Moose and Mushrooms

[jryoung]

My friend Jonathan came into town from Vietnam this week so I decided to cook him dinner. I invited a crew of my "wine friends" over, they are really just that, we get together, eat, drink and discuss wine and food. I don't even know what most of them do for work, but I know what they like to drink and their appreciation for great food. I've been doing these "wild and gamey" dinners for 10 years now and this was #5. It all started because I asked a bunch of strangers (from a wine forum) over to my house to eat elk meatloaf, morel mushrooms and foie gras (notice the parallel to the Hunt Talk Bear Hunt?).

Anyway with a freezer full of moose and record rains here in CA for October it was perfect timing for moose and mushrooms.

I ended up service six courses of food. We had a thought to change the meal title to "$hit Renee killed" as it was her moose and she caught the lions share of our salmon. There's a few redundant pictures but some of my friends got better color than I did with my fancy pants camera.

Course 1: smoked salmon, goat and sheep's milk cheese, pumpernickel bread, pumpkin preserve, pickled onions and lavender.


Course 2: porcini ravioli with acorn flour in moose consomme. Borrowed the basics from these three of Hank 's recipes and added my own twists. I made the stock, then consomme...tried to make cappelletti, but if I was Italian my Nonna would probably beat me because of my inability to form pasta.


(recipes)
http://honest-food.net/2011/01/21/wild-duck-consomme/
http://honest-food.net/…/…/07/cappelletti-recipe-duck-broth/
http://honest-food.net/2008/02/20/venison-stock/

Course 3: Matsutake gohan


http://honest-food.net/2012/12/19/matsutake-mushroom-recipe/

Course 4: Moose marrow with toast. This was my wild card, I've never done marrow before and never from wild game. The flavor was so incredibly subtle, it shocked everyone. The marrow itself was dense, not gelatinous like beef. Incredible.

 

[jryoung]

Course 5: Grilled moose backstrap, potato, parsnip and celery root puree, roasted romanesco and purple cauliflower.













Course 6: Ricotta pie with candy cap mushrooms.

 

[TheJason]

Wow!

 

[Straight Arrow]

Very impressive! Nicely done.

 

[MT_elk]

Looks like quite the spread!

 

[Irrelevant]

I'm drooling! Looks awesome

 

[Ben Lamb]

That's a long way from kill it and grill it. Looks like a great time!

 

[kansasdad]

That is a group of fortunate friends jryoung.

How did you do the leg bone marrow?.......and I guess that is a specialized marrow utensil used to extract the yumminess?

 

[Dave N]

Dang! I want to eat at YOUR house! You can even have my share of the wine!

 

[schmalts]

Somehow my invitation got lost. ..

 

[noharleyyet]

Bravo jr....an Alces alces culinary tour de force.

 

[choc dogs]

Ok, you win. Nicely done, and gorgeous presentations. I'm gonna have to apply for a moose permit now, in order to do the marrow.

 

[Gerald Martin]

Foo foo food. Looks like some good eats.

 

[Speeddmn]

Looks good, but i dont see a single coors light....

 

[Joe Hulburt]

Life is good!

 

[Marshian]

Quite the tasty spread.

 

[bobbydean]

Looks like a great gathering of good friends. Nicely done.

I would not have a clue how to cook marrow or how to eat it!

And, it does look tasty.

 

[teamhoyt]

What's for dinner tomorrow? I Have some elk bones that I cut to do the marrow thing. I Have been wanting to try it for a while!

 

[jryoung]

What's for dinner tomorrow? I Have some elk bones that I cut to do the marrow thing. I Have been wanting to try it for a while!

Marrow is super simple, once you have them cut, soak them in icy salt water to help push out any blood for a few hours. Rinse, dry and bake them in an oven in a good, conducting pan at 425 for 15-20 minutes remove and eat.

As for "dinner tomorrow", I fired up the grinder and made moose burgers (with mushrooms and swiss). We invited over some of my FILs biker buddies from the American Legion and washed it down with cheap beer.

 

[noharleyyet]