Braised Venison Tongue

• 1-2, lamb or calf’s tongues
• 1 quart beef or venison stock
• 6-10 juniper berries
• 1 dried chile, broken in half
• 2-3 bay leaves
• 3 tablespoons prepared horseradish, or a 4-inch piece of horseradish grated into a bowl with 1 tablespoon vinegar, 1 teaspoon water and a large pinch of salt.
• 1/2 cup sour cream
• 2 tablespoons Dijon or brown mustard
• 2 tablespoons chopped chives
• Salt
• Olive oil
• Cracker

1. Put the broth, juniper, bay, chile and the tongue into a pot and simmer gently for 2 hours.
2. Meanwhile, make the horseradish sauce. Mix the horseradish, mustard, sour cream and chives together well. Taste for salt and add some if needed. If you want it more horseradish-y, add more. Set aside in the fridge until the tongue is ready.
3. After about 2 hours, take the tongue out and let it cool a few minutes. Peel the skin off with your fingers or a paring knife and put the tongue back into the stock. Simmer for another hour, or until the tongue is easily pierced with the point of a knife.
4. Take the tongue out and slice it thin. While it is still warm, coat the slices with olive oil and set aside to cool.
5. When it’s cool, spoon a dab of the horseradish sauce on a cracker and top with a slice ot tongue. Serve cool or at room temperature

Wild Game Dirty Rice

• 1 1/2 cups long-grain rice
• 1 cup duck, pheasant or chicken broth
• 1 1/2 cups water
• Salt
• 3 tablespoons duck fat, butter or lard
• 1/2 to 1 cup livers from pheasant, duck, goose or chicken
• 1/2 to 1 pound ground gizzards or other ground meat
• 2-3 jalapenos or 1 green bell pepper
• 1/2 onion, chopped
• 2 celery stalks
• 2 green onions
• 1-2 teaspoons Cajun seasoning

1. Cook the rice. Rinse the rice well and put in a pot with the duck broth and water, plus a little salt. Cook until done. Move the cooked rice to a sheet pan and lay it out to cool.
2. If you are using gizzards, clean them of grit and that silver membrane and either chop fine or grind in a meat grinder. A meat grinder is better, but not everyone has one. Alternately, you can use any ground meat.
3. While the rice is cooling, heat the duck fat over medium heat and, when it is hot, add the ground gizzards, jalapeno peppers, onion and celery and brown well. Take your time.
4. Meanwhile, chop the livers very fine. It’ll almost be a puree.
5. About halfway through the browning process, add the chopped liver and mix well. Let this cook for a minute or two. Sprinkle some salt over everything.
6. If the pan gets sticky, add a little water or duck broth to loosen.
7. Add the rice and a little water to the pan and stir to combine. Sprinkle in the Cajun seasoning. Turn the heat up to high and stir-fry this for 2 minutes, or until the rice is well coated and beginning to brown.
8. Add the green onion, toss to combine and serve hot.

Grilled Kudu Heart with Peppers

This recipe can be done with any large heart. You don’t have to marinate the meat, but it adds a lot of flavor, and helps keep it moist on the grill.

A tip on the peppers and onions: Cut them in large pieces so they don’t fall through your grill grates. For the onions, make sure you keep the stem end attached. And cook the skin side of the peppers first — if you get any parts that blacken, the skin peels right off. You actually want significant blackening here, so keep your grill ragingly hot.

Serves 2-6, depending on the heart.

Prep Time: 30 minutes, plus up to a day for marinating

Cook Time: 15 minutes

•  1 Kudu hearts,
• 4 tablespoons olive oil, divided
• 1 tablespoon sherry or red wine vinegar
• 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon dried oregano
• 1 teaspoon dried thyme
• 1 teaspoon ground black pepper
• 3-4 colored bell peppers, cut into 2-3 pieces each
• 1 large onion, cut into large wedges

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1. Trim the heart. In a large bowl, mix 2 tablespoons of olive oil with the vinegar, Worcestershire sauce, salt, oregano, thyme and black pepper. Massage the marinade into the meat, put everything into a container that can just about hold everything and marinate for as little as 30 minutes, or as much as 2 days.
2. When you are ready to cook, get your grill hot. Coat the peppers and onion in the rest of the olive oil and salt well.
3. Grill everything on high heat. Put the hearts and veggies on the grill — skin side down for the peppers — and leave them alone with the grill cover open for 8 minutes. Flip everything and grill, uncovered, for 5 more minutes.
4. Check the peppers and onions, and when they are nicely cooked with a little char, remove and put in foil to steam. Remove any blackened skin from the peppers.
5. If the hearts are not cooked through yet, cover the grill and cook for 2-5 more minutes. If you are using a thermometer, you want to get the meat off the grill when it is 135 degrees in the center.  Tent the hearts loosely with foil and let rest for 5-10 minutes. Sprinkle with black pepper and good sea salt at the table.