The Hirshon Lappish Sautéed Reindeer – Poronkäristys

February 20, 2017 by The Generalissimo 1 Comment

Poronkäristys Image Used Under Creative Commons License From flickr.com

Citizens, my sincerest apologies for going dark this last week – your beloved Generalissimo has spent a long-overdue vacation in the furthest Arctic North, as is his custom in the winter time! ☺

Every year, my wife and I go aurora chasing, seeking to view the elusive Northern Lights from a different country of the North – this year, it was in Lapland, in the Ultima Thule of the Finnish Arctic Circle!

It was here that I first sampled the glory that is reindeer, which may in fact be my all-time favorite meat. It is unbelievably tender and lean – read about what alternativefinland.com says about it:

Reindeer has been common on menus across Scandinavia for many decades. Other countries however have taken a little longer to get used to the idea of consuming Rudolph and friends with a nice cranberry sauce and dumplings.

Six years ago there was an outcry in the UK when it emerged that the Swedish furniture giant IKEA was selling salami containing reindeer. However, things are changing and reindeer meat is rapidly gaining in popularity outside of Finland and Sweden.

The exotic meat supplier Kezie reports on its website that demand for the “tender and succulent” meat is so high that it now offers it all year round, selling everything from reindeer sausages and reindeer steaks to reindeer meatballs and reindeer mince. So just what is making the demand for reindeer meat so high despite its somewhat high price?

Well, first and foremost, Reindeer meat is fine-textured, tender and tastes great, with the delicious but distinctive taste of game meat. It has some of the characteristics of venison but is a much milder-flavored meat, although still dark in color. It’s also, like much game meat, extremely low in fat content (and like much game meat, with the low fat content, you need to make sure you don’t overcook it).

Reindeer meat is also ethically sound – reindeer are pastured in the forests enjoy almost complete freedom, unlike factory-farmed beef or pork. The fell reindeer’s diet is a natural one, without the drugs that the diet of factory-farmed animals is all to often laced with – in the winter the reindeer dig lichen from the ground while during the summer, reindeer eat more than 300 different plants .

Twice a year the reindeer are gathered together and those to be slaughtered selected. Which brings me to my next discussion point: sourcing your reindeer meat. Now while in Europe reindeer meat is relatively easy to procure, Finnish Reindeer meat is not exactly an off-the-shelf product in my local (Canadian in Toronto) supermarket, so the first task was to source some Reindeer meat at an affordable cost.

Before I start, if you live in Europe, Reindeer meat is becoming more widely available and you may find a local supermarket that stocks it. Otherwise, you should be able to find an online supplier easily enough. For North Americans, Reindeer is a little challenging but keep in mind that Caribou is the same as Reindeer – just not Finnish (and Finnish reindeer may well be from Russia in any case….).

Wild caribou and domesticated reindeer are actually the same species throughout the world – so for North Americans, just look for a source of caribou meat.

Despite what you may think, Finns don’t eat reindeer very often – in fact it’s quite scarce, expensive and sometimes hard to find (you can buy reindeer in any supermarket, but if you want something really good you need some “contacts”).

The most typical dish of Lappish cuisine and a top recipe of Finnish gastronomy is poronkäristys, braised thin-cut reindeer served with super creamy mashed potatoes and lingonberries.

The main part of this meal is the “käristys.” The word käristys refers to a method used in Lapland for cooking the meat. When still partially frozen the meat is cut into thin slices, fried in the pot and then cooked for several hours on low heat, in butter and/or beer if available. It is most often made with reindeer meat but other meats like beef or elk can be used as an alternative.

This will be the best “meat and potatoes” meal you’ll ever have, especially made the TFD way! In the original Lappish recipe, the reindeer is sautéed in butter and cooked with just water, salt and black pepper.

My version includes bacon, onions, beer, and a hint of ground juniper as well as using beef stock in place of water for a richer gravy. I also happily adopt the recipe for the world’s best mashed potatoes, from the ultimate French chef, Jöel Robuchon, to make this truly special! You can of course use regular old mashed potatoes, just add plenty of extra butter and cream to makes them very rich.

