Friday, November 30, 2007

Jerky

Ahh, that good stuff. A little short on cash? The best gifts are ones handmade - I remember our family making a whole passel of hand-made candles when I was a kid. Not only did our family and friends get these great candles, but our whole family did it together and here I am twenty something years later, still remembering with a smile.
Back to my title - jerky. It is so good, and just think how cool it would be to give/get a bag full of this special stuff from your hunting trip. Not only is it healthy, but you get to visit about the great trip with all your recipients and bring in the whole family for a holiday time to make the gifts. You can have your processor slice jerky meat for you and you can even freeze it until you are ready to make it. Or, you can do it all yourself. I slice it about 1/8 inch thick, too thin and it looses some flavor, too thick and it is chewy forever.
You can all make the cards (feature a picture of your hunting trip!)
The best jerky is air dried - hang it on a porch where the canines and others can't get to it, (we have zero humidity so my experience is this works great, but it probably won't for all! A dehydrator is fine, so is the oven with the pilot light on.)
soak about 3-5 pounds meat, sliced in a large bowl that all the meat will fit in. Put in a couple cups water, with about 1/2 cup kosher salt, lots of black pepper and a dash of garlic salt. Start with a little less and stick your finger in it and taste it. If it needs more salt and pepper, add it, if not, toss your meat in!
Soak for an hour and then pour into a colander so that the excess water runs off. I let it sit in the sink a few minutes, at least. Have your string ready, good cotton string, sturdy enough to hold a few pounds, and lay slices of meat over the string. If using the string method, you might lay out newspaper underneath where the meat is, becuase it will continue to drip and a few layers of newspaper will make cleanup easier. (Keep an eye on it, though, if it gets too wet, it will dry to the floor and make a mess). Or lay flat on dehydrator shelves or onto wire racks on cookie sheets. Dry until it just cracks when you break a piece.
Write down in your little recipe book what you like and what you didn't, so that next year you have a great starting place (Less salt, more pepper, cut thicker, whatever!)
We love to add a few spoons full of red chile flakes (chile pequin) or a few roasted green chiles that were run through the food processor or blender.
A note: fat will go rancid, so make sure and trim all the fat off your jerky meat.

Holiday Game Recipe

Been saving that deer tenderloin? Depending on how many you feed, (I think a fairly good starting place is about a third to a half pound of meat per person, we like lots of meat) keep those tenderloins whole and serve them up for your Holiday Feast! Elk, Venison, Grass-fed Beef, you name it!
Sides, it will often get the whole family involved in the cooking process. And, there is nothing funner than firing up the grill in the snow!

Marinade
a can of pinapple chunks
Juice of 1-2 limes (or a few squirts from the little green plastic lime!)
salt and pepper
a dash of rosemary, garlic salt (or the real stuff, fresh garlic is great, just dice a clove up), paprika, seasoned salt

1-3 tenderloins

You may need to double the marinade if you are doing more than this.

Mix your marinade in a plastic tub large enough for the tenderloins to fit into. Let meat set for at least 30 minutes, maybe an hour or two. To grill, I take off the chunks, they will just fall in anyway.
Get your grill good and hot and set a few small dampened chunks of wood (ok, a word of caution here, fruit wood is great, oak is pretty strong flavored stuff, mesquite is available at most stores) into the coals for a good smokey flavor. Set your tenderloins on and keep on eye on them. Last time I did this, the deer cooked about 14 minutes, I rotated it around about 3 times to get it grilled on the outside and moved to the back of the grill off of the heat so it smoked, and I got a good medium temperature on it (pink and moist in the center). My good friend, Bill, at the Timbers at Chama, says the most important thing is to not let it dry out... (if you want great NM hunting, check them out http://www.thetimbersatchama.com/)
Let set a few minutes befor you carve and then set that plate in the center of the table and slice off thin slices of heaven for everyone!
I love my meat medium rare, that said, I rarely get it cooked there. I am impatient, etc. and so just know that trying recipes a few times is the best way to master it.

Chicken Fried Game, Beef

Chicken Fried Steak, it is the meal I eat with the most feeling of comfort food associated. It is good, wholesome, tasty, easy to change up and did I mention, good? We chicken fry elk, deer (venison), beef, Barbary sheep (oh, so good!) - you name it, we chicken fry it!
You can do lots to make it your own, serve it up with green chili, put in a touch of lemon pepper to your flour mixture, etc. I dare say, almost anything can be chicken fried... and taste good.

My fondest memories are of Moms Chicken Fried Steak, I like mine, but her's is just that bit better because, well, she made it! So, here it is, and just in getting this written down, I learned a few things (like she uses water with her eggs, I use milk!) who knew, maybe that is her secret to making it the best!

Mom's Chicken Fried Steak and gravy
(most of my recipes are for a healthy family of 4 - try 'em out and see if it works and then adjust as you need)
2-3 lbs of meat, cut into steaks, about 1/2 thick (If thicker, just flatten them a little more)
1 cup flour
1 or 2 eggs
a few tablespoons milk, plus a cup or two for the gravy
2 TBSP oil
salt and pepper to taste
Tools: frying pan, cutting board, meat mallet or large knife, bowls or pie plates, fork or spatula

Pound meat until about 1/3 inch thick, using mallet or back-side of knife (hit meat repeatedly, moving across steak, then turn again so you are making a criss-cross pattern) turn over and do the same. Don't pound until you are blue in the face! Just get it good and tender and give it a try. If it didn't work, try again - it is a simple method but one that takes a little time getting comfortable with.
Put flour into bowl large enough to lay steaks in (a pie plate works great) and add a little salt and pepper. Break eggs into other pie plate and whisk until one color with about 2 TBSN milk.
Get your oil hot in frying pan in a medium to medium hot stove. don't let it smoke, this is a little too hot!
Take a steak, and lay into flour. Then, using fork, dip into egg mixture. Shake off, and back into the flour mix. Lay into hot oil, careful not to spash yourself! Repeat until your pan is full.
Turn when tanned. As done, take out and fill your frying pan until all your meat is cooked.
After done, add a bit of oil if there isn't any left in the pan. Add about 2 TBSP of flour from your flour mix and stir into the hot oil. Turn down the heat on the stove, and add 1-2 cups milk and mix into the oil/flour mixture. Bring to a boil, stirring the whole time and serve it up!
Umm, umm good. If it doesn't turn out don't worry - the mistakes arent too bad, and I have been making gravy for 25 years and it still gets a little lumpy or thin sometimes!