Edibletcetera – Fast & Fabulous Food

It’s a good job I have friends who hunt because buying elk meat can be prohibitively expensive.

So with many thanks to my hunting friends, I have a generous supply of elk steak and burger meat in my freezer. Deliciously lean and not overly game-y tasting, it makes an excellent chili.

There are more chili recipes in existence than days of the year and some can be complicated. I prefer to keep things simple, using really good organic ingredients when possible.

Serving chili in a roasted acorn squash is always a great idea; first of all there’s less washing up and secondly, you get to eat the bowl which happens to be delicious. Of course you can just serve it in regular bowls over rice if you prefer and as for the topping, I don’t particularly like shredded American cheese but a good dollop of sour cream, topped with an avocado, cilantro, lime, chili and red onion salsa, fits the bill perfectly.

Use salsa from a jar if you’re pushed for time.

Elk Chili with Roasted Acorn Squash

ELK CHILI

(serves 4-6)

Ingredients:

1 1/4lb (half a kilo approx.) of ground elk meat or lean beef

2 rashers of nitrate-free organic bacon (streaky)

I medium onion, finely chopped

2 fat cloves of garlic, minced

1 tablespoon of fresh oregano

1 teaspoon of ground dry-roasted cumin seeds

1 heaped tablespoon of tomato paste/puree

Two 14.5 oz (411g) cans of chopped tomatoes

One 14.5 oz (411g) can of chili beans

Chipotle hot sauce to taste

Sea salt & freshly ground black pepper

Optional – 2 or three acorn squash of equal size

Action:

In a deep sauté pan with a lid, cook the bacon until it’s crispy and all the fat has been released. Remove the bacon and add the minced onion and garlic to the bacon fat and continue to cook until the onion is soft. Add the ground elk meat and stir it about until browned then add everything else, starting with small amounts of hot sauce until you have the desired kick you want. Unless you fed it to your dog, you could crumble the cooked bacon and add that too.

Stir everything together thoroughly, bring it to a boil then reduce to a simmer and put the lid on. Let it cook for 1-2 hours, stirring occasionally adding a little water if it looks like it’s drying out.

Meanwhile roast the acorn squash. Preheat the oven to 350F and cut each squash in half around the middle. Trim both ends a little so that they sit upright and scrape out the seeds. Brush the flesh with a little olive oil and season with sea salt and freshly ground black pepper.

Place cut side down on a baking tray and bake for about 40 minutes or until the flesh is soft.

To serve, divide the chili among the acorn squash ‘bowls’ and top with your favorite chili ‘fixins’.

Pork with apple. A classic, centuries-old combination.

Where I live there’s a sad absence of roast pork the way I like it; leg or shoulder of pork enrobed with a crisp, light, mouthwateringly fragrant crackling that begs to be served with a spiced apple sauce – something we traditionally served on Boxing Day (December 26th), many years ago, back home.

Despite the absence of crackling, this is pretty much the next best thing and appeases my nostalgic longings by perfectly capturing all those flavors in a simple braised dish. The pork is wonderfully moist and tender and the apple really shines through.

I recommend serving it with mounds of fluffy mashed potato and something green on the side – I’d go for Brussels sprouts (perhaps leaving out the bacon in this instance).

It tastes even better the next day.

Pork Braised in Cider with Apples & Shallots

CIDER-BRAISED PORK with APPLE & SHALLOTS

(Serves 6)

Ingredients:

1 tablespoon of olive oil

8-10 shallots of equal size, peeled

7 oz (200g) of pancetta, chopped into about 1 inch (2-3cm) pieces

3 cloves of garlic, finely chopped

1.5 lbs (0.70 kilo) of pork sirloin or shoulder, cut into 2 inch (5cm) chunks

2 tablespoons of apple cider vinegar

2 tablespoons of all-purpose (plain) flour

9 fl oz (250ml) of hard cider (the alcoholic variety)

1 large apple such as Braeburn or Cox, left unpeeled, cored and cut into eight

1 tablespoon of juniper berries, lightly crushed

2 bay leaves

4 -5 fresh sage leaves, chopped

a sprig of fresh thyme

21 fl oz (600ml) of chicken or vegetable stock

Action:

Heat the olive oil in a wide, deep sauté pan with a lid and brown the whole shallots, turning them around. You want them to have little brown patches all over.

With a slotted spoon, transfer them to a large bowl. Now cook the pancetta until it’s crispy and brown and has released its fat. Add the garlic and continue to cook for a couple of minutes then transfer all of that with a slotted spoon to the same bowl, leaving the pancetta fat behind.

In a separate bowl, season the flour with sea salt and freshly ground black pepper then toss the cubed meat to coat thoroughly with flour.

Brown the chunks of pork on all sides in the pancetta fat then pour in the cider, giving it all a good stir. Let the cider simmer away until it’s reduced by about a half then add the shallots, pancetta and all the remaining ingredients – stir thoroughly and bring everything to a boil.

Put the lid on and reduce the heat to a simmer and allow it to cook for a couple of hours or until the meat is really tender.

There’s no easy way to present this. I do my best to share recipes that will appeal to the whole gamut of peoples’ food preferences but I also realize that rabbit will only appeal to certain types of people such as hunters, squirrel-eating Southerners and carnivorous Europeans.

