Steak and Veggie Pie...on the Wild Side

We had a big venison steak feed a few days ago...sadly we cooked waaay too much steak and had a ton of leftovers.  We also had leftover pie crust in the freezer too.

To me, that means just one thing...time for meat pie!

I scrubbed, peeled and chopped some of our garden potatoes and cooked in the microwave for 4 min.  Sliced some onions too, also from the garden.  The wonky carrot in the picture below was also from our garden and here is where I digress...

This wonky carrot was tasty and delicious!  You'll never see its equal in any store.  Going into stores now creeps me out, as everything is so damned uniform.  Each and every thing looks identical from the next.  Like you are actually shopping in the clone aisle instead of the produce aisle.  Aberration in produce stores is akin to disease! 

Ok...I feel better now after that rant.

Back to the recipe!

I also grabbed some garlic which I bought at the Verona Garlic Festival from my friends Cam & Michelle Mather.  I pulled out the leftover venison steak (supplied by my step dad Rob Cory) and chopped it coarsely.  The dough came out of the freezer, thawed, and left until the stew was well under way.

The onions get fried with veg oil, followed shortly by the chopped carrot and nuked potatoes.  Simmer for a bit until it starts to smell good.  Then dump in the chopped venison.

On the side, you'll be boiling a kettle of water to add to the beef broth...

not too much though, we're not making soup here. 

We've since run out of the peas from our garden (they do go fast),

so these are store bought sweet baby peas. 

Once the beef broth powder has completely dissolved in the boiling water, you can go ahead and add it to the pot.  The potatoes add a thickness to the broth after a while so there is no need for flour for thickening.  I don't know what it is about wild game that makes me always want to add beer, but here I've done it again. 

This time it was a large splash of a nice dark lager, Steelback's Tiverton Bear.  Dark beer and wild game combine in the most unexpected way.  I was going to add some worchestershire sauce, but the beer was sweet enough that I didn't have to add anything else.  S & P was about it.

Once the whole mix has simmered together for a bit...you can divide it between a couple of small ramekins (or other small, oven-safe dish).  Try not to eat some while you're dividing it!!!  (unless you made extras, in which case good for you!  You were thinking ahead!)

Next step is to roll out the dough and cut out two circles, slightly larger than the ramekin.

Arrange dough circles on the ramekin dish and pierce the top. 

I just used scissors like my mom did on apple pie crusts. 

I whipped up one egg and brushed it over the crust.

Place in an oven at 400 degrees C and bake for 30 min.  Check on them after 20 min though.

A helpful tip I would suggest...place a baking sheet under these suckers whilst baking them.  If you fill the ramekins too full of stew, they will overflow while bubbling.

I couldn't have been prouder with my first attempt at pot pies.

I was even prouder to take a look at my costs:  Beer from father-in-law, venison from step dad, carrots, onions and potatoes from our garden, garlic from a local provider, and one hellvua home made crusty topper!  Seems like the peas and beef broth were the only thing we had to get from a store. 

Venison & Guiness Stew...

Living light on this earth and vegetarianism often go hand in hand.  Literature from some of the vegan camps will have you believe meat is the root of all evil.  I'm certainly not here to dispell any myths about the meat industry.  I prefer to get my sustinence from places where mass production does not exist.  I prefer to take control over where I get my foods (where I can) and prefer to support the guy next door, rather than the corporate machine.  On the other hand, I do want to discuss hunting as a form of foraging. 

Many outdoor magazines of late have discussed hunting as the ultimate on living lightly on this earth.  The meat is fresh, virtually fat free (making it extremely lean meat indeed!), toxin and hormone free as well as being a very healthy course of many minerals and protein.  Sadly, game meat has been cast in a dark light due to the bad practises of a precious few hunters.  Many hunters use conservationist practises and only take what they are willing to eat or pool their resources within the camp to make each animal go farther. 

The summer 2008 issue of Outdoors Canada (The Edible Wild edition) is an issue dedicated to the idea that anglers and hunters ARE in fact conservationalists.  In the introduction to the article "The best of living off the land", the editor waxes on about the days of growing environmental awareness and health consciousness.  It states "Well, that's where anglers and hunters come in.  They've long been doing what many others are only now beginning to contemplate...living sustainably off the land."

Our family members are the beneficiaries of free wild meat from families who either aren't sure how to prepare it or don't like the unique taste it affords. 

We are not too proud to accept free meat!

