When spring arrives, greens are on my mind, and there are tons for cooking: nettles, waterleaf, violets, wood nettles, but sometimes I want some raw. Two of the best wild greens for eating raw are sochan and watercress, the watercress being harvested above the water to avoid liver fluke, of course, especially if you live…
Venison
Wild Greens with Venison Bacon
At the end of Winter, there is nothing I crave more than fresh greens. Sure, there’s kale at the store, and spinach, cabbage, and everything else. But they’re not the same as the wild plants. 2018 I was on my wild green-picking grizzly, as we say, and I stocked the freezer with at least 30-40…
Maple Sugar Venison Bacon
Venison bacon is a thing, a smoky, delicious thing. But I don’t see many people making it. Do a google search for venison or deer bacon and what you’ll find is definitely not bacon, they’re basically recipes for a sort of spiced meat loaf made with pork. Calling something like that bacon, to me, is…
Smoked Venison Ribs with Spicy Wild Plum Glaze
If you’re a hunter, and you throw away the ribs, all I have to say is you’re missing out, and you might consider taking them sometime, because they’re a helluva meal. As a chef, I never had time to hunt. Now, freelancing, consulting, and doing my own thing, I do have more time, and although…
Smoked Venison Shanks Glazed with Birch Syrup
I don’t know if there’s anything more satistyingly primal than a whole venison shank. I got to have a couple of them this year, braised and glazed with wine, or reduced grape juice, like I did with goose confit. Really though, my favorite way to have them is glazed with their braising juices reduced into…
Venison Rib Chops with a Black Trumpet Crust
The best part of butchering your own animals is the creativity, giving you the ability to make all sorts of things, and one of the grand daddy’s of them all is a rack of venison. If you want to know how to cut a rack, just search you tube, there’s lots of info out there….
Jaegerschnitzel with Leccinum Gravy and Acorn Spaetzle
The snow is quickly melting, and I’ve been working hard to use up my stores of 2018 preserves. I have a lot of mushrooms and game (mostly venison), but, it was a great year for acorns too-I discovered a new white oak that gave the best acorns I’ve had yet. Thinking of how I could…
Hunter’s Borcht with River Grape and Wild Caraway
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…
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…
Cabbage with Venison Bacon and Wild Caraway
Here’s one of the greatest, trusty winter side dishes of all time, along with aquavit beets with sour cream and potato Dauphinoise. Back when I was dreaming up dual 3-course tasting menus, 4 a la carte entrees, and 4 individual sides, new, every day for the Heartland menu in St. Paul, cabbage with bacon and…
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…
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…
Corned Venison Heart
At Thanksgiving this year, I was wandering around my girlfriend’s family farm in Wisconsin. I went outside to check on someone when I spotted something sitting on the grill outside (it’s cold enough at thanksgiving to refrigerate things outdoors, as most people who’ve brined a turkey in the Midwest know). Sitting on the grill was…