The Hunter's Series: Hunter's Pie (Featuring Guest Writer John!)

I've wanted to have a guest writer take over my blog for a long time and finally the dream has come to fruition!

Last week John cooked up two wonderful meals: a duck & goose stew (which I refer to as duck-duck-soup) and a variation on sheppard's pie called hunter's pie, made with beef, deer, and peameal bacon.

It was delicious. 

We ate the pie for dinner (and lunch) so I only have pictures of the pie so that will be the recipe up today.

Anyway, to tell you how he made his hunter's pie, here is John!

Hello everyone. This hunting season for me was pretty short, as I only got out once during duck and goose season.  But thanks to the kindness of my hunting buddies Shawn and Kris, we had a pile of different game meats in our freezer. Among them was deer, moose, elk, Canada goose, and a few different types of duck.  So first on the menu of wild game food was my take on Sheppard's Pie- a Hunter's Pie.

It's really simple to make, and you can substitute the ingredients used with pretty much anything you'd like.  This is very meat-heavy though, so if you're hoping for a vegetarian alternative you're out of luck.  Maybe in the spring I'll do another post about foraged wild edible plants though- spring fiddleheads are pretty tasty.

So central to this recipe is meat: Peameal bacon, ground beef, and ground venison.  Venison has a stronger, more gamey flavour than beef, so combining half beef and half deer mellows out the flavour a bit and makes it more accessible to people that would otherwise be scared off by eating deer.

I started off by cutting the bacon in rough chunks, and sautéing them in a pan.  Then I added onion, minced garlic, cracked black pepper and chilli flakes.  When the onions turned translucent, I added the ground meats.  When they were fully cooked I drained off some of the liquid to prevent the pie from being too soggy.

Ground beef and deer in the pot.  The beef is the bright one, while the venison is more brown in colour.

While the meats were browning, I boiled and mashed some potatoes and a few sweet potatoes. I like the contrast between white fleshed potatoes and the orange of sweet potatoes, as it makes the pie look a bit more interesting.  I then added a bit of butter and a spoonful of horseradish to the potatoes, which makes them taste way better.

With the meat browned and the potatoes mashed, all that's left is layering this sweet concoction in a baking dish.  To assemble: meat on the bottom in a layer about 2cm thick, sprinkled with corn and peas (the canned stuff works great), then smooth on the mash to about 2cm thick as well. Toss it in the oven for a while and you're set.

Butchering (ed note: in my mind I'm going to just read this as 'hunting'. Still love you John!) any large game animal like deer, moose, or elk leaves you with a lot of ground meat. This is a great way to use up all that delicious, flavourful meat and clean out your freezer.  Anyone who hunts knows how important it is to use as much of the animal as possible, and this is an easy and tasty way to accomplish that.

Thanks for reading my wildly speculative ramblings, and thanks to my lovely wife for letting me contribute to her blog.

Up next in the hunter' series: Duck-Duck Soup

Restaurant Review: The Lobster Trap

 

I love Groupon & Buytopia.

Love them.

I've purchased yoga classes, restaurant coupons, massages, a watch, and an assortment of other things.

Most recently I purchased one for The Lobster Trap.

John is a big seafood fan and this restaurant gets good reviews so I took him for a surprise dinner outing on Thursday night.

 

$30 for $70 worth of entrees sounded like a lot but the prices are quite high so the deal from Buytopia was perfect.

 

 

 

 

We enjoyed some deliciously buttery garlic rolls and John ordered a half dozen oysters ($16).

He maintains the best oysters he's had are from The Miller Tavern but he certainly devoured the ones in front of him pretty quickly.

 

I ordered the filet mignon ($32) with a baked potato while John opted for a 1 1/4 lb lobster ($36).

 

The steak was easily one of the best I've ever had. It was cooked perfectly and was so tender I barely had to move my knife to cut through it.

Even the lobster was delicious and I am not a big seafood fan.

