venison « (y)our food choices™

We found ourselves once again spending a Labor Day weekend inland where we poured thousands of samples of Scottish whisky at the Scottish Highland Games in Pleasanton. We have a lot of fun in our whisky ambassador roles and this festive crowd loves the stuff we pour. But what a trip the games are with their motley crew of die-hard clan encampments and gawkers and weekend kilt wearers. People are serious about their period costumes as evidenced by the many hearty souls who wandered around the hot dusty fairgrounds covered from head to toe in wool and fur and heavy fabrics.

Like all fairs, this annual event brings together an eclectic group of food vendors all seemingly hell bent on serving up the biggest, most gut busting-est portions of fried food imaginable. We saw corn dogs large enough to feed a family of four – seriously! And the fish & chips outlet piled up the fried potatoes in large paper baskets then topped them with what looked like runway-sized slabs of battered, deep fried fish. Never mind the turkey drumsticks and giant burgers or the towering chocolate dipped soft serve ice cream cones. In fact, never mind this belly stretching mess. You don’t go to the Highland Games for freakishly large portions of American carnival food. This is a Scottish event, after all. How about a little haggis? No? Then how about an English sausage in pastry dough and a nice ale to wash it down?

Our favorite “ethnic” option came from Heritage Foods, a purveyor of some of the tastiest British-style meat pies we’ve ever tasted. A standard on the California fantasy fair circuit, these tasty hand-held pastries are deliciously savory meals in a pie shell. We snacked on steak and mushroom pies that were served molten hot (a little tricky when you’re talking about hand-held food). The pie shell is tender and simply flavored making it the perfect accompaniment to the rich beef and mushroom gravy filling. Large chunks of tender beef and slices of mushroom are filling, not stuffing. We could have eaten several of these pies, but one a year is likely enough given the oily sheen the flaky pastry left on our fingers.

If you’re still eating Swanson’s frozen potpies, it’s time to reconsider the homemade meat pie. We haven’t quite figured out John Torode’s Beef cookbook (the English use parts of the cow we’ve never heard of and all the ingredients are listed in metric quantities and that’s just wrong) but the beautiful book offers several delicious iterations of this traditional British street food. We have wild Idaho Elk on hand and decided to improvise our own meat pies. Of course, you can substitute any red meat fit for braising. Give this one a try and then tell us if you still prefer the frozen factory pies from your supermarket. We think you’ll toss them out to make room for your own homemade pies!

The recipe that follows is very nearly an exact reproduction of Emeril Lagasse’s Steak and Mushroom pie recipe found over here on the Food Network’s site. We give all due credit to Emeril for this fantastic iteration of a classic English dish.

The Recipe: English-Style Venison Steak and Mushroom Pie

6 ounces bacon, cut into 1/2-inch pieces
Olive oil
1 1/2 pounds venison meat or beef chuck or sirloin, cubed
1 teaspoon paprika
¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper
½ teaspoon dried oregano
½ teaspoon dried thyme
1 1/2 cups chopped yellow onions
2 teaspoons minced garlic
8 ounces button mushrooms, wiped clean, stems trimmed, and sliced
salt and pepper
3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce
1 (12-ounce) bottle dark beer
2 cups beef stock
1 bay leaf
1 tablespoon chopped parsley
2 teaspoons fresh thyme
pastry dough
Phyllo (country style, store bought)
3-4 tablespoons butter, melted

Directions

In a large skillet, cook the bacon over medium-high heat until browned. Transfer with a slotted spoon to paper towels to drain.

Season the beef with the paprika, cayenne pepper, dried oregano, dried thyme, salt, and pepper. Pour off the bacon fat and add about 2 tablespoons olive oil and heat the pan over medium. When hot, add the beef (in batches, if necessary to prevent overcrowding). Cook until brown on all sides, about 5 minutes. Remove from the pan and add the onions, adding more olive oil as needed. Cook, stirring, until soft, about 4 minutes. Add the garlic and cook, stirring, for 1 minute. Add the mushrooms and cook, stirring, until wilted and starting to brown, 4 to 5 minutes. Add the salt, pepper, flour, and Worcestershire, and stir well. Cook, stirring, for 2 minutes. Add the beer and stock, and stir to deglaze the pan. Bring to a boil and add the bay leaf, parsley, thyme, cooked bacon bits, and return the meat to the pan. Lower the heat, cover, and simmer gently, stirring occasionally, until the meat is tender, about 1 hour. Remove from the heat, discard the bay leaf, and adjust the seasoning, to taste. Allow the beef stew to cool and then refrigerate at least four hours or over night.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Roll out the pastry crust on a lightly floured surface. Using a round cookie cutter, or the rim of a glass, cut out the pastry dough and place each round into a muffin tin. The pastry should be just large enough to to come up to the top of the muffin tin. Fill each pastry shell with the cold stew and refrigerate.

