Ground Meat Marathon
Doing something new here, folks. Vegans: best to go visit another blog today.
My family put THREE elk in the freezer this year. After you take the good steaks, roasts and stew meat out, there is an amazing amount of ground meat. An astonishing amount of ground meat. An appalling amount of ground meat!
I figured it out the other day, and I think I have prepared (in my almost 26 years of cooking game meat) somewhere around 4000 dinners just out of ground meat. Welcome to my life. Now, try not to get too excited, but I'm going to try and share some of the thrill with you. I'm going to do my level best to write a quick post every time I make a ground-meat dinner (just for a while--don't be scared), and share with you the joy and excitement of trying to think up something to do with the same old stuff. So let me catch you up:
Saturday, I made little individual meat loaves, with Italian seasonings. When they were done, I topped them with mozzeralla and baked until the cheese was brown and bubby. Funny. It still tasted like meatloaf.
Sunday, I made a jillion tiny meatballs, adding a chipotle pepper in the usual mix for kick. Browned well, and meanwhile I made a sort of a bordelaise sauce. I say "sort of" because there wasn't any bordelaise in it. A shallot, garlic, sauteed in butter. Lots of black pepper, some thyme, parsley and beef stock, thickened to a sauce. No bordelaise because I'm the only one in my house who likes wine. That's ok, I'll just drink it straight instead of turning it into gravy. Instead, I added morel mushrooms, and served the saucy meatballs over egg noodles.
Tonight? I haven't decided yet.
My family put THREE elk in the freezer this year. After you take the good steaks, roasts and stew meat out, there is an amazing amount of ground meat. An astonishing amount of ground meat. An appalling amount of ground meat!
I figured it out the other day, and I think I have prepared (in my almost 26 years of cooking game meat) somewhere around 4000 dinners just out of ground meat. Welcome to my life. Now, try not to get too excited, but I'm going to try and share some of the thrill with you. I'm going to do my level best to write a quick post every time I make a ground-meat dinner (just for a while--don't be scared), and share with you the joy and excitement of trying to think up something to do with the same old stuff. So let me catch you up:
Saturday, I made little individual meat loaves, with Italian seasonings. When they were done, I topped them with mozzeralla and baked until the cheese was brown and bubby. Funny. It still tasted like meatloaf.
Sunday, I made a jillion tiny meatballs, adding a chipotle pepper in the usual mix for kick. Browned well, and meanwhile I made a sort of a bordelaise sauce. I say "sort of" because there wasn't any bordelaise in it. A shallot, garlic, sauteed in butter. Lots of black pepper, some thyme, parsley and beef stock, thickened to a sauce. No bordelaise because I'm the only one in my house who likes wine. That's ok, I'll just drink it straight instead of turning it into gravy. Instead, I added morel mushrooms, and served the saucy meatballs over egg noodles.
Tonight? I haven't decided yet.
Ha! This is great- i can't wait to hear what you do! I have a ton of ground turkey (not quite the same I know!) in my refrigerator right now. I have to think up a bunch of stuff as well. I am thinking just plays on all of the traditional ground meat recipes. Elk Meatball sandwiches?
ReplyDeleteI've never cooked with ground turkey! I imagine it's very lean, too. We probably both have enviable cholesterol levels!
ReplyDeleteElk meatball sandwiches is a great idea! The messier, the better :-)
Hmmm ground meat...You could make burgers, make elk gyros (well, my recipe calls for ground meat, though I don't think that is the traditional way), strudel (think spanikopitas with the lamb swapped with elk), elk empanadas, you could put it on pizza, or stuff it inside baked potatoes...I have several ground meat recipes on my blog, you could always check it out and swap said ground meat with your ground elk. Hope that helps (and gives you some variety)!
ReplyDeletewell, since I am a vegetarian I'm not that interested in ground meat :)
ReplyDeleteBut the fact you are eating the meat you have killed makes me happy. I hate trophy hunters
Visiting from TRDC
Wow, I have never had elk, or gone hunting for that matter.
ReplyDeletePretty amazing to be eating food that you(r family) hunted. Also pretty budget friendly, I would imagine.