Dear Deer&Moose Goulash With Prunes&Walnuts

So Kevin, co-worker of Wil's dad and a passionate hunter gave us a whole bunch of moose and deer meat the other day.
With all that game in our freezer I decided to make one of my all-time favorite winter dishes.
My mum gave me this recipe years ago, and she got it from one of her colleagues. Originally it is made with venison, but really any deer-like game can be thrown into it.
I decided to mix deer with moose for this.
One thing you should know: Moose can sometimes be a bit too 'gamy'. Buttermilk usually takes care of that. just soak the raw moose meat in buttermilk for an hour or longer and it should be less extreme.

I was so busy cooking that I totally forgot to take any pictures in between. Sorry about that.
anyway, here is what you need:

600g/22oz. deer/moose/venison/elk etc. (lean or with a bit of fat on it) cut in goulash cubes
2 Tbsp olive oil
2 medium-sized onions cut in thin rings
1 tsp garlic finely chopped
2 tsp flour
250ml/8.5oz. red wine (preferably cabernet sauvignon)
60g/2.2oz. prunes (pitted)
2 bay leaves
3 slices of bacon, coarsly chopped
275ml/9.5oz beef broth (preferably home made)
2tsp butter or margarine
100g/3.5oz walnuts, coarsly chopped
3 celery stalks, chopped in slices
salt, pepper

Directions

On a stove heat up olive oil in an oven-proof casserole.
Add the meat in small portions and sear each portion over high heat for about 1 minute.
Remove the browned meat from the casserole.
Reduce heat.
Add onions and garlic to the remaining meat juices and sautee for about 2-3 minutes until golden brown.
Stir in the flour and cook for 1 more minute.
Remove from stove and slowly stir in the red wine.
Add meat, prunes, bacon, bay leaves and broth and bring everything to a boil again.
Season to taste with salt and pepper.
Put the lid on the casserole, or aluminium foil if you don't have an appropriate lid for it.
Cook everything in the oven for about 1.5 - 2 hours at 170°C.
A few minutes before serving melt butter/margarine in a pan, add walnuts and cellery stalks and sautee at medium heat for about 5 minutes.
Season with salt and pepper and toss over the goulash.

Serve with potatoes or mashed potatoes and a glass of red wine.

Standing Rib Roast

Hey everyone,

Last saturday Wil and I celebrated our anniversary...or better anniversaries! Three years ago Wil stepped into the bar where I used to work at this point. That's how we met... And last year around the same time Wil proposed to me in the most beautiful vineyard in France.

Le feast

We still had a bottle of wine of this particular vineyard, a 2007 "Chateau la Nerthe" from Chateau-Neuf Du Pape, as well as a bottle of the vineyard we went after the proposal "Domaine Le Pointu", a family business run in its third generation with really good wine and the nicest and most generous people.

Les wines

We decided that this would be the perfect day to empty these two very special bottles, and what better than to pair them with a giant standing Rib Roast/Cote Du Boeuf, seared on the barbecue and finished in the oven until medium rare?

Le meat

We went to our favorite market place butcher here in Berlin, Prenzlauer Berg, and asked him to dry-age around 2 kilos of rib eye for 4 weeks.

When we picked it up a couple of weeks later it turned out to  be "slightly" more than 2 kilos and we went home with a dinosauresque monster piece of 2.7 kg/ 6 lbs of beautifully aged meat for 32.50€ (!!!).

Here is the proof: it was HUGE!

Back home we unpacked the rib-roast and let it reach room temperature. We seasoned it with a spice rub of olive oil, smoked paprika powder, shanghai pepper, thyme and salt.

Smoked sweet paprika: my new favorite spice for all kinds of dishes and any kind of meat!

Before firing up the barbecue (with charcoal for more heat!)
we opened the wine bottles to allow the wine to breathe.

Once the barbecue was hot enough, we seared the rib-eye for 3-4 minutes each side.

We tied the roast with some strings to prevent it from bending while searing.

After that we placed the roast in a deep pan, bones facing down with the whole roast standing up, so that the heat could get everywhere evenly.  We surrounded it by some rosemary twigs, garlic cloves and butter cubes and cooked it for another 1 hour and 15 minutes at around 130°-150°C.

