Braised Elk Short Ribs

In the timber industry, there are lots of hunters. Oddly enough guys who like to hang in the woods, like to hunt. So, when I go down to California to work with our operations, I am usually gifted some sort of meat (elk, bear, deer, etc). Some might say gross...but it is so good for you and cooked right, it can taste fabulous.  On my last trip down there (via private jet...because that is how we roll) I received a package of elk short ribs. Upon receiving them, I had no clue what to do with them. I, of course, turned to the trusty Internet for guidance and came across this fabulous recipe and figured why not (even though it was way out of my comfort zone of cooking, considering I wasn't even sure what made something "braised").

BRAISED ELK RIBS

5 lbs elk ribs or one slab

Salt & pepper 

BRAISING LIQUID

8 ounces red currant jelly (small jar)

2 tbls Dijon mustard

1 cup tawny port

2 cups stock (chicken turkey or beef)

1/2 tsp allspice

1 tsp juniper berries (10 to 12) scorched and coarsely crushed

1 tsp ground cardamon or 4-5 pods husks remover and finely crushed

1 tbls brown sugar

1 cup red wine

1 tbls red wine vinegar

1 tsp ground cinnamon 

Salt (coarse) and fresh ground pepper to taste

Aromatic vegetables such as onion, turnip, celery and carrot may be added in an amount to loosely cover the meat

Pat the ribs dry with paper towels. Rub with salt and pepper. Brown the ribs under broiler or in an iron skillet. 

Meanwhile, in a large saucepan, whisk all braising liquid ingredients, being careful to liquify the currant jelly. Over medium heat, cook the liquid until it's reduced by a third. 

Place ribs in a slow cooker such as a Le Creuset, covered cast iron Dutch oven or even your trusted crock pot. Pour the reduced liquid over ribs about three-fourths of the way up. 

Simmer at 230 degrees at least 4 hours. The longer the simmer, the more tender the ribs. Eight hours brings them to falling-off-the bone which is the desired level of done-ness.

Per all knowing Wikipedia...Braising (from the French “braiser”) is a combination cooking method using both moist and dry heat; typically the food is first seared at a high temperature and then finished in a covered pot with a variable amount of liquid, resulting in a particular flavor.

So now it all makes sense. I went to the store to get my ingredients, figuring I had most of the spices. The next morning I woke up to realize okay...maybe we don't have all of those...so I decided there were going to be a few adjustments. I found this helpful chart to assist with substitution.

About.com - Home Cooking

Allspice - I only used cinnamon and nutmeg
Juniper Berries - Gin...yeah, I got that. :)
Cardamon = Ginger = Cinnamon (this one was a bit of a stretch and I don't think that you are supposed to substitute a substitute, but why not.

So, at 6 AM I was out on our deck in Seattle BBQ-ing to brown the meat. I felt a little odd freezing my butt off doing it, but figured it would be the easiest way to get it done. 

We have a baby BBQ, but it works perfect - Ribs browned . I think mixed my sauce and heated it to reduce it, I didn't reduce it as long as recommended, I had to get to work and figured it would reduce in the crock pot as well. 

 I also being a lover of veggies added some onions, celery and carrots.

 Threw it all in the crock pot on low for 10 hours, crossed my fingers and left for work. When I came back...the apartment smelled FABULOUS!!! Checked the mix (after stressing about it all day) and it looked amazing and tasted awesome. Doug was even impressed and he is usually the cook between us. There is hope for me yet.

 I ended up taking some left overs in to work, because people are always curious about game meat. A few people had it and I had to remind them that it was elk. The meat was very tender.

Here is the recipe as I did it, if I had more control over my work schedule or was around the apartment, I probably wouldn't have cooked it for so long.