I proudly give to you a recipe that arrives from our garden's hard work as well as nature's hard work.  It has very little impact on our earth.  It doesn't support the meat industry.  It took almost no fossil fuels to create.  It also tastes like something my ancestors would have created in Ireland upon their arrival to Canada.  (not saying that cans of Guiness were readily available to settlers...but you never know what they threw in their stews...tee hee)

The first steps deal with the preparation of the meat...

I rinse the meat several times over.  Using fresh water each time.  I sealed the meat in a zip loc bag over night.  I stuffed the meat in the bag with veg oil, 3 cloves of garlic and salt.  The next day, I cooked the meat off in a frying pan (drain off the fluids first, depending on the cut, it can be oily and bloody...kind of a shock compared to commercial meats.)

Once the venison is browned, I add it to the slow cooker and begin to add the rest of the yummy ingredients.  Chopped celery, chopped parsnips from the garden from last year, potatoes from the garden this year, beef broth, the Guiness (about 1/4 of a can), 2 bay leaves (whole)...

These weird carrots are from our garden (above) as are these onions (below).

Well, of course the Guiness wasn't from our garden...but it was FREE!  What more can you ask for???

The stew simmered covered for 7 hours.  I added some sifted flour to the bubbling mix to thicken it up a bit.

This is another recipe that makes me feel like fall is here.

Red meat, root vegetables, thick brothed souped & stews...all things that my tastebuds have been craving since the cooler weather has arrived.  Cloudy days are made for soups & stews!  

You can make this stew ahead of time and freeze it for future use.  It went over really well at the Omemee Jam this past August.  The adults went crazy for it (the kids, not so much)!  Its also a great meal to have in the slow cooker for those days when its cold out, but there's work to be done.  Keeps the body warm and working!



Have you ever gotten your meat from a forest as opposed to a store?

A day in the wild...

Let me start by saying that this post has nothing to do with cooking or gardening...so you'll just have to bear with me.

After 7 weeks away in Ottawa, I really had to come to terms with the amount of time I had just spent away from my family and my home.  One of the things I had no idea I was going to miss was just being in nature.  It was such a simple thing that I missed.

The ability to go somewhere without hearing man made noise.

Fortunately, I am able to drive less than 20 min from my home and find such a place.  Even more fortunate am I that I have wonderful family that invites me to share in this place.

I drive the long country road that takes me to this place on a grey day that was threatening rain.

I feel not just that I have escaped from the city, but that I may have been transported back into the times of the settlers.  This may have been my backyard as an early pioneer in these parts.

Paddling around a secluded lake on a day without work.

Its actually the backyard of the hunting camp that is a part of my husband's family.  This day trip was not about hunting though.  It was about reconnecting.  With family, friends and nature.

The hunting camp started with humble beginnings but now features such luxuries as indoor toilets and a tv.

I was excited to get out on the bikes.  I haven't been on an atv run in a long while.  Its a popular past time with my in-laws...so I get to visit with them while exploring a raw and rudged landscape that swings from bold and beautiful to other-worldy and alien.

The familiar trees were oak and sumac.  Amazing that these trees could grow on top of not much more than rock.  The ground cover plants started to take on alien life forms.

Down a pine-needle filled pathway we discovered the gateway

to Scanlon Lake (or as some maps say Sexton Lake). 

The lake was misty and quiet.  Like glass laid in front of the rocks at the shoreline.  I could picture native gatherers crossing this body of water in stealthy canoes.  

We took our lunch break and enjoyed the peaceful quiet.   I could image early settlers fishing in small boats or playing one of the first recorded games of hockey. 

This was a relative of mine back in the early 1900's (picture actually taken in the Tweed area I believe).

I could picture this as my home.  I could be a hunter/gatherer and live in this land.  My mind began to race with the possibilities.  Is there enough in this rocky area to survive?  Our tour pressed on and my eyes were trying to spot the possibilities...

I suddenly wished I had spent the last 7 weeks reading Steve Brill's book call "Identifying & Harvesting Edible & Medicinal Plants in Wild (and not so wild) Places"...as I have no idea what these berries were.  They had a kind of spike on their leaf...so I took the hint and moved on.  It was on the verge of rain all afternoon...so I was glad that I HADN'T brought the book with me.

Mushrooms are another thing I know virtually nothing about...I can spot a puffball and a morel with confidence, but that is where I draw the line.  These white suckers were enormous!  Probably could have made a meal out of each of them....but I was smart enough to take pictures now and do the research later.

