Sunday, September 30, 2012

Pepper Venison Escalope with Split Grilled Brocolli - AKA "Thow stuff on grill"

Hi everyone, I'm out of town with the kiddos so poor hubby has to make his own dinner. Before you feel too sorry for him though, I did completely stock the fridge with both homemade and ready meals for him, along with all the sides.  Of course, with the fridges we all have, it didn't last very long, but I gave him a kick start anyway :)
 
So here is the hubby, with enough time on his hands to post a great sounding recipe (hopefully he cleaned up the kitchen too!) :p
 
Hubby:
Here is the scenario: the wife is away with the kids and you are going to need to cook something for dinner. You want something manly. What do you do?

Usually when one thinks of manly culinary arts, the barbecue comes to mind. A vision of hamburgers and hot dogs grilled at a party is easy to conjure.

What a disapointment! These processed foods are the metrosexuals of the manly culinary repertoire! Repeat after me - real men eat wild game.

For those just coming around to the ideas, it helps to get into the spirit. Try saying "Wild Game" to yourself to pump yourself up. It sounds better when you yell it sort of like Duran Duran* in Wild Boys. WILD GAME! WILD GAME! WILD GAME!

Ted Nugent isn't returning my calls so I was forced to restrict my hunt to the local Coop grocery store. It is apparently hunting season in Switzerland and on offer were venison. The packaging helpfully allows you to identify which meat is from Stags and which from Does. I wanted to avoid having Sound of Music songs in my head while grilling so I thoughtfully chose a Stag escalope. The package clearly informs the consumer that it is indeed wild game. WILD GAME!

Nobody is exactly sure what the supply chain is like that gets wild game prepackaged into the fridge at our local Coop (some sort of hunting co-op?) but do not dwell on this. Keep your eye on the prize - WILD GAME!

This meal was planned as a "throw stuff on grill and cook until done" which is a great way to avoid recipe cards and other womanly pursuits. Despite what you may have heard, real men DO eat vegetables so make sure some sort of vegetable is included in the stuff that you throw on the grill. Don't think about it - just grab something at random while walking through the produce section. I grabbed a big head of broccoli since the stalk makes a nice handle which is easy to grab.

For those who need a recipe to operate, here ya go:

Ingredients:
  • 250g venison escalope - Stag or Doe (a deer, a female deer...)
  • Venison Marinade
    • Lemon Juice - 1 gs (gs = good squirt, approximately a tablespoon)
    • Worchestestestestchire Sauce - 1 tbsp
    • Soy Sauce - 1 tbsp (I use low sodium)
    • Freshly ground pepper - 1/2 tbsp
    • Vegetable Oil (canola or sunflower oil) - 3 tbsp
  • A vegetable too big to fall through the grate of the grill (I chose broccoli)
  • Vegetable dressing (this basically works with all vegetables)
    • Olive Oil
    • Cracked Pepper
    • a dash of salt

Instructions
1. Mix together venison marinade ingredients in a shallow bowl
 
2. Add venison
3. Put in refrigerator for at least 4 hours.
4. Watch sports
5. Watch more sports
6. Light grill.
7. Prep veggie - If vegetable is large and thick like a head of cabbage, cauliflower or broccoli - cut it in half.
 
8. Coat veggie with olive oil
9. Add cracked pepper to veggie
10. Optional - Wrap vegetable in aluminum foil
11. Throw vegetable on grill with medium heat and close the lid
12. After 5 minutes or so throw on venison
 
13. Cook until done
14. Serve

Do real men drink wine? If you are the kind of real man that drinks wine, let me suggest a wine pairing - Azabache Reserva 2008. It's a Spanish red with a fruity as opposed to overpowering taste. It goes well with this dish by both being full bodied, but also sweet and subtle to complement the rich and flavorful WILD GAME!

Serve with a salad and enjoy!
 
 
 
 
Well, thank you to my husband for writing up and taking pictures of that delicious looking dinner (the wine looks especially good right now with the little one hanging on me and crying!).
 
I'm glad I didn't have to type out the W. sauce as my spelling is probably even worse :p but it is easy to find. All the Coops I have been in seem to carry it in their international sections, but you can also order online from Coop or Migros fairly cheaply.  Sunflower oil is very easy to find and what I use the majority of the time. 
 
I have never had brocolli cooked on the grill like that...actually, I don't think I've had it any way on the grill, so I'm looking forward to trying it when I come home...maybe with a nice T-bone! :-D
 
What do you think? Should we have more 'mancooking' posts? (Personally, I think it's a fabulous idea as it means less cooking for me....and I know he's got a fantastic onion cake (dinner, not dessert) recipe, hummous, and a few others that I would love to share...
 
Until next time, Guten Appetit!  

Friday, September 7, 2012

Simple Tomato and Olive bread

Tired of the same old garlic bread with your pasta?
  I went to Mulhouse with my MIL while she was here and left her to pick out some `good looking bread` for us.  I was planning on stopping at the little sandwich shop in the mall for lunch, but it is either gone, or closed for renovations.  So, we were left with the bread to eat in the car on the way home.  I hadn`t realized she`d picked anything other than a plain loaf of bread, so I wasn`t that excited, but wow, was it good.  It had the flavors of tomato, black olive, onion and cheese in it.  All baked on to the top. It was delicious.  I made mine with it baked into the middle as well as my loaf of bread was a bit thicker than the one we had in France.


What you need:
 Bread, the flatter the loaf the better
black olives, sliced
1 onion, very thinly sliced
tomato sauce, chunky, creamy, whichever you prefer (I used a blended sun dried tomato)
cheese: I used a blend of gruyere and emmantaler










Slice your bread in half, and spread some of the tomato across it.  Add olives and onions.  I did half and half. Close the bread, spread more tomato on top and then top with the cheese.  Bake at 150 C for 15 minutes, or until the cheese is melted.



Result: Really good. Will make this instead of garlic bread for the next few times. My only problem was getting the cheese to stay on top of the bread. It wanted to come off like little cheese cracker pieces. Maybe cross hatch the top of the bread with a knife and stick some cheese down in the bread a little bit.