So I’m  offering an apology to anyone who would rather poke their eye out with a fork than eat rabbit. Just remember that the people referred to above  might feel the same way if served with tofu mousse.

As an aside, I was once presented with the challenge of getting someone to eat this dish and was told “Never in a million years will you get him to eat rabbit!” – so I creatively referred to it as ‘wild hare’. For some reason that worked and the aforementioned aversionist polished off two servings.

Moving on, this is a really delicious small game dish and I still use the original hand-typed, marinade-splattered recipe that was given to me 40 years ago. In this case it doesn’t technically count as game, because the oven-ready rabbit  I cooked here was farmed.

There are numerous versions of ‘Lapin aux Pruneaux’ – that’s French – and this has to be one of the simplest which appeals to my lazy chef’s heart.

I used a slow cooker but I’ve also made it many times in a heavy casserole (dutch oven) with a lid.

If you’re working with whole rather than sectioned rabbit, you’ll need a pair of poultry shears. It’s not too different from cutting up a chicken but rabbit is an unfamiliar shape, so try and keep the portions about the same size. You also need to start 24 hrs ahead to allow the rabbit to marinate.

Be prepared to impress and be impressed.

‘Lapin aux Pruneaux’

 RABBIT BRAISED IN RED WINE WITH PRUNES (Lapin aux Pruneaux)

(Serves 4)

Ingredients:

One rabbit (cut into 4-6 portions)

3/4 pint (half a liter approx) of good red wine. I used a fruity Zinfandel

A few whole black peppercorns

A few juniper berries, lightly crushed

A good sprig of fresh thyme

2 bay leaves

1.5 oz (40g) of all purpose / plain flour

2.5 tablespoons of red wine vinegar

12 oz (340g) of ready-to-eat prunes

1 heaped tablespoon of redcurrant or elderflower jelly

2 oz (56 g) of butter

Action:

Put the rabbit portions in a large bowl and add everything else except for the prunes, butter and redcurrant jelly. Cover and chill overnight or up to 36 hrs.

If you aren’t using a slow cooker, preheat the oven to 325F (160C)

Remove the rabbit pieces, reserving the marinade – pat them dry.

Heat the butter in a heavy sauté pan and when it sizzles, add the rabbit pieces and brown them on both sides. With a slotted spoon, transfer them to a slow cooker or heavy casserole dish.

Add the flour to the butter in the sauté pan and stir well, creating a ‘roux’. Cook, stirring for a minute or so then whisk in the marinade (removing the peppercorns and juniper if you prefer) and continue to whisk over a medium low heat, until you have a smooth sauce. Pour this over the rabbit, stir in the prunes and put the lid on.

Turn the slow cooker setting  to ‘high’. Cook for 3 – 4 hours, or until the rabbit is tender.

Otherwise put it in the oven, covered for about 2 hrs, or until the rabbit is tender.

Note: keep some extra wine to hand. If it looks like the liquid  is reducing too much in either method above, just pour in some more. Sometimes these things can be a bit approximate but adding more wine is never a bad thing.

Just before serving, stir in the tablespoon of redcurrant jelly and finish with a sprinkle of chopped flat leaf parsley.

Any leftovers will taste even better the next day – just warm through gently.

I like to serve this with Duxelles mashed potatoes and perhaps some duck fat roasted parsnips.

Here’s a great way of using the Onion Jam that you make in batches and keep in the freezer.

Sausages always make an affordable hearty supper, especially when baked in this way and there’s nothing nicer than a really good pork sausage paired with apple. Onion jam gives is a lovely sticky richness and the potatoes round it all off; perfect for fall or winter.

It’s important to use the very best quality ingredients. Steer clear of heavily processed, mass-produced sausages that are full of preservatives and god-knows-what.   Hand made sausages are best (Whole Foods make their own) – or find some local butcher who makes them using organic free range meat.

Turkey or chicken sausages will also work well and if you can get wild boar, duck, rabbit or another game-y type of sausages, even better!

Pork Sausages Braised With Apples, Thyme & Onion Jam

SAUSAGES BRAISED with APPLES, POTATOES, ONION JAM & THYME

(Serves 4)

1-1/2 lbs (500-600g) of best quality pork sausages

1/2 cup (120ml measure) of onion jam

2 large apples such as Braeburn, cored (not peeled) and sliced into 6 wedges each

2 sprigs of fresh thyme

1 lb (500g) of unpeeled baby potatoes, sliced thickly

A tablespoon of olive oil

3/4 – 1 pint (300-500ml) of organic chicken stock

Freshly ground black pepper & sea salt to taste

Action:

Preheat the oven to 350F (180C)

On the stove-top, heat the oil in a deep sided roasting pan or ovenproof skillet and saute the potato slices until they start to brown.

Take off the heat and stir in the onion marmalade, followed by the apples, thyme, a good grind of black pepper and sea salt to taste. Add the sausages so that they’re all well combined then pour over the chicken stock. You want enough so that it almost covers everything.

Bake for 55-60 minutes until the sausages are fully cooked.

Serve with a green vegetable on the side.