Battle on – The Generalissimo

The Hirshon Lappish Sautéed Reindeer – Poronkäristys

Ingredients

750 g reindeer meat (for sautéing) - If you can't get reindeer meat, you can use other kind of deer for this recipe.
100 g bacon
1 large onion
1 heaping tbsp butter
½ can of lager beer
175 ml beef stock
2 bay leaves
Ground black pepper
¼ tsp freshly-ground juniper (optional but recommended)
Salt
Robuchon-style mashed potatoes
2 pounds Yukon Gold potatoes, peeled and cut into 1-inch pieces
20 tablespoons (2 ½ sticks) Unsalted Butter
1 ⅓ cups whole milk
Salt and white pepper
Lingonberry jam (Cranberry jam can be substituted)

Instructions

Heat the butter in a big pot. When melted, add the onion, finely chopped, and let it cook for a couple of minutes.
On the other burner in a separate pan, cut the bacon into little pieces and fry it in a pan in its own fat. Add the bacon (and the fat) and the reindeer meat to the pot and sauté all together. Season with salt and pepper.
Add the bay leaves and pour the beer and the stock into the pot. Let it cook covered at low heat for 1 hour and half.
Make the mashed potatoes:
Place potatoes in fine-mesh strainer and rinse under cold running water until water runs clear. Set aside to drain.
Heat butter, milk, and 1 teaspoon salt in large saucepan over low heat until butter has melted. Add potatoes, increase heat to medium-low, and cook until liquid just starts to boil. Reduce heat to low, partially cover, and gently simmer until paring knife can be slipped into and out of centers of potatoes with no resistance, 30 to 40 minutes, stirring every 10 minutes.
Drain potatoes in fine-mesh strainer set over large bowl, reserving cooking liquid. Wipe out saucepan. Return cooking liquid to saucepan and place saucepan over low heat.
Set food mill fitted with finest disk over saucepan. Working in batches, transfer potatoes to hopper and process. Using whisk, recombine potatoes and cooking liquid until smooth, 10 to 15 seconds (potatoes should almost be pourable). Season with salt and pepper to taste, and serve immediately.
Serve the Sautéed Reindeer hot together with the mashed potatoes, lingonberry jam or cranberry sauce, pickled beetroots, and pickled cucumbers.

https://www.thefooddictator.com/hirshon-lappish-sauteed-reindeer-poronkaristys/

The Hirshon Polish Hunters Stew – Bigos Myśliwski

January 13, 2017 by The Generalissimo 7 Comments

Bigos Myśliwski Image Used Under Creative Commons License From wikimedia.org

Citizens, your beloved and glorious leader occasionally enjoys the end-results of a successful hunt, with the pastorally-grazed wild meats frequently ending up in this recipe of renown – Bigos!

Frequently translated into English as hunter’s stew, this is a Polish dish of finely-chopped meat of various kinds stewed with sauerkraut and shredded fresh cabbage. The dish is also traditional in Belarusian, Ukrainian and Lithuanian cuisine.

The principal ingredients are assorted kinds of meat chopped into bite-sized chunks and a mixture of sauerkraut (pickled cabbage) and shredded fresh white cabbage. The meats may include pork (ham, shoulder, bacon, ribs, loin, etc.), beef and veal, poultry (chicken, duck, goose, turkey) and game, as well as charcuterie, especially various kinds of kiełbasa, or Polish smoked sausage.

The variety of meats is considered essential for good bigos; its preparation may be a good occasion to clean out one’s freezer and use up leftovers from other meat dishes. Some of the meats may be roasted before being diced together with other cuts of meat and braised in lard or vegetable oil.

As noted by my dear friend and master of all Polish goodness John Biggs: “The key is to point out that this isn’t WET. It’s not a stew in the traditional sense but the bigos should be almost dry with a reduction of all the flavors coating it, like a carbonara. If it’s too wet the meat falls apart and makes a mess and it isn’t bigos.”

Take due note, Citizens!

The sauerkraut is often rinsed and drained before being chopped and mixed with shredded fresh cabbage. The proportion depends on the sauerkraut’s maturity – the longer it has cured, the more sour it tastes, calling for more fresh cabbage to balance the flavor. Other ingredients often added include onions, diced and browned in lard together with the meat, and dried forest mushrooms that are precooked separately in boiling water.

The stew is usually seasoned with salt, black peppercorns, allspice, juniper berries and bay leaves. Some recipes also call for caraway, cloves, garlic, marjoram, mustard seeds, nutmeg, paprika and thyme.

