Alex D.
Tuesday, we talked about how hunting grouse is a great way to begin as a hunter, but what do you do with the animal after you have harvested it? Game meat doesn't have to be a difficult meat to cook with and with a few simple trick, can be a corner stone in your favourite meals. We are not chefs! We have busy lives and just want a nutritious and delicious meal to fuel us.
When it comes to game, the most important thing is to keep the meat clean (of hair and feathers) and cool it down. These two things will keep the meat from having the 'gamey' flavour that new hunters are worried about. Including me! This is a great first step, but you also want it to taste great! The best thing I ever learned about was making a brine. This is how I start my meal every time.
I added my personal touch to this brine by including a heap of minced garlic, a tablespoon of onion powder, and a few dashes of Worchestershire sauce. I set the partially defrosted grouse breast into the pan and let it sit in the fridge overnight. Even after rinsing the meat in the morning the breast still smelt like all that seasoned goodness. The one thing that I learned was to flip the meat if it wasn't completely submerged. But you can definitely see the colour lighten in the meat.
The recipe I followed was a suggestion by Stephanie Fenson that I just had to try.
I have never cooked with coconut milk or cream before and I had an interested time trying to find these ingredients. I found the can of coconut milk, no problem. But I looked everywhere for the can of coconut cream. I even went to different stores. Finally, I asked a young man in produce where to find the coconut cream and he was delighted. He said "I am a vegan and would be happy to help you out!'. He explained to me that the can of coconut milk is what I am looking for after all. It separates into a cream and water, so if I scoop out the cream before they are mixed back together, I have my coconut cream. So after all, I really just needed two cans of coconut "milk".
I mentioned to him that I am a hunter and I am cooking a coconut curry prairie chicken dish and he got very excited. He said "I have hunted grouse too, You know hunters put an enormous amount of money into conservation and it really is the poachers who give hunting a bad name." I can't tell you how relieved I was to hear someone who understands what hunting is all about. I am always surprised and amazed at how much vegans and hunters have in common. We both care enormously about the environment, our nutritional health, and use unconventional ingredients in our foods.
Back to the meal, coconut curry prairie chicken is as easy as chopping up the veggies and meat, blending up the sauce and stirring it together in the slow cooker on low for 6-8 hours. The one question that I wasn't sure about was whether to keep the gelatinous surface of the breast on. It almost looks silver and it a bit tough to cut through (I definitely need sharper knives). When slow cooking, that tough layer becomes gelatinous when slow cooked and will thicken with the sauce. There is no need to slice it off and potentially lose meat. I did pull out the ligament, because it was really easy, but it wasn't necessary.
Once all that is in the pot, we have all day to ourselves and we only have to cook up some basmati rice, before we are ready to eat. The meal was divine. The grouse melted in our mouths and we will definitely be making this dish again!