We were shown by our server how to find some secret meat in the tail - lobster meat can be pretty sweet but the tiny morsels of meat from the tail was perfection.

 

The staff were very friendly. The restaurant doesn't feel overly upscale but the prices certainly seem that way.

 

The food is well worth the price if you're willing to splurge a bit.

Or, better yet, find a deal!

 

 

Restaurant Review: The Burger Cellar

A little more than a week ago John and I went out for dinner to celebrate the end of my 8-shifts-in-a-row.

We decided to try The Burger Cellar, a restaurant in the neighbourhood that we'd been meaning to check out for awhile.

After making the waiter come back several times we finally decided on a wine. We went with a pinot noir from Kacaba.

The selling point was the winery - it was one of the ones that we visited during our Niagara honeymoon weekend.

It wasn't the Cab Franc that we spent $45 on but this bottle was still good (and about the same price, thank you restaurant mark-ups). 

 

Feeling like I needed to live large with my upcoming big pay cheque, we ordered the Duck Poutine ($11) to start.

It was, in a word, phenomenal.

The duck was tender, the cheese curds and the gravy were both amazing.

The dish didn't last too long once it hit the table.

 

 

Having checked out the menu earlier, I was tempted by the write-up for the vegetarian option ($11):

"panko breaded golden fried patty of roasted red peppers, grilled zucchini, red onions, baby spinach, pumpkin, cream cheese, chick peas and kidney beans, topped with avocado and tomato relish and Woolwich Farm goat cheese"

 

It was really really good and very filling.

 

 

John opted for the meatier Burger Cellar Burger ($12):

"two-year old Bothwell smoked cheddar, apple cider bacon, sauteed mushrooms, chipotle BBQ sauce and a beer-battered onion ring"

 

And having taken a few bites from his I can confirm it was also delicious.

 

 

The place is lovely (we were seated right next to a fireplace) and the service was good.

I'd go back!

Balcony Dinner Series: Crispy Ginger Beef

In the past 2 weeks that we've been married, John and I have been taking turns making dinner and eating them out on the balcony.

It's been so nice, especially since I was practically never home last year (what with school, placement, and work) and this summer I was working til 9 every night. Nights where we could sit down to dinner together were few and far between.

And generally when we did get to have dinner together we would make something quick and eat it on the couch watching TV together.

Eating dinner on the balcony removes the distractions and lets us talk about our day and anything else we want to share.

It's also been a nice opportunity to get back in the kitchen and cook again.

 

John's favourite dish when w order Chinese food is crispy ginger beef. Feeling lazy one night I suggested we just order in chinese. We ended up just making something quick but it inspired me to find a recipe so that I could make it for John.

 

I put together an Asian-inspired meal, with wonton soup (my favourite), a turkey terriyaki stir fry (complete with bok choy), and crispy ginger beef.

The recipe is relatively easy (with the exception of frying the beef) and turns out absolutely delicious.

I used a package of mixed vegetables that I bought from an Asian vegetable market. Cabbage really works well with this dish.

I also cooked chow mein noodles to soak up the delicious ginger sauce.

 

Balcony Dinner Series

 

 

Turkey terriyaki stir fry

 

Crispy Ginger Beef

Here's the recipe I used

(from allrecipes.com)

 

 

You will need: 

• 1 lb flank steaks or 1 lb sirloin steak, sliced into narrow strips
• 3/4 cup cornstarch
• 1/2 cup water
• 2 eggs
• 1 large carrot, julienned
• 3 green onions, chopped
• 1/4 cup fresh ginger, minced
• 5 garlic cloves, minced
• canola oil
• 3 tablespoons soy sauce
• 4 tablespoons rice vinegar
• 1 tablespoon sesame oil
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 3 teaspoons crushed red pepper flakes, to taste

1. Place cornstarch in a large bowl. Add water gradually while whisking.
2. Beat eggs into cornstarch mixture. Toss in beef and stir to coat.
3. Pour 1 inch of oil into wok, heat until boiling hot, but not smoking. Add a quarter of the beef to the oil. Seperate with a fork and cook, stirring frequently, until crispy, Remove, drain on paper towel and set aside. Repeat until all the beef is cooked.
4. Drain off all oil except for about 1 tablespoons and add carrots, (I also added cabbage and broccoli which I recommend) onion, ginger, and garlic in that order. Stir fry briefly over high heat.
5. Combine last 5 ingredients and add to vegetable mixture. Bring to a boil and then add beef. Heat thorough and serve immediately
 

You won't regret making this for dinner!

