Sorry Bambi But Your Meat Is Just So Good

Its been a long time, too long, since I have last posted. I was going to post about my Thanksgiving Dinner but I figured it was to easy to talk about it. Then I was going to talk about my Christmas Eve dinner that I cooked but I didn't. I also could have blogged about the Christmas Day Dinner but I got lazy. I have cooked some great meals and some not so great meals. I was going to blame it on being busy with work and life, but the truth is I have been too lazy to blog. One of my many New Year's Resolutions is to blog more.

To ring in the New Year, Noel and I went and visited our friends Erik and Sami J on Martha's Vineyard. Two of the best people I have ever met. We had a few great meals, drank good wine and beer, and watched some great fireworks. Erik is the ultimate outdoors man!! One day when he got home he noticed a deer in his backyard. He grabbed his bow and got the doe. How bad ass is that?! I bribed Erik with a few bottles of wine and he sent me home with a few venison steaks and a roast. They had a great cookbook on how to cook venison, and I found a few great recipes, so I couldn't wait to get home and try them out.

Tonight's recipe is Saffroned Venison and Beans from The Complete Venison Cookbook. Sounds easy enough, and I love using Saffron. All you need is a cup Navy Beans (these are called Navy Beans not after their color but because they were a staple in U.S. Navy cooking. I was looking for 20 minutes before reading labels), a  pound of venison cut into cubes, bacon fat (venison is very lean meat and bacon fat helps. Its easy to cook up some bacon for the fat), three tomatoes quartered, small onion sliced thin, can of corn, bell pepper quartered, 1/8 tsp pepper, 1/4 tsp saffron, 1 tsp brown sugar, 1/2 cup dry white wine and two tsp salt.

You need to first cook the beans. This is easy, but takes a long time. First, make sure to rinse the beans. Then put them in a saucepan and add enough water to cover the beans. Bring them to a boil and reduce heat to a simmer for two hours. Add the salt and cook for another hour. As the beans are finishing, take a few strips of bacon over medium/low heat in a skillet. Render the fat off the bacon (this is my favor part...eat the bacon). Brown the venison. Add the tomatoes, onion, salt, pepper, saffron, brown sugar and wine. Let simmer until the meat is tender. Drain the beans and add them with the bell pepper and corn to the venison and cook until the bell pepper is tender.

The meal came out well. The beans could have cooked a little longer, I could have used smaller, riper tomatoes and, had I known it would come out more like a stew, I would have cut the bacon up and added it to the mix. But for the first venison meal I've made in more than 10 years it came out better than expected. I can't wait to make the other cuts of venison I have.

So what do you drink with venison? Cabernet Franc, Carmenere, Chianti, Gigondas (or anything from The Rhone Valley), Syrah- the choices are endless. Venison has a great gamy taste that goes really well with many big, bold, bad-ass wines. If I had a Cab Franc in my cellar right now, I would have opened that. But, sad monkey, I didn't have one. So I opened my BOOM BOOM Syrah. This Columbia Valley Syrah comes from one of my favorite wine makers, Charles Smith.This wine is perfect Washington wine. Bright, fresh and smooth. Full Bodied, dark meaty fruit with a touch of spice and sweet tobacco. 

French Wine and To Much Food Makes for Happy People

I know it's been a while since I last posted. I've had the flu, then the next week didn't get a chance to grab anything fun to cook,and last week I had a wine tasting every night after work. Finally this week I wasn't going to disappointing my fans. I bought baby brussels sprouts, gnocchi, lots of cheese and turkey thighs. Noel actually picked out the thighs at first I didn't want to get them, to be truthful at first this meal was going to be with a ham steak but the thighs needed to be cooked. Let me tell you I am so glad I made the thighs instead.

In just over a month the Foodie's Holiday is upon us. I love Thanksgiving, my two favorite things get front and center attention, food and wine!! This year Noel and I drive down to Maryland to have Thanksgiving with my family. The last time we had Thanksgiving there, Noel and I cooked a great meal, but I did almost burn down the house. This time I have had two years to practice my cooking and my skills of taking greasy things out of an oven. I am so excited about this meal, so excited that I am already looking at recipes to make. Thanks to Fall Day I already know the stuffing I am going to make. The other day I was looking at recipes online for some more side dishes and found Pan-Roasted Brussels Sprouts Gratin with Shallots and Rosemary. Everyone is going to want to eat at my parents house this year!!