The tart flavor of sauerkraut may be enhanced by adding some dry red wine or beet sour (fermented beetroot juice that is also a traditional ingredient of borscht), which may impart a reddish hue to the stew. Bigos is often slightly sweetened with sugar, honey, raisins, prunes or plum butter (known in Polish as powidła).

Traditionally, bigos is stewed in a cauldron over an open fire or in a large pot on a stove, but it may also be prepared in an electric slow cooker. The contents should be stirred from time to time, to prevent scorching, which may impart a bitter taste to the entire batch. The stew is considered best after it has been repeatedly refrigerated and reheated to allow the flavors to fuse.

In the region of Greater Poland, bigos typically contains tomato paste and is seasoned with garlic and marjoram. Kuyavian bigos is often made from red cabbage as well as white. In Silesia, it is usually mixed with kopytka or kluski, that is, small plain boiled dumplings made from unleavened dough that contains flour and mashed potatoes.

A variant which contains julienned apples, preferably with a winey tart taste, such as Antonovka, is known as Lithuanian bigos and is typical for the territory of the erstwhile Grand Duchy of Lithuania (now Belarus and Lithuania).

In bigos myśliwski, or “hunter’s bigos”, at least part of the meat comes from game, such as wild boar, venison or hare. It is usually seasoned with juniper berries, which help neutralize off-flavors that may be found in the meat of wild animals.

Bigos is particularly associated with major Catholic holidays, such as Christmas and Easter, as it can be prepared in ample quantities beforehand and only reheated on the holiday itself and the following days.

The stew is typically dished up with rye bread or boiled potatoes. In a fancier setting, it may be served in stoneware bowls, puff pastry shells or bread bowls.

Bigos, especially when enjoyed outdoor, is traditionally paired with shots of chilled vodka, either clear or flavored. Varieties of flavored vodka that match well with bigos include żubrówka, jałowcówka (juniper), piołunówka (wormwood), Goldwasser (various herbs) and starka (oak-aged). If served at home or in a restaurant, the stew may be washed down with beer, red wine or Riesling.

Bigos made entirely of meat and exotic spices was affordable only to the affluent Polish nobility. The 18th century saw the development of a poor man’s version of the dish, known as bigos hultajski, or “rascal’s bigos”, in which vinegar and lemon juice were replaced with cheaper sauerkraut as the source of tartness.

Sauerkraut and cabbage also acted as a filler allowing to reduce the amount of meat in the dish. Rascal’s bigos became common during the reign of King Augustus III of Poland (r. 1734–1763). Over the course of the 19th century, its rise in popularity continued as the proportion of meat decreased in favor of sauerkraut, eventually superseding all other kinds of bigos and losing the disparaging epithet in the process.

Citizens, my version of the dish is both traditional and profound – I truly hope you enjoy this classic recipe!

Battle on – The Generalissimo

The Hirshon Polish Hunters Stew – Bigos Myśliwski

Ingredients

¼ pound hickory smoked bacon, in one piece
2 yellow onions, chopped
1 lb Kielbasa, quartered
½ lb venison stew meat (strongly preferred) or use beef
¼ lb of mild ham, in one piece
¼ pound pork stew meat
½ cup lard (preferred) or oil
2 cups dried wild mushrooms - In Poland, you would use grzyby leśne, which you’ll find in any supermarket and are a mixture of dried forest mushrooms. You can probably find something similar just about anywhere, but make sure that they are wild forest mushrooms and not something like champignon as they simply don’t have enough flavor. TFD prefers a blend of dried porcini, dried morels and dried champignons
5 large garlic cloves
3 medium carrots, diced
1 ½ lb. drained sauerkraut (do not rinse)
5 cups white cabbage (TFD prefers Napa), shredded
1 ½ teaspoons dried thyme
2 tablespoons sweet paprika
1 teaspoon caraway seeds, crushed
2 ½ teaspoons marjoram
1 tsp. freshly-ground allspice
3 bay leaves
8 juniper berries, lightly crushed
Pinch of cayenne
salt & pepper to taste
1 cup dry red wine
4 cups beef stock
¼ cup plum butter (known in Polish as powidła) or use plum jam
Porcini or morel mushroom powder to taste (optional but highly recommended)