One of the great things about this property is the personal history.  There is a monument built to my mother-in-law's parents Chester and Sarah.  It represents a spectacular view of the property and a connection to nature that is being passed down through the generations.  Owen is the next family member in our wee family that has yet to see the monument. 

On the plaque is the phrase "Some people go their whole lives, without seeing anything like this".  A pause to reflect how true that statement really is.

At what felt like the peak of a mountain, the landscape started to feel alien.  The groundcover plants looked like they should have been grown in an aquarium.  The textures of these plants were spectacular!  Spikey stars with bright orange mushrooms erupting from them. 

Like coral but on the surface of a rock! 

Wild strawberries and their runners in action.

Moss that looks like shag carpeting...

Juniper berries by the bucketload...but not quite ripe enough.

Moss that appears to form little higways aross the rocks...

I could imagine pioneer beaver trappers traversing through land like this to make their wages.

The rocks suddenly changed the colour of the landscape!

We could see the rain coming in the distance and decided to head on back to the camp. 

I had one last commune with the landscape before it was time to head back to my home in cottage country.  My mind was filled with thoughts of early settler life, getting back to basics and reading that encyclopedia by Steve Brill.  I vow to know more edible plants the next time I get invited back to the hunting camp.

What do you do to escape the urban sprawl and get back in touch with our natural selves?

Milkweed capers on fresh caught bass...

So I've been pretty busy, in my non-gardening life.  I recently got a new job, and the hoops I've been jumping through has left me precious little time in our garden.  Luckily, my darling hubbie has had more time in the garden...so it isn't being neglected...but I do miss those sweet hours passing by as I weed and inspect all the plants growing.

Weeding gives you a chance to kill  many hours of your day, but it also gives you an up close and personal view of how your plants are doing, how they are growing and if anything edible has sprouted!  It like giving yourself an excuse to just stare at the wonder of gardening.  Boy do I miss that.

On the other hand, my hubbie was wonderful enough to follow my lead when I picked milkweed blossums one day and he pickled them.  (I left open the browser window that showed the link to The 3 Foragers website where we first got the idea)

  http://the3foragers.blogspot.com/2011/06/milkweed-recipe-milkweed-flowerbud.html

Its a pretty simple recipe...in case anyone was wondering.  The 3 Foragers offer up two different pickling recipes.  Ches did the one where you soak the capers in salt brine for 3 days, strain it, then proceed with the recipe.  Check out the above link for the actual recipe. 

I picked these mlkweeds on the side road that takes us to the mini-park in Verona.  I'm pretty sure anyone walking their dog that day thought I was truly nuts.  Its not a very busy road, so I thought it might be a safe location to forage the milkweed blossums.  Its recommend that you don't forage beside roads...due to the emissions from passing cars getting absorbed by the local plant life.  While I agree...I was willing to risk it on this quiet little road.  When I say blossums, I mean when the buds are still little green balls, not the highly identifiable clusters of pink blossums (as shown below).  

The other night, I came home from a first aid course (something I had to do over my weekend) and found my family getting ready for a fishing trip!  They had packed up a car with lifejackets, fishing tackle and snacks.  Both boys were ready to go and my husband was just getting the last few things together.  I changed and we were out the door.  I wished I had of brought my camera, to document the adventure we had that afternoon.  I feel that the story behind the meal is just as important as the meal itself.

However that was not the case.  I didn't bring a camera and of course we had a blast anyway...it just makes for a less interesting blog entry.  

  

Our meal this evening...fresh caught bass, breaded with homemade whole wheat bread brumbs, fresh picked lettuce and spinach greens from the garden, topped with purslane and homemade balsamic vinegrette, and hand cut, baked french fries.  

There isn't anything very complex about this meal...it was simplicity itself.  The bright shining star (for me and hubbie anyway) was the capers we had recently pickled out of milkweed blossums.  It was their first taste drive!  They were lovely!!!  I really have no idea what REAL capers are...in fact I don't care...because all I know is that we can now make all of the capers I would ever want to eat...right in our own neighbourhood.  That's pretty exciting, especially if you like capers and you don't like paying capers prices.    

Some of us preferred to skip the milkweed capers...and just enjoy the love of fresh caught bass...especially when you were the one who caught the bass....see fisherman below...

Anyone else have any good fishing tales (now that bass has opened) or foraging yarns to tell?  

A new twist on a crusted fish....

