Risotto alla "Bambi"

Last week, I made a shrimp risotto and utterly failed to take a decent photo of it. This week, I made some venison risotto. It was supposed to be my redemption photo shoot. Until the camera battery died. Ugh. This is as good as it's gonna get, I'm afraid:

Anyways, this is a "leftovers" meal. My brother shot the deer, and the tenderloin has been hanging out in my parents' freezer since last hunting season. When I was home last weekend for a dear friend's wedding, my dad cooked it for Sunday dinner. Which, if you're from the South, you know is just a big lunch on Sunday, but we call it dinner.

The original dish Dad cooked is a venison tenderloin, cut into 2-inch chunks, then wrapped with half a piece of bacon, and held together with a toothpick or two. It goes on the grill, turning a couple of times so the bacon gets crispy, until the venison is medium or medium-rare. The fat from the bacon helps keep the lean venison moist, and the whole thing is so delicious it'll make you swoon.

For the risotto, I made rice the same way I did last week, only I took two leftover venison-bacon pieces, removed the bacon and chopped it up into little bits, and sliced the bacon. The bacon got tossed into a frying pan to crisp it back up, and the venison got reheated, gently, right before the rice was ready.

And, like last week, there was leftover rice. But instead of rice balls, this week I chopped up some fontina cheese, mixed it into the rice with some beaten egg and gluten-free bread crumbs, then made it into a hamburger-sized patty. I dredged each patty in egg, then in gluten-free breadcrumbs. Deep fried for 2-3 minutes on each side, these were a great treat!