 

Good Things: Hamburger Edition

Sorry I've been MIA for the last week.

I got back from the canoe trip late Monday night and have been working or busy ever since!

I had an interview for a nursing job on Tuesday morning (ahhhh!) and it seemed to go well. They've also been calling my references so.... fingers crossed they don't find someone better with more experience.

Of the things I love, hamburgers are close to the top. Nothing satisfies a deep hunger, or says 'hey, it's summer. Come have a beer in my backyard' quite like a burger does.

Last summer I saw an article ranking the best burgers in Toronto and I set out on a mission to get myself the #1 ranked burger in the city. When The Burger's Priest opened their Yonge St. location I was in there pretty shortly after to get my hands on ThePriest burger (which is a cheeseburger topped with a portobello mushroom stuffed with cheese then fried). I hate to say it wasn't the best burger I've ever had. It could be because I'm not a huge fan of mushrooms though.

Anyway, Toronto Life has ranked the best burgers in the city this year. Here are some of them.

#6. The Double Cheeseburger at The Burger's Priest ($8)

#5. Cowlorie at Holy Chuck ($12)

and the #1 burger in Toronto goes to....

Naturally Braised Beef Burger at The Harbourd Room ($16)

...Where you will find me at some point this summer.

Here's a link to the article if you're interested.

HAMBURGERS!

All photos from www.torontolife.com

Bacon-wrapped Filet Mignon with brocolli and orzo

I'm back!

Still sick but recovering.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Especially to all my relatives in the Emerald Isle but also everyone here in Canada as we definitely celebrate it hard.

Since John and I were both home for dinner tonight and because Loblaws had a crazy good sale on steak I decided to fancy it up and make a delicious dinner:

Bacon-wrapped Filet mignon with Butter Brocolli and Orzo

Filet mignon is a deliciously, melt in your mouth tender cut of steak, often called a tenderloin. They tend to be pricey so look for them when they're on sale. To wrap them with bacon just stretch the peice of bacon around the side of the steak and secure it with either toothpicks or an oven-safe silicon band.

For the butter brocolli: Melt 1 1/2 tbsp of butter in a skillet over medium heat. Add brocolli then add in another 1 1/2 tbsp of butter cut into smaller peices overtop. Allow the brocolli to sautee for a few minutes then turn heat to low and cover with a lid.

For the orzo: add your desired amount to boiling water and cook for about 8 minutes. Drain, add in enough red wine (I used a beaujoulais nouveau) to cover the bottom, turn off the heat. Stir the pasta into it and then cover to allow the wine to evaporate into the pasta. I would have added more flavour in hindsight.

My Aunt Wendy is in Toronto spending some girl time with my mom. As you know they're all coming over here for dinner on Friday! I'm excited.

I stopped by my parents house today to visit and to say hello to my sister who had her wisdom teeth taken out yesterday.

Do you know what my darling Aunt brought me?

MERINGUE POWDER!!!

The elusive missing ingredient for royal icing that I've been trying to make!

And she bought me fondant as well!

I'm very excited to finally try it out for myself.

In other news, starting April 1st this blog is going to include a weekly check in.

A check in of what?

My fitness and get-fit challenge for July 1st.

How am I going to do this?

Running, swimming, and cycling.

And this little secret.

The P90X.

So ready.

April 1st. It's going to be you and me, Tony Horton. I'm ready for you.

Bring it.

Hope everyone had (is having) a wonderful St. Patty's Day!