First experience with venison

I know that might be shocking to you guys, but I've only ever had deer jerky .  Especially since I live in an area of the country that practically has a state wide holiday for the annual opening of shotgun season for deer.  Seriously, when I was in high school, kids were able to get out of school simply based on the line, "I'm going deer hunting."  Anyway here are is the pictoral evidence.

The stuff for the sauce to be served.  Onions, garlic and jalapeno, chicken broth, frozen grape juice, red wine, bottled grape juice and fresh grapes.

The onions, garlic and jalpaenos got sauteed in a bit of butter.

Here are the various stages of the sauce.  The wine was added in two different 1/2 cup portions, then the chicken broth and grape juice concentrate and then the bottled grape juice went in.  All told start to finish probably 30 minutes to make the sauce.

Here is the raw venison loin waiting to hit the heat.

Seasoned meat ready to going in the pan.

Meat halfway through the cooking.

The finished meat.

 The finished plate.  Based on my input costs, this plate would probably cost about $75 in a restaurant.  But it was delicious, and you definitely know you're not eating beef.  To me it was much closer to duck than any four legged creature I've eaten before.

mmmmmm Tuna

Tuna is probably my favorite fish on the planet.  So on Thursday I had a  grilled tuna steak with wasabi butter.

Here's the stuff for the epic fail version of a rice cake.  Sugar, corn starch, rice, rice vinegar and salt.  Basically I spent all kinds of time cooking the rice only to have the cake completely fall apart during the final cooking process.

The wasabi butter.  Butter, salt, lemon, parsley and wasabi powder.

The marinade for the tuna.  The wet poriton includes. rice vinegar, sesame oil, sugar, soy sauce, sherry and siracha.  The dry portion includes, green onions, garlic, and ginger. After everything was put together the tuna marinated for about 20 minutes.

The cucumber salad stuffs.  The wet part is sugar, rice vinegar, pickled ginger (yes I already had this on hand) and salt.  Dry part was cucumber, orange, cilantro. green onions, parsley and bean sprouts. 

The cooked tuna, the clerk today me this wasn't sushi grade but there's not chance I'm cooking tuna past medium rare.  Then the second pic is the final plating.

Steak Bruschetta

So if you've followed the blog for any length of time you know I  love red meat, especially steak.  So this was an interesting way to do something to a steak other than grill it and eat it straight up.  In this meal, the steak got a simple sear and then served over toast with an arugula salad.

The stuff for the arugula aioli. Mayo, lemon juice, horseradish and arugula.

The finished aioli.

The stuff for the vinaigrette.  Onion, basil, garlic, olive oil and red wine vinegar.

The stuff for the toast.

The steak.  The middle pic is the seasoned steak ready to go in the pan and the cooked steak.

The finished meal.

Grilled chicken

So probably the quintessential American food.  Chicken on the grill.  I did this one a bit differently though.  I bone bone-in chicken breasts and grilled them.  So here we go.

Here's the stuff that the chicken marinated in for about 24 hours.  Soy Sauce, Garlic, Honey and Lime juice. 

Vegetable salad that went along with the chicken.  Onions, Red Pepper, Garlic, Balsamic Vinegar and Olive Oil.

The marinated chicken seasoned with salt and white pepper in this case (only because I'm out of black pepper) ready to go on the grill.

The completed chicken.

The final plating.

A new twist on Chicken Wings

So I love chicken wings, but I'm not a huge fan of the ones that are super spicy.  This was a fun twist on all of that.  Hot wings wraps.

What is hot wings with out blue cheese dressing.  The top photo is all the stuff for the dressing.  Mayo, lemon, milk, worchestshire, parsley, salt and blue cheese.

The stuff for the hot wings sauce.  Honey, Frank's Hot Sauce and lime.

The condiments, celery, carrots and cucumber.

I cubed up some chicken breasts and then sauteed them in grapeseed oil.

After all the chicken was cooked the hot wings sauce was added to the pan.

The finished plate.

Fish Meunierre

This is probably my favorite preparation of fish.  So simple yet so delicious.  All this is is flat fish dusted in flour and sauteed in butter.

All the stuff for the meal.  Butter, parsley, salt, pepper, flour, lemon, flounder, capers and olive oil.

The fish got seasoned with salt and pepper and dusted with flour.

Fish halfway through being cooked in a butter and olive oil mixture.

The start of the brown butter sauce.  Basically you put the butter in the pan and cook it until it almost starts to burn.

The butter sauce after the lemon juice was added.

The parsley and capers go in.

The finished plate.  So simple yet so delicious.  From start to finish this dish takes about 15-20 minutes to make.