After a Long Day on The Trail

Like an independent voter, I changed my mind and added bacon to the moose stew( check yesterday's post). I also called it a ragout, a French word which derives from another French word which means, " to stimulate the appetite." A ragout is a "thick, rich, well seasoned stew of meat and sometimes vegetables" according to the Food Lover's Companion. That fits the bill.

And consider: moose( venison) stew just might end up on the new White House menu. Perfect after a long day on the ( campain) trail. Here's a photo of it served as a change-up over mashed potatoes.

An American Original

Moose meat stew and Sara Palin - each an American original.

I would like to get Sara's recipe, but in the absence of that, I would suggest that you make it like a beef stew w/ the substitution of any kind of venison for the beef.

Like Sara, we are shooting this game ourselves. Depending on where you get it, venison is likely to be somewhat to completely organic - it may be feeding in grain fields that are not organic - but those up north in Mn in the woods are certainly pure. That is a real plus these days.

Season the meat w/ salt, pepper and garlic(granulated), and brown in oil along w/ plenty of onions till those onions are carmelized( light brown and sweet), add flour( this will thicken the stew) and stir and scrape, deglaze the pan w/ red wine, cover w/ water, add bouillon or beef base, bayleaf and allspice, simmer for an hr or until meat is half tender, then add carrots and celery and simmer till they are tender. Add water throughout as necessary, stirring occasionally.

Serve over mashed potatoes.

Cooler Weather Food

This photo is of grilled sausages, beans w/ onions and jalapenos, and corn fritters on my table very close to the lake. Oh, and a beer( perhaps a Heineken).

The corn fritter recipe was adapted from Craig Clairborne's Book of Southern Cooking. If you are getting more sweet corn than you can eat, slice it off the cob, bag, and freeze so you can be making these corn fritters throughout the fall hunting season. A perfect accompaniment to all the gamebirds you will shoot or acquire from lucky and generous friends.

In the meantime keep the weber fired( w/ real wood) and keep the sausages grilling.

Tomatoes and Real Eggs

A lot, I mean a lot of tomatoes from the garden and they are so fresh and delicious that you don't have to do much with them.

So I tried them w/ real eggs, the farm fresh from a neighbor kind, and I cracked two shells and each were twins( wow, I'm a twin), and it has been years since I've had a real farm fresh egg and holy cow they are orange and firm and taste like eggs are supposed to taste like.

Jalapeno peppers from the garden sauteed till soft in olive oil, and tomatoes likewise just sauteed hot with the eggs stirred in ( garlic, too, of course, and salt and black pepper to taste) and wow that is a meal. Just add toast.

Never had black truffles from France but would love to have them w/ eggs, too.

Homemade v-8 juice coming up.

More Tomatoes

First I'd like to correct my misspelling of the Russian literary giant to Solzhenitsyn with the syn at the end. I did read a remembrance of him in the NYT which indicated that he ate only roasted onions and potatoes even as a Vermonter. Not too bad if they are seasoned properly w/ salt pepper and garlic, and herbs like sage and parsley, or herbs de Provence, along w/ the addition of carrots. Peasant food at it's best if you include butter and rustic bread. Meat occasionally, too.

Ideas for fresh garden tomatoes:

Tomatoes simply sliced and salted and eaten with cottage cheese on the side are exquisite. Bruschetta is another w/ the tomatoes lightly salted w/ garlic and basil. Cut the fresh tomatoes gently with a very sharp knife.
A slice of tomato w/some good artisinal blue cheese on top.
Any variety of salsas.
Guacomole w/ extra tomatoes incorporated.
Tomato basil pizza.
Sliced tomatoes peppered and drizzled w/ olive oil.
Tomato and fresh fruit salsa.
Tomato and watermelon together w/ fresh mint.
The world's best BLT. Along w/ a rootbeer float.
Grilled.

Tomatoes

It is good to be eating ripe red tomatoes directly from the garden.

A Voice in the Wilderness

I read today that Alexander Solzhenitzen( sp) has died at 89 yrs of age. Yrs ago I read most of his books. I remember when he was exiled from Russia and lived in Vermont. He was pretty much dismissed as irrelevent from those yrs forward as he expressed his Christian faith and his disdain for the west and it's moral and spiritual decay. The West had looked upon him as a great writer( honored him w/ the Nobel) and as one of great personal courage, a hero throughout his yrs in the Soviet Union. But then he got here and he did not say what we wanted and expected him to say, you know, laud the west, criticise the east. He retained a great love for his native Russia, and did return and live there for his remaining 10 or 15 yrs.
When one becomes a voice in the wilderness, as he did, I think we should listen. His food writing was limited to the bread and soup that kept him alive in yrs of imprisonment in the Gulag. The struggle and triumph of the human spirit, individually and collectively, was his terrain.