Wurst Cook Ever with our (now) standing rib roast!

Unfortunately that's the lowest our gas oven gets. If you can cook it at a lower temperature, go ahead. 

It'll take longer, probably two to three hours, depending on the temperature of course. 

But it will be even more tender.

A meat thermometer definitely is a good investment here.

meat thermometer...

For medium-rare the temperature in the center needs to be at 55-60°C. Therefore once the meat reaches 50-52° (rare), pull it out, wrap it in aluminium foil and let it rest for around 10 minutes. While resting more heat will get inside the beef which in the end will heat it up a few more degrees to turn it medium-rare.

Most of the weight comes from the giant bone...

Just like the fat, the bone adds some really nice flavors, especially when barbecued.

Look at how juicy, tender and pink it is! Nom nom...

The white stuff is connective tissue. 

Unfortunately Rib-roasts have a fair bit of that chewy stuff. Just cut it out. 

You don't want to eat that...

By adding a bit of wine to the drippings and reducing them over heat we made a nicely rich sauce to serve together with the sliced meat.

the meat served with some caprese salad

The roast had a nice beefy flavor and tasted delicious. It was really tender and juicy and the two wines (grenache, syrah) were a perfect fit, as well!

Dry-aging for four weeks instead of two or three definitely makes a difference. The longer the meat ages the more water it loses and the more the flavors can concentrate.

Some even swear by dry aging beef for six weeks to get the maximum flavor out of it.

We drank all the wine, but still have plenty of leftover roast for sandwiches...

Notes:

1. I don't fully agree with the common idea to not salt the meat before cooking. I think it really depends on the kind of meat. Thin steaks and lean filets, ok, don't salt them, or at least not that much. 

But if it is a thick piece and/or the meat has some fat, don't worry about that. 

The fat will prevent it from drying out.

2. I also prefer to rub the meat with spices and herbs before searing. That way the spices have the chance to soak a little bit into the meat. I also really really like the slightly burnt flavor, that this creates...

Pigeons with red wine sauce

Yesterday Wil and I were incredibly lucky at Galerie Lafayette. The woman in the meat section was kind of confused and sold us two pigeons for the price of two corn-fed chicken. Sounds weird? Yeah, that's what we thought as well, when we went to a market a couple of weeks ago where they wanted to sell us two tiny pigeons for almost 30€. Pigeons and doves, or so-called squab (for less association issues), seem to be ridiculously expensive. Don't get me wrong, I'm not considering eating those sick and scruffy looking city pigeons. But pigeons are everywhere on the countryside and should be quite easy prey. I don't understand why they have to be more expensive than corn-fed chicken...Well, the ones you buy are most often bred. So that may be why. But still...

Anyways. We got two for less than 9 bucks. So we went home, filleted the breasts and legs and removed hearts and livers from the carcasses.

From the carcasses, wings and organs we made a stock. We browned the carcasses and wings in a big pot with some olive oil and deglazed them with 250ml red wine. We then added water and some leftover game stock until everything was covered by liquid, added the chopped up organs as well as 1tsp dried thyme, 2 rosemary twigs, 2 juniper berries, 2 bay leaves, 1 big crushed garlic clove and a dash of nutmeg, pepper and all-spice and let it simmer for 60 minutes with lid closed.

We then strained everything to separate the stock from the bones and spices.

Afterwards we reduced the stock to make a sauce to serve with the pigeons. We didn't use all of the stock for it. That would have been to much. A third of the total amount should be enough. After reducing I seasoned it with salt and for a bit of sweetness added 1/2 to 1 tsp of red currant jelly.

To thicken the sauce and in order to make it richer (pigeon meat is very lean) I also stirred in some small ice-cold cubes of butter in the end.

While making the sauce we fired up our cast iron pan to medium heat with 1 tbsp of olive oil two rosemary twigs and another slightly crushed garlic clove. Once the oil was hot enough we placed the breasts and the legs in the pan and fried them for a total of 5-6 minutes; 3 minutes on the skin side to give it a nice sear and 2 to 3 minutes from the other side.