So all day long I have been thinking about how I wanted to cook the Turkey Thighs. Finally I came across the perfect seasoning. Grey sea salt, little black pepper and saffron, saffron makes everything better!!
What You Need:
2 Turkey Thighs
tablespoon grey sea salt
tablespoon black pepper
3 pinches of saffron
tablespoon of canola oil

Pre Heat the oven to 350. Coat the thighs in the oil, salt, pepper and saffron. Place the thighs in a casserole dish and cover with tin foil. Throw them in the oven and cook until the meat thermometer reaches 175. This is going to take over a hour, so flip the thighs half way, and after a hour uncover the thighs so they can brown. These came out so good and perfectly juicy. This may be the way I even make the turkey at Thanksgiving!!

After I flipped the thighs I started the Brussels Sprouts Gratin. This was fun to make but I didn't have enough brussels sprouts so it came out really cheesy.
What You Need:
1 1/2 pounds brussels sprouts
2 shallots
4 tablespoons of butter
salt
fresh ground pepper
1 1/4 cup Gruyere
1 1/4 heavy cream
1/4 tablespoon fresh nutmeg
1/4 tablespoon cayenne
3/4 cup panko
1/2 cup grated parmigiano
2 teaspoons finely chopped fresh rosemary

Pre heat oven to 375. In a dutch oven over medium heat melt the butter and cook until brown. Take out a tablespoon and put in a bowl. Add the brussels sprouts and shallots and cook until slightly browned (about 6 minutes). Remove from the heat. In a sauce pan add the heavy cream, the gruyere, nutmeg, cayenne, and salt. Cook until the cheese is melted (make sure not to boil). Add the sauce to the brussels sprouts making sure to mix it all together. In a bowl mix the panko, parmigiano cheese, a pinch of salt and the remaining butter. Mix all together and put it on top of the brussels sprouts. Place in the oven and cook for 15 minutes.

As the brussels sprouts and thighs were cooking I started the water for the gnocchi and the cheese sauce. I found a real easy recipe online for a cheddar cheese sauce. The gnocchi only takes about three minutes to cook so its best to start the sauce first.
What You Need:
3 tablespoons butter
3 tablespoons flour
1/2 teaspoon white pepper
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cup milk
1 cup grated cheddar cheese

Melt the butter in a small sauce pan. When it's all melted take off the heat and mix in the flour and seasonings. Gradually mix in the milk whisking so they all blend well together. Over a low heat, constantly stirring heat the milk until it has thickened. Add the grated cheese and cook for five minutes or until thick. Add to the gnocchi and serve.

This was a great meal. Everything came out so good!! The turkey was perfectly cooked, the brussels sprout became a wonderful cheesy side dish and the gnocchi was fantastic. But there was way to much food for just two people. Next time I'll need at least four people to help eat all this food.

The Wine:
Even before I knew what meat I was going to have with the meal I knew what wine I wanted. Loire Valley is my most favorite wine region in the world. They are really known for their whites, but in my opinion their reds are the best of the best. The number one grown red in the valley is Cabernet Franc, and the best comes from Chinon. I picked up a bottle of Jean Dumont Les Mureaux 2009 from Beacon Hill Wine and Gourmet in Melrose. This family owned vineyard has vines that average in age of 35 years. The wine has a deep ruby color with well balanced ripe fruit, herbaceousness and round tannins. This was a perfect wine for a perfect meal.