Unroll the phyllo dough and place a damp cloth over the top to keep from drying out. Using one sheet at a time, place on work surface and brush with melted butter. Add another sheet and brush again with melted butter, until you have used five sheets. If you are using regular phyllo use eight sheets. Using a slight smaller cookie cutter, cut out twelve tops. Place one on top of each pie and crimp around the edges. Don’t worry if each one is slightly different. Brush each top with the remaining butter

Put the pies in the oven and bake for 20-30 minutes or until golden on top. If the phyllo dough gets to brown cover with aluminum foil and continue to cook. You can also freeze the unbaked pies in the muffin pan for later use and bake right out of the freezer, just add 10-20 minutes more to the cooking time

Recipe: Pastry Dough

1 1/3 cups all purpose flour
1 stick butter, chilled and cut into 1/4 inch pieces
1 tbsp ice water
1 large egg
1/8 tsp salt

Directions

Sift flour and salt into a bowl, add butter pieces and blend with your fingertips until the flour mixture looks like course meal. In a separate bowl, add egg and water and beat well. Add egg and water mixture to flour and stir with a fork until the dough just starts to come together. Pour dough out onto a sheet of plastic wrap and shape into a disk. Wrap the dough and refrigerate it for at least 30 minutes. Longer is better. This dough can remain refrigerated for up to 3 days before use.

They're rare so get them while you can!

We’re likely to make whisky dinners a habit after a recent event presented by Whiskies of the World and The City Club Whisky Society in San Francisco. City Club’s David Forsyth and WoW’s Douglas Smith hosted Ed Kohl of ImpEx Beverages who led the evening’s educational tasting of a magnificent selection of whiskies from the Ian Macleod Distillers’ Chieftain’s Range of single cask bottlings.

Now, you might be thinking to yourselves, “Whisky with dinner? That’s just crazy!” Believe us, whisky is a fantastic companion to many of your favorite foods. Pairing food and spirits takes some experience, but you already know that it works well with examples like tequila and carne asada or Grand Marnier and chocolate soufflé.

This was our favorite-and most rare-of the bunch.

So, here’s the setup: each course of the meal is paired with two different but complimentary Scotch whiskies, each selected for its unique flavor profile and likely affinity to the flavors of the food it accompanies. As the meal progresses, our whisky expert explains the whisky making process while describing the flavors of the whiskies in front of us on the table. Diners have a unique opportunity to experiment with pairings that would never have occurred to them (who thinks to serve whisky with fish?) while learning quite a lot about a spirit category many Americans are rediscovering.

The City Club’s very own Chef Michael Munoz, formerly of Moose’s Restaurant in North Beach, put out a fantastic meal that began with a taste of pepper seared beef tenderloin, roasted peppers and blue cheese cream on toasted crostini. Our whisky experts from ImpEx paired the hors d’oeuvres with two fantastic drams – the first, an 8 year old Isle of Skye blended malt with its mellow smokiness, was the perfect start to the evening’s tasting; the second, a 31 year old bottling of Speyside malt Allt a’ Bhainne, was a spicy, warm and woody counterpoint to the rich flavors of the beef and blue cheese.

Beautiful and delicious scallop with duck hash.

The pan seared Maine Diver Scallop dish that kicked off the sit down meal impressed us. Chef Munoz plated these beautiful scallops with Muscovy Duck Sausage Hash, Rocket greens and a delicate sauce béarnaise. The accompanying whiskies, an 18 year old Glen Moray from Speyside and a 25 year old Port Ellen from Islay were gorgeous on their own. The exquisite Port Ellen was jaw droppingly delicious and oh so fine! The Glen Moray was full of fruit and sweet oaky spice that lingered for a very long time. Both complimented the scallop and duck perfectly.

Venison, the other red meat.

Our venison consumption has been limited to the wild variety – mule deer, elk and antelope from Idaho and Wyoming – so we were curious to taste Chef’s Denver Leg of Venison, which he plated with herbed spaetzle, a puree of English peas, an heirloom tomato sauce and black truffle jus. We were impressed by the kitchen’s expert touch with the venison, served nice and rare. Venison is naturally lean relative to beef and as such doesn’t hold up well to overcooking. Wild venison cooked well turns into shoe leather and once “ruined” must be cooked for a very long time to get it back to a point where it is chewable. This dish was delicate and perfectly tender! We loved the spaetzle, a treat we’ve prepared at home with good success but something we don’t eat often enough. If there was a disappointment in the dish, it had to be the pea puree. It wasn’t a bad idea, but it didn’t do anything for the venison and one of us thought it tasted as though the peas were old. We both agreed that while some preparations of greens might pair well with whisky, this pea puree did not. The flavor of the tomato sauce was barely perceptible. The course was paired with a 16 year old Linkwood, a Speyside malt of excellent character with sweet smoke and spicy cedar notes that worked beautifully with the venison. We also tasted a 14 year old Glenrothes that has been finished in a Burgundy cask (also from Speyside). We love Glenrothes whisky, and this one was fine, but the Burgundy finish was distracting and, for a few dinner guests we spoke to, confusing. They wanted wine with their venison and the Glenrothes disappointed because the wine finish is, of course, very subtle.

You can never go wrong with Chocolate and Whisky.

The evening meal ended with a dark chocolate pot de crème and chocolate dipped hazelnut short bread. The pot de crème was interesting – very buttery and dense. We thought it was delicious. The hazelnut short bread was awesome! Unlike many shortbreads, this one was crisp not sandy. We wanted a plate of them. Desert paired nicely with an 11 year old Madeira finished Dalmore that we thought to be perfectly sweet and creamy with just hint of chocolate and smoke. It’s a warm, sunny malt from the Scottish Highlands that works nicely with the added richness of the Madeira.

Our compliments to the Chef and the whisky makers! You’ve inspired us to think more broadly about food and beverage pairings. To those of you who are still scratching your heads, we say let go of your inhibitions and give it a try. How bad can a great steak paired with a great glass of Scotch taste? We think you’ll love them together.