Simple venison and greens

O.K., so this guy keeps taking pictures of his dinner. Why? Well, I guess because I would be interested in what other homesteaders and hunters were eating too. So, this is a simple 30 minute meal. The most complex part is getting the brown rice down right. I think it's just practice and probably depends a lot on the rice you've got. I use 2 1/2 cups of water per cup of rice. A little salt and oil. Simmer covered for 25 minutes. Simmer uncovered for a further 5 minutes. Then turn off the heat but leave the pan on the burner. Good luck.

Simple venison and greens. In this case, Swiss chard. But you could use Collard greens or spinach too. Fry up six strips of bacon in a large pan. Take them out to drain. Transfer half the bacon grease to another pan. Fry your 1/2 inch thick venison steaks in the bacon grease over medium high heat. In the other pan put your whole bunch of washed and spun Swiss chard. A little moisture on the greens is important for the cooking. I cut the thickest end part of the red ribs off of the chard, leaving the ribs that are part of the leaves. It's all edible though if you want to cook it a little longer. Throw your chard into the grease at medium heat and they will quickly wilt. Cook them down a bit and add a few dashes of red wine vinegar. Chop up your bacon and throw that back in with the chard.

By this time you've made your salad, your venison is done, the rice is perfect and you're ready to eat, right? Don't worry, it takes time to get comfortable in the kitchen. Just make your mistakes and learn as you go.

This is a savory, quick, and reasonably healthy meal.

You can't beat bacon and garlic

Quick food? Comfort food? Healthy food? For a quick meal last night I improvised with three of my favorite ingredients. Bacon, garlic, and wild game. The bacon was from a whole hog we bought locally, the garlic was "Chesnok Red" from our garden, and the goose was shot in the pasture behind our house. It was simple and quick. I cut the goose into strips, wrapped it around whole peeled garlic cloves, wrapped that in bacon, and stuck a toothpick through it. Baked in a 350 degree oven until the bacon was done, but the goose was medium rare. I don't know how to tell you to estimate the cooking time, only that you don't want to over-cook wild game. Better to err on the side of too little time as long as the bacon is done.

It was wonderful to pop one of these treats into your mouth. You only needed to eat a couple as the goose meat is so dense it fills you up quickly. Roasted garlic is always a treat, and anything is better wrapped in bacon.

The meal was topped off by a large salad. Balancing our the weight of the bacon and goose.

Wild goose fried rice

The other night we had wild goose fried rice. Sorry no picture. We gobbled it all up before I thought to take a photograph. Goose is an extremely low fat, low cholesterol meat to use in any dish. You can make this with one breast, feeds two plus leftovers, or two legs.

The key to fried rice is to cook the rice the night before and refrigerate it over-night. We made brown rice, but you can use white if you'd like.

1 cup (before cooking) long grain brown rice, cook according to instructions

2 eggs scrambled separately and set aside
1 goose breast chopped to 1/2 inch cubes and fried over high heat. A dash of Cayanne and 2 dashes of cumin. Set aside.

4 cloves garlic, chopped
1 small onion, chopped
2 carrots, chopped
2 small broccoli florets, chopped
1 cup frozen peas
1 Thai pepper, chopped (or other hot pepper)
2 Tbsp. Thai fish sauce-if you can't get it that's fine too.

Put 3 tablespoons of peanut oil and 1 tablespoon of toasted sesame oil in your wok. Heat to high and throw in your garlic, onions, Thai pepper, and carrots. Cook until garlic begins to turn golden. Add your broccoli and 2 tablespoons of Thai fish sauce. When the broccoli softens to your liking add your frozen peas, pre-cooked goose, and scrambled eggs. When the wok is again hot, add the rice. You may need to add more oil. Add it and get it hot before you add the rice. You can add soy sauce too, but the fish sauce is salty already. Fry hot until the rice is hot through.

Have fun, add any veggies you like. Everything we used except the broccoli came from our garden. Either from the root cellar or the freezer. Enjoy.

