Ever since Joe brought back a gargantuan helping of fresh elk meat from his October hunting trip, I have taken on the formidable task of cooking up novel elk-inspired dishes. Having never hunted, consumed, or prepared elk (or any game meat for that matter) in my life, I found this challenge to be particularly intriguing. If you remember, my first attempt of cooking elk was letting it slow-cook into a Hearty Hunter Stew. We ended up freezing most of that stew, in part because I made enough to feed a squadron of elk hunters, but also because our appetites quickly grew weary of the dish. After the New Year, once the last of the stew leftovers had been thawed and consumed, I decided it was time to really get serious about chipping away at our elk reserve. And so, the evolution of our elk suppers began.
My first elk experiment, so to speak, was to throw a big hunk of meat into the food processor for some ground elk to be used in a savory meatball recipe. The ingredients consisted of bread crumbs, fresh garlic, and dried herbs. The balls were generously slathered and baked in a sweet tomato and onion sauce.
This was one curious cooking experiment that resulted in a mediocre meal. Despite the garlic, salt and seasonings, the meatballs tasted like elk. That was when I blurted out, "Why on earth do you people spend all of this time and money on hunting big game animals for their meat if you hate the taste of it?!" I realized then that cooking game is a game in itself: the better disguised the taste of the game, the better the taste! We grabbed a bottle of hot sauce from the fridge and managed to eat four measly meatballs. Great... I had made over a dozen. What were we going to do with the rest?
The following night I tried breaking them up and letting them slowly simmer with a jar of marinara sauce. Spaghetti a la Elk, anyone? It was better than meatballs, but we both decided that the taste of game was still lingering.
Maybe, I thought, I could make the elk a minor ingredient instead of the main ingredient? I boiled up some lasagna noodles and baked some lasagna - heavy on the spices and cheese. The verdict? Better than the meatballs and spaghetti, but still a bit gamey.
Yes, yes! A salty batter accompanied by a hot oil bath might be just the thing it needs for disguising the gamey taste! I made sure to pound the elk steaks thin so that there would be maximal surface area for the batter and oil to cover. The smell was intoxicating. Perhaps I was getting somewhere?
We garnished our hot elk schnitzels with fresh green onions and dished up toasted goat cheese crostini. This dish reminded me of a Texas favorite... chicken fried steak! However, it still wasn't quiet as good as when made with tender beef. In addition, we both agreed that pork meat makes better Schnitzels.
By early February, our freezer was finally looking a bit less crowded. The inventory of freezer bags containing elk had decreased from seven to a mere two. I sensed that the opportunities for finding the perfect elk recipe were becoming limited. Oh, how I wish I had a food dehydrator! Elk jerky is quite delicious and could fuel my protein-hungry husband well into the hiking season (Joe always carries jerky in his pockets when hiking as his preferred energy snack).
After I pulled one of the remaining bags of elk from the freezer to thaw, I went online to browse the internet for ideas for my next cooking venture. I was about ready to scratch down directions on how to make yet another stew when I stumbled upon a recipe that caught my eye. It was a crock pot recipe that listed only two ingredients: elk + condensed cream of mushroom soup. No way that is going to taste good!, was my first reaction. Here I go putting all of my energy into combining many different ingredients and cooking techniques to chase away the game flavor, and then this recipe comes along with glaring simplicity! The deciding factor steamed from the fact that the reader reviews were fervently positive. Hmm... O.K. Why not?
In addition to this recipe, I decided to follow some advice from a hunter that I met who seemed to sympathize with my cooking experiments. He advised me to try marinading my elk meat overnight before cooking. He noted that he prefers his elk grilled. That could be an experiment for future hunting seasons since I currently don't own a grill. But the concept of marinating the meat before cooking stuck. I sliced the elk steaks thin (again to increase the surface area) and whipped up a marinade of Worcestershire sauce, salt and pepper, a squeeze of lemon juice, and shake of garlic powder. The steaks marinaded in this potent concoction overnight. When the time came to put them into the crock, they actually resembled beef steaks. They even smelled like beef steaks! Could that mean that they would even taste like beef?
Fast forward eight hours of crock potting and it was time to taste test. All I did was spoon condensed cream of mushroom soup over the steaks, as the recipe called for, and set the cooking setting to low while I was at work. As the crock pot cooled down, I prepared some garlic mashed potatoes as a starchy base, and green beans for a vegetable. Amazingly, the elk was so tender that it fell apart upon dishing up. The condensed soup had soaked up the elk juices and had transformed into a decadent, thick gravy. That was easy! And...
We gobbled it up!! This elk dish was so good, in fact, that we barely had any leftovers. That was a first.
As I write this I am able to breath in the seductive aromas of our crock pot as it nears its final hours of cooking yet another round of this favorite. The evolution of our elk-inspired dinners have finally come full circle. They began with a familiar hunter stew, then morphed into various Italian and Slovakian renditions, and finally back to another old hunter's favorite (which has now become one of our favorites)!
Elk and Creamy Mushroom Gravy
Serves 4
1 lb. elk, sliced into think steaks
1-2 cans of cream of mushroom soup (2 cans if you like gravy)
Salt and pepper to taste
Handful of sliced mushrooms (optional)
1/4 onion, thinly sliced (optional)
Marinade:
1/4 cup Worcestershire sauce
1 Tbsp. lemon juice or vinegar
1/2 Tbsp. salt
1 teaspoon pepper
1 teaspoon garlic powder
Mix all of the ingredients of the marinade well and pour over elk steaks in a gallon-sized plastic bag. Toss well to coat all surfaces of the elk. Lie into an edged roasting pan or large bowl and refrigerate overnight to marinade. Drain the steaks. Set crock pot setting to low and layer with the marinaded steaks, then dump the can of soup over the top. If you would like to add more texture, add a fresh mushrooms and onions into the crock pot dish before the steaks (that way they can soak up the meat juices and caramelize on the bottom of the dish as it cooks). Cook 8-10 hours including 1 hour on high setting (or about 5 hours on high setting). This dish goes very well over mashed potatoes or buttered egg noodles!
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