Instructions

Put the dried mushrooms in a bowl with enough warm water to cover them completely, and leave them to soak.
Fry the pork and venison or beef in half of the fat until it is browned. Add the sliced onions, cover and braise until the meat is half cooked.
Squeeze the excess liquid out of the sauerkraut, either using your hands, or put it in a colander and press it down with a wooden spoon.
Put the sauerkraut and bacon together in a large pan with a little water, some allspice and the bay leaves. Bring it to the boil, and then turn it down and let it simmer.
There are a couple of important things to note at this point. Firstly that the finished dish should be quite thick and not swimming in liquid, and that you will be adding wine as well as liquids from the mushrooms and the meat a bit later, so you should add just enough water now to prevent the cabbage from burning and allow the bacon to boil.
Again - the key is this isn’t WET. It’s not a stew in the traditional sense but the bigos should be almost dry with a reduction of all the flavors coating it, like a carbonara. If it’s too wet, the meat falls apart and makes a mess and it isn’t bigos.
Secondly, it is important not to add any salt to the dish at all until the cabbage is completely cooked, otherwise it will prevent the cabbage from softening.
When the bacon is half cooked, remove it, and leave the cabbage on the heat.
Strain the mushrooms, and cut them into slivers, then add both the mushrooms and the water they were soaked in to the cabbage.
Cut the cooked pork and beef, together with the bacon into medium-sized chunks, and add them all together with the onions and any juices from the meat to the cabbage.
Cook over a medium heat till the cabbage and the meat are cooked through and soft. Sauerkraut has a tendency to stick, so it is very important not to use too high a heat, and to remember to give it a good stir from time to time.
While it is cooking, cut the sausage into half moon slices, and the ham into cubes, and fry them in the rest of the fat. When they are cooked, add them to the cabbage, together with the remaining spices, prune jam, dried mushroom powder to taste and red wine.
Bring the whole thing to the boil, and then lower the heat and simmer for about 15 minutes.
At this point your bigos is finished and ready to eat, and it should taste wonderful. If you want to be really traditional and really get the very most flavor into the dish though, you have a lot more work to do.
(optional)
Traditionally bigos was cooked, cooled down and then reheated and recooled for seven days in a row in order to ensure the perfect mingling of all flavors.
After cooking allow your bigos to cool completely and then refrigerate it overnight.
The following day slowly and gently bring the whole thing up to the boil and then turn the heat down and simmer it for 10 minutes. Take it off the heat and let it cool completely before putting it back into the fridge for the night.
Repeat for another 5 days.
(end optional)
Drink either with shots of good quality frozen vodka or a bottle of the same red wine that you put into the bigos itself.

https://www.thefooddictator.com/hirshon-polish-hunters-stew-bigos-mysliwski/

The Hirshon Victorian Roast Goose with Sage, Onion & Apple Stuffing

August 13, 2016 by The Generalissimo 6 Comments

Roast Goose Image Used Under Creative Commons License From YouTube.com

Citizens, there is perhaps no meal more revered and saturated with tradition than the traditional roast goose traditionally served for Christmas dinner in the U.K.!

Yes, I know it is August and over 100 degrees Fahrenheit in most of the U.S. and Christmas seems an eternity away – all the more reason to post this recipe today!

As noted in the Charles Dickens novel “A Christmas Carol”:

Master Peter and the two ubiquitous young Cratchits went to fetch the goose, with which they soon returned in high procession.

Mrs. Cratchit made the gravy (ready beforehand in a little saucepan) hissing hot; Master Peter mashed the potatoes with incredible vigor; Miss Belinda sweetened up the apple-sauce; Martha dusted the hot plates; Bob took Tiny Tim beside him in a tiny corner at the table; the two young Cratchits set chairs for everybody, not forgetting themselves, and mounting guard upon their posts, crammed spoons into their mouths, lest they should shriek for goose before their turn came to be helped.

At last the dishes were set on, and grace was said. It was succeeded by a breathless pause, as Mrs. Cratchit, looking slowly all along the carving-knife, prepared to plunge it in the breast; but when she did, and when the long-expected gush of stuffing issued forth, one murmur of delight arose all round the board, and even Tiny Tim, excited by the two young Cratchits, beat on the table with the handle of his knife, and feebly cried, Hurrah!

There never was such a goose. Bob said he didn’t believe there ever was such a goose cooked. Its tenderness and flavour, size and cheapness, were the themes of universal admiration. Eked out by apple-sauce and mashed potatoes, it was a sufficient dinner for the whole family; indeed, as Mrs Cratchit said with great delight (surveying one small atom of a bone upon the dish), they hadn’t ate it all at last! Yet every one had had enough, and the youngest Cratchits in particular, were steeped in sage and onion to the eyebrows!

