Slay 2 Gourmet

Venison

Mushroom Duxelle

• ·      3 Tbsp unsalted butter
• ·      1½ lbs cremini mushrooms, cleaned, stemmed, diced
• ·      ¼ cup minced shallots
• ·      2 Tbsp minced garlic
• ·      1 cup red wine
• ·      ½ cup heavy whipping cream
• ·      Tbsp flat leaf parsley, finely minced
• ·      Salt and black pepper

You’ll want to start the duxelle first. It takes about 45 minutes of cooking time, which will give you time to prepare the rest of the meal. Heat the butter in a large sauté pan over medium heat. When the butter is hot, add the shallots and garlic. Cook until translucent, and then add your mushrooms. Cook them until all their water has evaporated, about 35 minutes. Add the red wine and reduce until it’s a glaze. Next, add the cream and bring it to a simmer. Add the parsley and season with salt and pepper.

 Winter Pickles

• ·      1 cup carrots, diced
• ·      1 cup daikon radish, diced
• ·      1 cup cauliflower florets
• ·      1 cup fennel, diced
• ·      2 cups apple cider vinegar
• ·      2 cups water
• ·      2 cloves
• ·      1 star anise
• ·      2 juniper berries
• ·      Pinch of salt and sugar

These pickles are pretty quick to make, most of the time spent on them should be used to make uniformly shaped and sized vegetables. This will add a refined look to the plate and also make the pickles evenly pickled. This step can be done up to two weeks in advance. To make the pickles bring the vinegar, water, spices, salt and sugar to a boil in a high-walled saucepan. Add the minced vegetables and bring to a boil once again. Once it comes to a boil, pull it off the heat and let the pickled vegetables cool in the pickling liquid for at least 25 minutes or they can be stored in the fridge in the pickling liquid.

Porcini encrusted Venison Loin

• ·      10 dried slices of porcini mushrooms, finely ground in
• ·      a spice grinder
• ·      cleaned venison loin split into four steaks
• ·      ½ cup of porcini powder
• ·      Salt
• ·      Grape seed oil

To make porcini powder, take one or two handfuls of dried porcini mushrooms and run them through a spice grinder. Set aside. Generously season the venison steaks with salt and then coat them with porcini powder. Place a cast iron pan on high heat on the stovetop. When it’s smoking hot, add enough grape seed oil to coat the bottom of the pan. Carefully place the venison steaks in the pan making sure to get a good sear on all sides, cooking until its around 125°F in the center. Pull off the heat and let rest for six minutes before slicing. Serve atop a portion of duxelle.

Duck Skewers

6 duck breasts, sliced to ½ inch thick cut on the bias
16 bamboo skewers, soaked in water 30 min.
Drizzle of grapeseed oil
Salt to taste
Horseradish-Herb Sauce
1 anchovy, cleaned of bones
3 cloves of garlic
½ inch of microplaned horseradish
2 small lemons, juiced
¾ bunch of minced flat-leaf parsley
½ cup of olive oil
Salt to taste

Skewer the sliced duck, leaving enough room on the bottom of the skewer for handling. Give the duck a sprinkling of salt and a drizzle of grapeseed oil. Turn them over to coat evenly. When the grill is hot, carefully lay down your skewers, flipping them only once while cooking the duck to medium—about 1–2 minutes each side. If overcooked, the duck will come out dry and undesirable. Before serving, let the skewers rest for about 3 minutes, before brushing them with the horseradish sauce.

For the horseradish-herb sauce, put the anchovy, garlic, horseradish into a mortar. With a pestle, mash the ingredients to a pulp. (This step can be done in a food processor). Cover with lemon juice. Separately, cover the finely minced flat-leaf parsley with the olive oil. Keep the two separate until you are ready to brush the grilled duck. When the duck is ready, mix the contents of the mortar with the herbed olive oil in a small mixing bowl. Season with salt and brush onto the duck.

