back to the stove and re-heat.  In a sauté pan, heat 2 Tbs. butter, and add blackberries and sauté for 2 minutes.  Add sugar and sauté 1 minute.  Add the berries to the sauce.  Carve the venison into servings and pour blackberry sauce over top. 

Notes
*To save time, I suggest making the caramelized shallots/reduction 1-2 days ahead, and sauté blackberries just before serving

The 2019 Farmers and Hunters Feeding the Hungry Benefit Auction was a tremendous success! A total of 25 items were sold during April and May raising a combined total of just over $12,000 in support of our mission to help hunters provide nutritious meat to the hungry.

This was our most successful online auction to date thanks to the many people who placed bids and the generous support of our auction sponsors who are listed below. A complete list of the items that were sold can be found at www.fhfh.org/auction.

FHFH would like to extend a heartfelt “thank you” to the following supporters who provided donated and discounted merchandise for this year’s National Auction including bows, crossbows, firearms, hunting blinds, accessories and more.

• CVA / BPI Outdoors
• Excalibur Crossbow
• Henry Repeating Arms
• Hoyt Archery
• Lyman Products
• Mathews Archery
• Mission Crossbows
• National Rifle Association (NRA)
• Quality Deer Management Association (QDMA)
• Redneck Blinds
• TenPoint Crossbows

 
Companies and organizations interested in supporting our mission can learn more at www.fhfh.org/partnering-sponsors.
 
People across America who struggle with food insecurity are often desperate for meat and protein items. FHFH gives nutritious meat to feeding programs and ministries that help those in need by paying local butcher shops to process deer and livestock that are donated by farmers and hunters. The organization welcomes new supporters and volunteers to join the cause.  To learn more visit www.fhfh.org, call toll-free 866-438-3434, or email staff@fhfh.org.

Our Anne Arundel County Chapter (MD-08) has received a donation of $1,359.52 from the Annual Lothian Ruritan Club Spaghetti Dinner. The dinner was held Saturday, March 2nd at the Mt. Zion United Methodist Church in Lothian, MD. 
  
This donation will enable us to provide meat for over 2,500 meals to the hungry of Anne Arundel County this year. 

Thank you to Lothian Ruritan Club for your continued support of our mission of feeding the hungry and to everyone who helped with and attended the spaghetti dinner!

For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, ...."  Matthew 25:35   ​

The Sam's Club in Ontario, Ohio and the Possum Run Walmart, Ohio awarded funding to Black Fork FHFH (OH-43). 

The Possum Run Walmart donated $1,000 and Sam's Club donated $250. The funding will help pay the processing fee for donated deer to feed the hungry in these communities.  

Thank you Walmart Foundation, the Possum Run Walmart and Sam's Club in Ontario for supporting our mission and providing food for people in your community who are hungry.

The Great Lisbon Farmers Feeding the Hungry Christmas Horse Parade distributed donations from the 2018 Parade during the Howard County Farm Bureau Legislative Dinner. Farmers and Hunters Feeding the Hungry was given $2,500 which will help get more deer processed for local food banks and feeding ministries in Central Maryland this year. 

We appreciate the donation to our ministry and all the hard work that went into this parade.

Helping Those in Need Since 1997

Do you remember when McDonald's listed how many total hamburgers they had served at the bottom of their signs? The numbers were in the millions. Then the billions. Then just "billions and billions." Eventually that line disappeared from the signs. I guess we got the message - they've sold a LOT of hamburgers!

​In the early years of our ministry, a group of volunteers helped serve the evening meal at a local church soup kitchen. As the meal concluded a young girl proclaimed that the spaghetti with venison meat sauce had tasted even better than her meal at McDonald's the night before. One of the volunteers asked the cook how this family could afford to eat out one night then end up at a soup kitchen the next. She replied, "Oh I know that family. They eat from the dumpster behind the restaurant."

Thanks to the Lord's provision through generous supporters and friends like you, FHFH has been able to help hunters feed a lot more children and families. Since 1997 we have provided over 20 million servings of nutritious meat from donated deer and livestock to the hungry of the local communities we serve!

Now we need to keep going. Food banks list meat among their top needs. And as you know, the hunters who donate their deer know where to find it! We just need to continue raising enough money to pay our participating local butcher shops to process the meat for the food banks and ministries so they can help more families like the one mentioned in my story above.

On behalf of FHFH and all those in our country suffering from hunger, we THANK YOU for your continued interest and support of our mission. Together let's work to add the next "million served" to our sign this year!

Sincerely,

  



​
Josh Wilson
Executive Director

​​Sincerely,

  


​
Josh Wilson
Executive Director
Farmers & Hunters Feeding the Hungry