It's important that the meat is still medium rare. Otherwise the meat gets too tough. In France they even it their pigeons raw.

Let the breasts and legs rest for another 5-10 minutes before serving. We wrapped ours in aluminium foil for that. 

Serve with the sauce and pair of heavy red wine. The meat of pigeons is a bit like duck meat, just with less fat. It's very dark in color and has a gamey and quite organy flavor to it..

PS: We had chive and sour cream mashed potatoes with it and a glass of French Malbec.

PPS: I'm sorry for the crappy photos. Unfortunately my beloved camera broke and therefore iPhone it is for now...

Vive la Provence!

After a couple of days of acclimatization I guess I’m finally ready for Berlin City again.

Well, I have to be anyway...

My trip to Provence was simply wonderful and a total success in terms of food, wine and love.

As I already mentioned in my last post: This region of France is a feast for your senses.

The landscape is beautiful. It smells like flowers, fruits, fresh soil and food everywhere.

It is quiet except for the lovely sound of singing birds and the crickets at night. 

And wine and food are so, so good!

By far the best country to visit in order to indulge your desire for culinary richness.

Depending on where you stay you will find vineyards who offer you wine degustations every few metres. With hundreds, probably thousands of different vineyards it’s impossible to try all wines in the region. You either have a recommendation on where to go or you just go and find out.

We did both and it was a lot of fun.

I will write a separate blog post about the wines we tried later this week...

The other great thing is that there are markets every day.

They either start in the early morning and go until 12am/1pm or at night from 6pm to 8pm.

The best market is definitely the one in Arles.

It is HUGE!

I have never been to such a fantastic market in my life.

The range of fresh products is insane!

So many vegetables and fruits: Giant artichokes, tiny artichokes, zucchinis, fresh garlic, beans, peppers, carrots, potatoes, strawberries, cherries, oranges, olives..., and all were in season. Only some were imported from Spain, which pretty much is right around the corner.

Fresh meat, sausages, bread and pastries, spices, an incredible selection of cow and goat cheese (some looked and tasted really strange, but good!).

 
 












 Oh and the fish and sea fruits section... I almost forgot about that!

 The sea is only about an hour away. Therefore everything is 
 absolutely fresh.
 

 


I bought Wil some oysters cause I don’t like them, yet. 

But according to my experience in getting used to all kinds of foods, this might change at some point.

They were the biggest and best oysters he ever had in his life and, believe it or not, 
they were only 40 CENTS A PIECE!!!!

Ok, so that was in Arles... 
you can pretty much find all these different products on the other markets as well. But let me tell you: the market in Arles is one of a kind.

We left with heavy bags filled with yumminess.

 

 















 What we did pretty much every day was: 
cruising around, stopping here and there for wine degustations or walking over a market, maybe a church, a fort or a flea market in between, paying a visit to the local butcher and cheese store, driving home, eating, drinking, falling asleep.

In one word:

PARADISE! 

Oh, and on a side note:

Wil proposed to me in a vineyard in Chateau-Neuf du Pape (where else?), and I said yes!

As you can see, Provence treated me very good and I cannot wait to go back!

Let me introduce you to Joachim Rong...

www.joachimrong.de

One thing I love about Berlin is that there are so many little wine stores.

You can find one on almost every second street in Prenzlauer Berg and Mitte.

I love wine but I rarely have a clue what wine to drink with what kind of food.

Therefore it's best to just walk into one of those stores and ask the people there.

You tell them what you are planning to cook/eat and how much you are willing  to spend and they'll figure out what wine would be best.

Joachim really likes to drink wine, as well!

One of my favorite wine stores is Joachim Rongs Weingalerie on Gaudystraße 25 in 10437 Berlin (Prenzlauer Berg).

So far every wine he recommended to us was a perfect fit.

Joachim is a super nice guy who not only likes wine but, what's most important, also loves his job.

I remember walking into wine stores before and feeling kind of intimidated because I didn't have a clue and the owners often seemed annoyed. Especially when I told them that I wasn't planning to spend more than 8 or 9 Euros on a bottle.