Farro, Brussels Sprout, Apple, and Pistachio Salad

3 cups cooked farro (see recipe below)
15 Brussels sprouts, peeled of their loose
petals, blanched in salty water (3 Tbsp in
6 cups of water) for 1 minute and shocked
1 large Granny Smith apple, diced
½ cup toasted pistachios
Red wine vinaigrette (see recipe at right) to taste
Salt and pepper to taste

To cook the farro, combine water and farro (2:1 ratio) in a medium saucepan. Add 2 tsp of salt. Bring to a boil over high heat. Reduce the heat to medium-low, cover, and simmer until the farro is tender, about 30 minutes.

Red Wine Vinaigrette

1 shallot, finely minced
1 Tbsp red wine vinegar
3 Tbsp olive oil
Salt to taste

For the salad, mix all of the ingredients together in a large bowl. Add red wine vinaigrette until you have a sharp but not oily flavor. Add salt and pepper until desired seasoning levels are reached.

WALLEYE FISH TACOS

As the sun starts to hit the tree line, I can feel a noticeable change in the boat. Rod tips start to bounce more frequently, the bait cache is depleting more rapidly, and walleyes start to fill the live well. After a day of musky fishing with minimal action, it’s nice to end a warm summer evening sipping a few good brews and jigging for a walleye dinner.

As the daylight begins to drain out of the sky, I’m transported to my childhood where the simple task of lifting a few fish out of the water was the most important check on my to-do list. Now, in the dawn of my 30s, the apple juice has been replaced by beer and the to-do lists are quite a bit longer, but the serenity I find on the lake has endured.

This is a common scene anytime I pay a late summer visit to my good friend Ben Michlig in Northern Wisconsin for a weekend of fishing. We’ve got a perfect arrangement—Ben runs the boat and puts us on the fish, and back at the cabin I turn our catch into a feast. Over the last few years, we’ve fondly come to refer to this beloved pastime as ‘Slay to Gourmet,’ and with any luck this will be a trade-off we make for many years to come.

As the seasons change, so does the haul. The walleyes of summer become deer and grouse in the fall, while the fat slabs of winter crappies lead to a turkey-filled spring. Ben finds them. I cook them. For the first official installment of ‘Slay to Gourmet,’ I opted to go with one of my favorite foods—fish tacos! Fish tacos are so good, especially on corn tortillas with tomatillo salsa, pickled jalapeños, a quick guacamole, sliced radishes, cilantro, and hot sauce. It makes for a great spread on the table and also provides a fun, interactive meal for guests.

Tomatillo Salsa

8 Medium tomatillos, peeled of shell
2 cloves peeled garlic, soaked in the juice of 1 lime
Salt to taste
Preheat your oven to 425°F. Place the tomatillos on a baking sheet and put them into the oven until the start to char and get mushy. Once cool, combine the tomatillos, garlic, lime juice, and salt in a food processor and blend until you have a salsa consistency.

Guacamole

3 avocados, pits removed and scraped out of the shell
1 medium tomato, diced
1 clove garlic, minced and sitting in the juice of 1 lime
Salt to taste
In a mixing bowl, mash all of the ingredients together using a fork. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Pickled Jalapeños

10 jalapeños, seeds removed and thinly sliced
1 cup champagne vinegar
1 cup water
pinch of sugar
pinch of salt
In a small saucepan, bring the vinegar, water, salt and pepper to a boil. Put the sliced jalapeños in the pan, return to a boil and then take off heat. Keep the jalapeños in the warm pickling liquid until ready to serve.

Other Garnishes

Thinly sliced radish
Cilantro leaves
Hot sauce

Walleye

8 walleye filets lightly covered in olive oil
Salt and pepper to taste
Turn the oven down to 350°F. Place the walleye filets on baking sheet with a little olive oil, salt and pepper. Bake until cooked, about 8 minutes.
To serve: Char the tortilla shells on a gas flame on a stovetop or just warm them in the oven. Wrap them in a clean towel and serve on the table with the rest of the accoutrements and enjoy!