Rachel's BRAISED ELK RIBS

5 lbs elk ribs or one slab

Salt & pepper 

BRAISING LIQUID

8 ounces red currant jelly (small jar)

2 tbls Dijon mustard

1 cup tawny port

2 cups stock (Chicken)

1/2 tsp Cinnamon/Nutmeg

Splash of Gin

1 tsp Cinnamon

1 tbls brown sugar

1 cup red wine

1 tbls red wine vinegar

1 tsp ground cinnamon 

Salt (coarse) and fresh ground pepper to taste

Aromatic vegetables such as onion, celery and carrot may be added in an amount to loosely cover the meat. For me...more veggies the better.

Pat the ribs dry with paper towels. Rub with salt and pepper. Brown the ribs on the BBQ.

Meanwhile, in a large saucepan, whisk all braising liquid ingredients, being careful to liquify the currant jelly. Over medium heat, cook the liquid until it's reduced by a third. Mine was reduced by a 4th at most.

Place ribs in trusted crock pot. Pour the reduced liquid over ribs about three-fourths of the way up. I put it a little higher, because I figured I probably had more ribs and I was hoping for some reduction in the sauce during the day.

Simmer at 230 degrees at least 4 hours. The longer the simmer, the more tender the ribs. Eight hours brings them to falling-off-the bone which is the desired level of done-ness. Yeah...they were falling off.

I believe this would work for any short rib...beef would be fabulous in this. What is your favorite game meat recipe?

First night in a foreign land...

Rather than ramble through every moment of my time in Eindhoven, I figured I will focus on the key events/activities/observations.

First Night...
Walking into the bar in our hotel, we were pleasantly surprised to see that they were strong supporters of Movember. It was nice to see something familar and know that such a wonderful cause/program is supported world wide. We decided to hang out and have a drink to support their support. :)

Nothing like having bitterballen to support the balls.

We then headed out for dinner. I think of the things that I love so far about traveling in Europe is that no one knows you are foreign (Well, until they attempt to speak to you). This is much different from Mexico where we tend to not blend as well, despite our attempts to blend with our fabulous language skills (where-o is-o the-o beach-o?, Doug's version of Spanish) and attire (doesn't everyone where their swimsuit every day in Mexico?).  It has been nice to not be hassled, stared down or asked if I would like to take a motor taxi...however, we are without sun here...so I guess we can't have everything.

We went to a Thai restuarant, and I am upset to say I can't remember the name. I would ask Doug but last time he was asked where he went, he looked at the receipt and told them  :)"klant bon," which they responded meant "Customer Receipt." :)  Obviously his Dutch is not as strong as his spanish.

After that we ended up walking around the center and people watching, there were a lot of young college/high school aged people out. We ended up settling at an Irish Bar (which, I was at first against because why go to an Irish bar when you are going to Ireland within the week?). However, after we went in, it was my favorite and the musican there was really great.

Sleep...
As you can imagine, the time change has been having an impact on my sleep, I not being one who likes to sleep in, seem to now have no issue sleeping in or staying up late, although I do like my nap times. With the time change and the fabulous black out curtains in the hotel, we had no problem sleeping until after noon. Our goal had been to get up and go check out the shops and all that, but since we were unable to motivate ourselves out of bed, we ended up, just grabbing lunch and then going to meet up with some co-workers/friends of Doug for a movie.   We saw the new James Bond movie, Skyfall and then went out for tapas at a restaurant called Si Senor.  Ordered...fill the table and tried lots of fun things...ended up at our Irish Bar with great conversation and friends. Closed the night off with a stroopewafel mcflurry from MacDonald's (Scottish Restaurant...maybe you have heard of it) and of course frikandellen.

Darn birds

Have you ever heard of a bird strike? Well, I hadn't, we ran into some issue escaping the Netherlands and heading to Ireland, the birds decided to attack our plane as it was flying in to pick us up. This is not something you want to see next to your plane. After a few hours we were allowed to board.  Lets just say that the Eindhoven airport is small and has limited internet connectivity.

We finally made our way to Ireland....