Clay Pot Cooking

Have you experienced clay pot cooking? It is a must. The food is cooked in a clay pot that is soaked in water and then baked in a fast oven. All manner of foods can be cooked in this way from breads and deserts to chicken and seafood. Follow the directions carefully for your clay pot and always start with a cold oven. Last night we made clay pot chicken. The recipe is adapted from the recipe "beggar's chicken" in the book "The Complete Guide to Claypot Cooking" by Bridget Jones.

Take 8 "bone-in" chicken thighs and score them across the top. Marinate in:
8 Tbs. soy sauce
1/4-1/2 cup red wine
2 Tbs. toasted sesame oil
heaping 1/2 tsp. five spice powder
1/2 tsp. white pepper
4 cloves finely chopped garlic
2 tsp. grated ginger root

cover chicken with marinade and let stand for at least 5 hours.
Soak clay pot for 15 minutes in cold water.
put the chicken and marinade in the clay pot and cover with lid.
Put the covered clay pot in a cold oven and set for 475 degrees
Cook 35 minutes, then remove lid and cook for an additional 10 to 15 minutes.

We serve with rice or pasta and a green salad. It is a heavenly use of inexpensive cuts of chicken. We buy the bulk "family-pack" of thighs for almost nothing.

We will be raising and butchering at least 25 "meat" birds next spring. We plan on getting the "freedom-ranger" variety available from J.M. Hatchery or a similar free range meat variety.

The commercial Cornish Cross meat birds don't appeal to us as a meat flock bird, as they gain weight so quickly that they are not able to wander around and act like chickens.

Merry Christmas!

A beautiful cold, crisp, sunny, winter day here on the homestead. We went goose hunting together this morning. Colleen brought her knitting. Kind of made for a funny image. Later we had a meeting about a business plan and vision for the farm. We discussed how to make the farmer's market our "summer jobs" when the teaching year is over. We came up with a list of what we wanted to grow and sell. Both vegetables and value added products. We narrowed down the list of names for the farm to just a couple.

Then we had a beautiful roast duck for Christmas dinner.


Duck a l'orange. First, I stuffed the duck with a combination of apples, onions, and celery. Put it in a roasting pan covered with cheesecloth dipped in lard. And baked covered at 350 for about 45 minutes.

While it was baking, I put on some garden Acorn squash and made the sauce. To make the sauce I combined,

2 tbsp. melted butter with,
2 tbsp. flour

turned off heat and added,
zest of one orange
2 tsp. sugar
1/8 tsp. of mustard powder
3/4 tsp. of salt

stirred and added
2/3 cup orange juice
1/3 cup chicken broth

heated on medium heat until thickened, then stirred in
1/4 cup peach jam. (it was supposed to be orange marmalade, but we were out of it)

Stirred until jam melted, turned off heat, and covered.

After the bird had been in the oven for 45 minutes, I took off the cheesecloth and the cover on the roaster. Basted every ten minutes with the sauce. Cooked for another 20 minutes or so. Until bird was tender.

It was marvelously tender for a wild duck. Not "gamey" tasting at all.



Served with garden squash from our root cellar, and a salad.

Merry Christmas to all. Hope you had as lovely a day as we did.

Quince jam and smoked steelhead

Colleen canned 30+ jars of quince jam tonight. I'm quite sure we don't need that many, but they will make unique gifts. It tastes really good. what, you might ask, is a quince? It is in the rose family and is related to apples. They are more well known in Spain and marmalade was originally made from quince.

While Colleen was slaving away in the kitchen, I was off steelhead fishing with a friend. Actually, we enjoy canning, so I wouldn't really call it slaving away. There was a lot of ice in the river and it was hard to find access that didn't involve scrambling across ice floes. Not wanting to get dunked in the frigid water, we played it safe and did the best we could. I didn't catch any fish, but my friend did. As he had to leave town, he gave me the fish to smoke. It put it in the rub tonight, and it will go into the smoker tomorrow. I use a rub of:

1 cup kosher salt
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
Tbsp. black pepper

Lay the fillet skin side down in 1/3 of the rub. Pour a 1/3 of the rub on the flesh side, which is now facing up. Lay the second fillet flesh side down on that. And sprinkle the rest of the rub on that. The press with weight in the fridge for 24 hours. rinse. Pat dry. Let air dry for 1-3 hours. Then into the smoker at 150 degrees and apply smoke. (Thanks to Alton Brown for the recipe)

I'll let you know how it turns out.