As further expounded on foodreference.com:

For unexplainable reasons, Europeans, particularly north Europeans, have always been fond of goose, whereas in North America the popularity of this fowl is more or less concentrated on Christmas and New Year’s Eve.

Goose meat is darker (including the breast), fuller bodied, and more intensely flavoured than turkey. It is fatter and more gamy than duck. Of all fowl, goose meat offers the most opportunities to match with wine.

The natural cycle of raising geese is still intact: hatching, between April and July, and slaughter in September.

The U S A is a large producer of geese – California, Pennsylvania, and New York State produce most. Of course France produces a lot, as does Hungary, Poland and Israel, mostly for foie gras d’oie (fattened goose liver).

For centuries goose fat has been hailed as tasty and texturally rich, French are famous for their cassoulet using goose fat, parts beans and vegetable, but most famous of all now is confit of goose or duck.

White English, grey Toulouse and Chinese geese are the most popular with goose farms. Most geese are fed a mixture of corn, wheat and soybeans, although a few farmers feed their animals with vegetables including salads in California.

Citizens, this recipe is a classic for excellent reason – I hope you enjoy the Victorian delights of this magnificent bird!

Battle on – The Generalissimo

—

9 lb. organic goose
2 tsp coarse sea salt

2 medium onions, peeled
4 large shallots, peeled (TFD change, original used 1 additional onion)
4 large apples, peeled, cored and chopped (Bramleys for Victorian preference, or TFD prefers honeycrisp)
2 tbsp crumbled between the palms dried sage leaves
½ tsp freshly-ground black pepper
1 tbsp cold butter, finely cubed

Kosher salt and freshly-ground black pepper

GARNISHES:

sliced apples, parsley or watercress

FOR THE BROWN GRAVY:

Gizzard, neck, heart, liver and wing tips of the goose, chopped
1 onion
1 carrot, sliced
2 tablespoons rendered goose fat (preferred) or cooking oil
3 cups stock or beef bouillon
1 tablespoon liquid Kitchen Bouquet (TFD addition, but recommended to help flavor and color the gravy)
1 bay leaf
3 sprigs parsley
1 sprig thyme
Salt & pepper to taste

FOR THE OPTIONAL PORT WINE SAUCE:

½ cup ruby port
1 teaspoon mustard
Pinch cayenne pepper
Salt to taste

—

Prepare the goose by thoroughly rubbing the body cavity with the salt. Leave uncovered in the refrigerator overnight to dry out the skin for ultimate crispiness!

The next day, chop the onion and shallot very finely then combine with the chopped apples, sage, pepper and butter. Use this mixture to stuff both the neck and body cavities of the goose. Sew or skewer the openings close and truss the bird.

Preheat oven to 450 degrees Fahrenheit.

The goose is best cooked by placing it on a rack fitted in a deep baking dish, where the juices drip off. Prick the breast of the goose all over with a fork to allow fat to escape, which in turn will also help in crisping the skin as the fat escapes. Sprinkle kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper over the skin.

Roast the goose at 450 Fahrenheit for 15 minutes, then reduce heat to 350 degrees and turn the goose onto its side. After 1 hour, turn goose onto its other side. For the final 15 minutes, roast goose on its back.

Drain off the dripping fat from the roasting tin at least twice during the cooking, and use these drippings to baste the goose as it cooks. This prevents extra dryness of the breast while the rest of the goose cooks. Save the fat for the future, it makes the best roast potatoes on earth!

Baste the goose every 20 minutes during entire roasting time. (Allow approximately 15 minutes per pound for the total weight of the stuffed goose, or 2 ½ hours for a 9 pound stuffed goose. The legs should move up and down freely, and the juices should run a pale yellow – do NOT overcook!

Prepare the gravy while goose is roasting. In a large saucepan, brown the goose parts, onion and carrot in the fat. When they are nicely browned, add the stock and seasonings. Simmer, partially covered, for about 1 hour, skimming occasionally. Strain, degrease and pour into a warmed sauce-boat for serving.

For the optional port wine sauce, combine the ingredients in a small saucepan. Just before serving the goose, slit open the breast and pour the sauce on top.

Serve with potatoes roasted In goose fat with herbs, garlic, salt and pepper and all the garnishes and appropriate trimmings.