Clean your freezer, find gold

jryoung

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I'm ashamed to admit I lost track of my inventory in my freezer. I found both pronghorn and some of Randy's bison, hiding in the depths. So, what better way to atone for my sins than take this 2 and 3 year old pieces of meat and pretty them up and share with friends.

For the pronghorn there was bits of heart and tongue, and some "roast" according to Rainbow meats in Laramie. So, a terrine would be perfect. If there was any funk from it's 3 year slumber surely a soak in brandy and fresh herbs would bring it back to life. I added some ground wild boar to make it go the distance in my pan. We also had some smoked salmon from last year and turkey pastrami from the birds we raised.

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I was looking around in David Kinch's Manresa cook book and saw a recipe for fava bean risotto. This sparked my curiosity and since I was going to have a bunch of carb conscious eaters and favas are abundant right now that it would be perfect. It called for a mushroom confit, so for my fat bath I mixed olive oil and turkey schmaltz 1:1. I wish I had more mushrooms, because these were awesome. I roasted some California rockfish to finish the plate.

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I'm not sure how I let a bison shank slip past me....any shank for that matter so while I had meat for the final course, the bone gave me options for a consomme. Broths, stocks and consommes are simply a favorite of mine. No two are ever alike. This was a play on "albondigas" or Mexican meatballs. A heavy dose of mint in the meat, with a consomme that was heavy on juniper, allspice, and mace. Finally an egg yolk from a waterbath at 145 degrees for an hour.

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Finally, the shank meat. Braised for 6 hours in a heavy does of spices per above. Shredded, and I pulled out all the gelatinous connective tissue and either ate it with my hands or enhanced my relationship with my four legged best friend. This recipe was largely based off Hank Shaw's Portuguese shanks recipe in Buck Buck Moose. For the polenta I went with simple water and cornmeal, old school and let the corn flavor come through and meld with the bison, it worked awesome. A small salad of celery hearts, onions, and squash blossoms finished it and help cut the richness of the bison.

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I'll have to buy a suit coat to bring to bear camp next year if you're cooking. I'll be sure to wear my dress up crocs :p I still drool about your halibut cheeks you made a few years ago.
 
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Gonna have to break out the NHY thesaurus for this one...

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I made tube steaks on the pellet grill. Ball Park Beef - not those cheap mystery meat ones, either! And I used mildly smokey 'Signature Blend' pellets.

Seriously - looks good. Not sure what that all is but looks and sounds good.
 
My wife works at a winery and I occasionally get invited to dinners that look like this, while I couldn't imagine paying full price, it's very good food, would be awesome to be able to make it at home, very impressive.

As far as old freezer meat, I recently found a hidden roast from a cow elk from 2016, was well wrapped and didn't look freezer burned so we threw it on the grill with salt, pepper, garlic and it was great. Sometimes I think if it's wrapped well the freezer can actually have a bit of an aging effect to loosen up the grain.
 
Jr
Looks amazing buddy! Those mushrooms look killer.
What’s the rock cod plated on top of?
 
My goodness. My culinary skills are just not even in the same universe. I would have to look up half the terms you were using :ROFLMAO:

I have burned up google’s search engine just to figure out everything. Looks delicious though!

Although where I’m from 1 meatball per bowl would be end up somewhere between Oliver Twist and Honey BooBoo. Most likely Honey Boo Boo
 
Dude, it's obvious you've got some real talent, but I swear that looks like a slice of souse in the middle of the first pic!
 
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