Winter, also known as “clean out the freezer” season for foragers. If you’re a chef, have game in the freezer, or buy large quantities of meat from a local producer, you’ll experience with the scenario of having a little of this, and a little of that. last week, what I had, was one lone Canadian…
Four-Legged
Venison Pot Roast with Chanterelle Stuffing
I was a good mushroom hunter last year, and made plenty of chanterelle duxelles for the Winter, both to save freezer space and as I love having a seasoned concentrate around. There’s lots talk about making duxelles, but definitely not as much illustating the actual uses of the finished product. With that in mind, I…
Crock Pot Stock and Bone Broth
Guess what? You can make higher quality stock than the majority of professional chefs in the restaurant industry at home using a crock pot. Story goes last year I read a book about the science of home cooking from J Kenji Lopez-Alt, the man behind the intensive blog at Serious Eats. The book won the…
Meat Garum
Meat garum (just think soy sauce made from meat) was the first thing I planned to make after flipping through copy of the Noma Guide to Fermentation, by Rene Redzepi, a book I know plenty of my friends have been experimenting with. It is some seriously mind bending, technical restaurant ideas and experiments, and not for…
Venison Breakfast Sausage with Wild Blueberries
Looking in the freezer I had sausage on my mind. Seeing a couple bags of wild blueberries I remembered a moment of fear I had one day picking berries in a remote spot, and seeing a picture one of my friends posted about bears being seen harvesting berries in the area I was in. I…
Lamb Sweetbreads with Fermented Nasturtium Capers
I’ve had a jar of fermented nasturtium capers burning a hole in my fridge from the 2018 growing season for a while, waiting for the perfect partner. This past week, the partner showed up in some fresh lamb sweetbreads. Sweetbreads can be a hard sell, and I get it, but in the scheme of organ…
Venison Neck Roast with Morels
I was given a young buck this year, my first to butcher myself, and I’ve been eyeing the neck ever since I vacuum-sealed it and put it in the freezer. Neck, in my (and many chef’s) opinions, can be one of the most tender, flavorful cuts on any larger-sized creature. That being said, I get…
The Mangalitsa Bacon
My girlfriend loves to eat great food, and is also a health and fitness guru. Two years ago, while on a water fast out west, I got a message from her about needing to call a butcher. She told me that she’d been craving food (on a water fast, go figure) and decided to buy…
Wild Fennel Seed Salami
Salami, cured meat with a couple crackers, a slice of cheese and a cold drink, there’s just about nothing I’d rather snack on while making dinner. With the dizzying variety of high quality salami brands available, it’s easy to go to the store, buy some and call it a day, and most of the time…
Venison Tenderloins Crusted with Dried Morels
Here’s a quick, easy recipe I whipped up the other day to celebrate butchering my first deer: tenderloins crusted in dried morels. I’m definitely not the first to think of it, but it’s worth sharing. It was great to finally be able to cook some bambi tenderloins all to myself as a reward for putting…
Woodchuck Salad with Hickory Nut Oil and Squash
When I was in Costa Rica I ordered a tuna salad at a little restaurant and throwing the cautionary tales of eating only cooked food to the wind (which I later paid for after drinking a couple drinks with ice) in order to have as big a variety of local food as possible. The salad…
Lamb Broth With Boletus Pallidus and Rice
Whole animal butchery is something I’ve wanted to be more skilled at for a number of years. Sure, I’ve purchase thousands of pounds of ruminant meat and try to process whole fowl whenever I can, but whole lamb, pigs, and cows can be big, costly and intimidating. Luckily my girlfriend has a farm where all…
Limousin Flank Steak with Vietnamese Coriander and Lobster Mushroom Hash
After I found the local vendors at the St. Paul Farmer’s Market selling Vietnamese coriander (Persicaria odorata) and figured out what it was, I had to make a dish with it. After a day or two of playing around with the herb, the first way I served it was the simplest I could think of:…