My husband is a bit of a hoarder....not quite to the extent that they feature on the show of the same name...but he does hoard recipes like they are going out of style.  Don't get me wrong!  I'm certainly not complaining that my husband has an eye for yummy recipes...its that he hoards them in piles that tend to take over any area that we keep recipes (until its nothing but a mountain of loose papers from magazines).  I had a chance to go through all of our recipes, which was great because now I feel a bit more prepared when the summer comes and all of my garden delights are ready.

The down side to all of these recipes...is that my dear husband is not home a lot to make these delicious meals.  Here's where I will admit to making standard favorites more than I will experiment. 

Last night we were fortunate to have an evening at home with the husband!  He decided that the pike he caught should be eaten and would I like to try a new recipe?  Would I?!?!?  The answer was yes and it was so different that I thought it would make a great post!

In the winter time, my husband does enjoy ice fishing.  It isn't as rewarding (I find) as summer time boat fishing...but it is a nice winter activity that the whole family can get excited about.  Its doubly nice when you actually catch something big enough to eat!  Plus (I have to throw this in) your meal has an extremely small carbon footprint when you catch your dinner 50 ft from your house!!!

Chester with his pike...sort of the before picture.

  He pulled this marvelous recipe from Chatelaine magazine (and before you ask...he does work as a cook at a day care and the teachers are all female)


the after picture....seed-encrusted pike!

And here is the modified recipe (it originally called for trout):

pike filets
1 tbsp dijon mustard
1 tsp grated fresh ginger (but we used dried ground)
1 tsp fennel (we probably will make this again, but with a little less fennel)
1 tbsp each cumin seeds and sesame seeds
1 tbsp flax seeds (it calls for ground, but we only had whole seeds)

a twist of ground coriander or fresh lemon wedges
S & P to taste

The cooking instructions just say to mix dijon with ginger and flax, then spread over filets.  Sprinkle with remaining ingredients and bake on foil or parchment coated pan in center of oven for 10-12 min.  Oven is preheated to 400 degrees F.

I would definitely serve this dish with lime juice!

Our sides for this evening where roasted garlic mashed potatoes (garlic is locally grown) and brussel sprouts with a cheesy bechamel sauce......

I am a lucky lucky girl....


Moose Stew

One of the things I've come to enjoy around this part of the country is hunting season.  Its not because I actually go hunting...or because my husband disappears to go hunting for weeks at a time.  Its actually because everyone we know who goes hunting usually has a wife who hates cooking game meat!  They usually wait a few months after hunting season is over and ask us if we'd take this meat away so they can have their freezer back. We win!  Not only is it free meat, but its lean and healthy too.  Wild animals aren't maintained the way that livestock is cared for, which can be good and bad. 

Good points:  no steriods or hormones were ever administered
Bad points:  you have really no idea where this animal has been getting its food or drinking water OR how much road salt its been licking up over the years.

At any rate, I like introducing wild meat to my kids.  It is a different flavour altogether and its nothing like they serve at fast food restaurants which has got to be a good thing.

Every time I eat wild meat I feel more like a pioneer than a consumer.  Living in the country, it just makes me feel like we live off of the land more...even if its not actually us doing the hunting.

I made Moose Stew the other night and this is how it goes:




Moose stew for you!


Rinse the meat really well once it has defrosted.  This method helps the meat lose some of the gamey flavour and any residue the meat may have.  (especially if you don't know who did the butchering)

Marinate the meat chunks in water and salt and pepper (or beef stock or wild game seasonings) overnight.  Discard water after.

Simmer meat on low in some liquid (stock or seasonings).  I used beef stock, less than a 1/2 cup per 2 lbs. (discard liquid after)

In a separate pot, simmer onions, carrots (from our garden) and potatoes. 

Add meat, more stock or seasonings, as well as 1/2 cup of  barley and simmer some more.

Towards the end of the simmering, I added frozen peas and beans from our garden that we froze and blanch devereaux'ed.  Its at this time you can add more stock if the barley has absorbed too much of the liquid.  I made the mistake of adding much more than I should have and decided to add some corn starch mixed in 1/2 cup of milk to thicken it up...but i should have just let the stew boil off.  That's why in the picture above the stew seems a little creamier than a stew normally is....

I also would have added some celery if we had any, but it still turned out nicely!  Not bad for not following a recipe....

I topped off this dish with garlic parmesan biscuits.....mmmmmmm.....

Now this is a thick and hearty meal from the Canadian wilds! 

I truly enjoy living where I live.  I especially love learning about the edible things in my area...so look forward to future posts about eating locally, foraging for goodies, and eating a true Canadian diet.