The Bunny looked more like a Pilgram

Easter came late this year, Warren and Curtis came early. Noel had invited them to an Easter dinner this year. We never really get a holiday with them, Thanksgiving and Christmas is divided by my parents and her mom's. So I wanted to cook something big. Noel wanted to come up with a "menu" last week, I wanted to wait until we went grocery shopping. Turkey was on sale, so it was an easy choice. Two Thanksgivings ago I made a turkey at my parents house that was awesome!! Turkey with Herbs de Provence and Citrus. It was so good then and I knew I it would be good now. Funny story- the first time I made this I almost burned down my parents' house. There is a lot of chicken stock and butter used in this recipe and the pan I used was a cheap pan that folded as I took it out of the oven. As it folded in half, the liquid spilled in the electric oven, hit a coil and instantly caught on fire. As everyone was running around looking for a fire extinguisher it came to me shut the oven door. Fire went out in a few minutes but the stove shut down. I learned this time to use a cookie sheet under the cheap style roasting pan so that wouldn't happen again, especially in my gas stove.

This Turkey with Herbs de Provence and Citrus is so tasty and so easy to make. We found it on Foodnetwork.com, we find a lot of recipes on there. It takes about three hours, 30 minutes are prep. Need to cut an orange, lemon and onion into quarters, get fresh rosemary, thyme, sage and stuff it in the bird. *Make sure the neck and giblets are taken out of the bird and put in the roasting pan. Melt two tablespoons of butter with one tablespoon herbs de provence (you can find this anywhere), one tablespoon pepper (I used pink,black, white, and green pepper corns), and one tablespoon salt. Instead of using a pan I have a stainless steel bowl that I melt butter in, I find at a low heat the big bowl makes it easier to melt and not burn!! Take the melted butter and brush it all over the bird, making sure to get under the skin as much as you can. Let it stand at room temperature for about 30 minutes and preheat oven to 400. This is where I like to open the bottle of wine and pour myself my first glass. After 30 minutes tent some tinfoil over the breast and roast 20 minutes. The kitchen should start smelling like heaven!! Now add three cups turkey stock (it ask for chicken but I found turkey) and a few more sprigs of rosemary, thyme and sage. I also melted two more tablespoons of butter mixed with the same herbs and pepper mixture and brushed it over the turkey again. Let roast another 40 minutes, reduce the heat to 350, remove the tinfoil and add one more cup of stock. Let it roast until the thighs reach 165, every so often you want to basted the turkey(I did about every 15 minutes). Your house is going to smell so good!!

After the turkey is done you want to let it rest about 30 minutes. This is the perfect time to make any veggies, potatoes, and the gravy. This recipe has a gravy it tells you to make and it is so good Noel was dipping chips in while we were watching t.v. that night. First, melt six tablespoons butter, whisk in one-third cup flour, make sure to break up any chunks, and start to blend in four cups of the juice the turkey was sitting in. Cook about 10 minutes and whisk often until thickened to your liking. A gravy that people would kill for!! Wait what about that bottle of wine I opened, where did I use it on the turkey? I didn't, I drank it. I picked Viu Manent Reserva Carmenere knowing it would go well with the turkey. 

I did make two sides. Mashed potatoes and a veggie medley, Noel calls it a hash. It's kinda like a cooked salad. I started with bacon...BIG SURPRISE THERE!! I cut about two cups of small chunks of bacon. Put them in a skillet over low-medium heat to melt down some fat. While that was going on I minced two cloves garlic, diced a medium shallot, chopped large carrot, one celery stock, a red pepper, and about dozen or so brussel sprouts. After the bacon was cooking for five minutes or so, I tossed in the garlic, shallot and celery, and cooked until they smelled good(about minute or two), then added the carrots and cooked for about another two minutes. As the carrots were getting soft I added the red peppers and topped with the chopped Brussels sprouts. I then added a tablespoon of the gravy and a dash of herbs de provence to the veggies and covered the skillet to let steam. As the veggies were steaming, I was able to make my mash potatoes. I didn't know what to do with them, but as I was just about to give up and serve them plain, I saw my cayenne pepper and saffron. A light went off in my head and I added a dash of pepper and two pinches of saffron. I didn't tell my guest what I had done I wanted to hear from them what they thought. Everyone was in love with the taste. The gravy made them a little more playful. 

This was one of my favorite holiday meals to make. First, I made it in my own kitchen. Second, it was a recipe I had  conquered a few years ago, so I was able to make a few changes to show my personality. Next time I make this I may even blend my own herbs de provence, it looks pretty easy.