2008-02-02

Sweet sweet strange meat


I thought that lately I'd been trying strange new meats. But really, In my early years I was raised on tripe soup, pighead soup, goat meat tacos and lamb. My stepmother hails from Mexico City and was very resourceful at making delicious food out of foods usually considered too out there or gross to eat here. Like menudo. REAL menudo. I never even asked what the soup was made of. Honestly, there really wasn't a whole lot else around to eat so you kinda had to eat it.
Not only that, she used to cook a huge pot of her soups and leave it on the stove for the several days it would be eaten for lunch and dinner. If you get my drift, that means that it doesn't get refrigerated. Recently my husband has taken up the practice of cooking a whole chicken (including the organs) in nothing but a little salt and water and garlic, per my stepmother's instructions. It gets simmered until the meat is still slightly pink and tender (best- takes at least an hour and a half after it comes to a rolling boil), or falling off the bones. We eat off of it for several days, leaving it on the stove and bringing it slowly to a rolling boil for about ten minutes every meal. We use organic chickens- it's the only way. It's cheap and super nutritious. We add vegetables to the broth at the last half hour of cooking, and daily as the soup is boiling- carrots, celery and leeks, fresh thyme and rosemary. I don't recommend mushrooms early in cooking or root vegetables other than carrots. If you can find some hominy, you could throw that in in the last half hour of cooking for a little extra energy in your meal. Add some thinly sliced cabbage and/or cilantro on top of your soup at the end with some fresh lemon squeezed over it and find out how fine all the flavors work with each other. If you actually try to save a non-refrigerated soup be of good digestive health. Don't disturb the film on the broth before the soup has boiled for eating. Don't allow the pot to be moved. And of course you are trying this at your own risk. I don't advise it for the heat of summer either.
She used to make a very rich spicy broth out of some of the same things but I have no idea what the recipe is for that. That should be my next subject of investigation!
But I digress.
We've been eating home grown sheep, lamb, rabbit, and some store bought duck. Buffalo is a staple from our local Co-op (it's so much better tasting and healthier than beef). But nothing compares to venison.
We recently bought a package of New Zealand farm raised venison. I had eaten venison as a child and remembered it fondly. It had been so long ago I couldn't remember what it tasted like. I eagerly anticipated the meal. Nothing could have prepared me for the experience.
Out of the package the meat had such an aroma it just blew my mind. It looked and smelled reminiscent of buffalo, but also had this amazingly intoxicating lavender/bark/forest/incense scent that blew my mind. What made the meat smell this way? What was the deer's diet?
It was like finding some crazy meat flower if you closed your eyes and tried not to think of it being meat.
I spiced it very sparsely with a small amount of salt and pepper and cooked venison burgers.
I overcooked my burger, but it was sweet and tender and retained the fragance of the raw meat. It may very well be my favorite meat far above the others. It was a great meal!
Next, I'm told we're in store for a nice buffalo toungue. I wonder what that will be like!

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