Kapusta!

Kapusta! A holiday tradition in my family. Kapusta is simply the Polish word for cabbage. There are as many Polish recipes for cabbage as there are families from Poland. I grew up with my great aunt making this recipe every Thanksgiving. It was my favorite of all the Thanksgiving treats. I now make it every Thanksgiving and Christmas dinner. It is, like many good things in life, quite simple.

1/2 pound bacon
Large Polish Sausage
1 head cabbage
1 quart jar of sauerkraut
vinegar
sugar
salt

Fry up your bacon and drain. Set bacon aside. Take your cabbage and chop it into 1/4 inch strips. Pile the cabbage into a big stainless steel pot with a cup of water and cook down at medium heat. When the cabbage has softened, add a splash of vinegar and a little sugar. Stir in the jar of sauerkraut. Chop your sausage into 1/4 inch slices and throw in the pot. Chop the bacon and toss that in too. Cook on medium heat for another 15 minutes. Enjoy hot!

root cellar rabbit stew

We made a wonderful stew for dinner tonight in the crockpot.
1 onion
4 carrots
6 small baby red potatoes
2 ribs celery
2 cloves garlic
basil
crushed bay leaf
thyme
salt
pepper
1 rabbit, boned out, chopped and browned
Chicken broth

Cook all day in the crock pot on low.

All of the vegetables came from our root cellar except for the celery. The rabbit came from our land. A wonderful hot meal to come home to on a cold winter evening. Enjoyed it with some leftover stuffing from Thanksgiving dinner.

Turkey tip

I made a beautiful 21 pound turkey the other day for a gathering of friends. I got a great tip from my 1st edition "Joy of Cooking." Instead of covering the turkey with tin foil, melt animal fat (lard, bacon grease) and dip cheese cloth in it. Cover the turkey with the cheese cloth and baste every half hour with pan juices or more fat as needed. Bake in a slow oven at 300 degrees. It was amazing. Happy Holidays.

Alder - Pit Salmon

Here is a great way to cook salmon and steelhead. It seems like more of a summer recipe, but since the steelhead and salmon are running right now it came to mind. Use a whole side of Salmon fillet.

Use the marinade of your choice or:
1 part olive oil
1 part soy sauce
fresh garlic, pressed
spices to taste - thyme, rosemary, oregano, ...

Dig a pit in the size of a large weber grill.
Salmon can be marinated or not.
Build a fire in the bottom and let it burn down to coals.
Gather a big bushel of green alder leaves.
Wrap the marinated salmon in tinfoil.
Prick some holes in the tinfoil with a fork
When coals have burned down, place half of the green alder leaves in the pit
Put the wrapped salmon side in
Put the other half of the alder leaves on top.
Let smolder for 1/2 an hour.
Carefully dig out and serve.

Moist and smoky at the same time.

Goose Pot Pie Recipe

This is a great recipe for pot pie. We use Canada goose, but you could try it with duck, venison, wild turkey, pheasant, or even chicken.

Ingredients:
1 goose breast-about 1.5 lbs-diced into 1/4" cubes and browned
2 T. butter
1/2 c. water
1c. thin sliced carrot
1 medium potato, 1/4" cubes
1/2 c. celery
1/2 c. chopped onion
1/2 c. frozen peas
2/3 can of condensed cream of mushroom soup. Do not add the liquid.

Use your favorite double pie crust recipe. I use a 1948 1st edition "Joy of Cooking". For the wash on the crust I use 1 whole egg+a splash of cream or 1/2 and 1/2.

Heat over to 375, Prepare Crust, put crust dough in fridge under plastic wrap while you are chopping vegetables.

Melt 2 T. butter in 1/2 c. water in sauce pan over medium heat.
add carrot, cook covered for 5 minutes
add potato, cook 5 minutes longer, stir as needed
add celery, onion, and peas, cook 3 minutes longer
Combine browned goose cubes and condensed cream of mushroom soup.

Roll pie crust and place into quality 9 inch pie tin. Add filling. roll and place top crust. cut vent slits. brush with egg and cream wash.

Bake 35 minutes or until crust is golden brown.

Enjoy.