Joachim is pretty easy and casual about this. Neither does he make a big mystery or science about the different varietals or wine-growing districts, nor will he try to sell you something at any cost or give you the feeling of not being a member of the privileged wine club society.
For him it's more important that the wine tastes good and that he can share his knowledge and new discoveries with you.The prices for a bottle start at around 6 Euros and go up to 60-70 Euros per bottle. He regularly offers wine tastings where he opens a couple of bottles and serves some snacks.
They range between 10 and 20 Euros.
In the back of his store Joachim has a little gallery where he regularly has small exhibitions and shows work of different artists.

My favorite wines at Joachim's 

(so far) are:

Whites

Hammel Sauvignon Blanc collage

Lomond Sauvignon Blanc

Barth Kabinett Riesling, dry

  

Reds

Abadal, Crianza Cabernet

Sauvignon-Merlot-Pla de Bages DO

Taurus Tinto Roble Tinto de Toro

Lomond Conebush Syrah

Barbecue No2! or How to trick myself into liking salad...

After a long and exciting day on Schmachtenhagen's farmers market with our friends Anna and Beau we came home with tons of meat, some sausages, fresh warm sourdough bread, an ice machine that I bought for 10 bucks at the flea market there and a giant headache from all the beer we drank...

Nevertheless our hibachi was already waiting for us.

As soon as we got home we fired the grill and threw on some sausages and sirloins.

In order to have our dinner plates look more colourful and a bit healthier I decided to make a classic salad with lamb's lettuce, tomatos, cheese and avocados.

Ok. I have to admit I'm not a big salad fan. 

But with a few tricks and a bit of extra-pimping I manage to create one that even I don't mind eating.

First of all I caramelize the cherry tomatoes in butter adding a dash of sugar, salt and pepper.

Warm sweet tomatos in a salad taste insanely good!

Then of course adding roasted nuts (pine nuts and almonds preferably). 

You can't go wrong with crunchy roasted nuts! 

I also like adding Hass avocado cubes because of their creamy texture and fresh parmesan to sprinkle over it...

Very important, as well: good olive oil and balsamico vinegar.

Quality just tastes better! 

For example we bought 20 year old balsamico vinegar from our local Italian store.

That really makes a difference!

I can also highly recommend to do an olive oil degustation at some point.

You won't believe how different olive oil can taste!

I really like the greek ones. They taste very grassy and slightly bitter.

There you go! These are my tipps and tricks to make a simple salad more enjoyable.

You can also just add meat to it, though...

We drank a pretty decent French red wine with it: Chateau Capitoul Rocaille Rouge AOC

which contains the varietals syrah, grenache noir and carignan.

Al Contadino Sotto Le Stelle

Not only is 'Al Contadino Sotto Le Stelle' one of my favorite restaurants here in Berlin. 

Marjita(?), our waitress of the night, offered us incredibly good tasting red wine: 

Tormaresca Torcicoda Primitivo Salento (2008).

But let's start at the beginning.

The Italian restaurant 'Al Contadino sotto le stelle' is located on Auguststrasse 36 in 10119  Berlin Mitte.

You'll find homemade pasta, veil, rabbit, fish, tartufo, prosciutto etc on the menu; 

solid Italian cuisine that is both, rustic and fine, at the same time.

'Al Contadino' is not a cheap restaurant. It's rather a restaurant where to go on a date.

Me and my partner went there for our anniversary and had:

• Prosciutto with fruit mustard
• Entrecote with truffle
• Homemade Chestnut-flour Tagliatelle with veil liver, apple and truffle oil
• Warm chocolate-hazelnut cake with vanilla ice cream.

Sadly they had to move out of their original venue which was even more cosy and romantic.

Their new location is a little less intimate and on our last visit we discovered that the tables in the front are cramped.
But sitting in the back of the restaurant can be quite loud and busy with waiters rushing past. 

Still it is one of my favorite restaurants. 

The food is excellent and the service is very friendly and knowledgeable.

PS: The name of the restaurant means 'The Farmer Underneath The Starry Sky'.