Dot Com Dinner Chef - Battling Bison

During the last battle, I mentioned that a quarter of a bison wandered into my freezer. Ever since, I’ve been trying to figure out what to do with it. I decided to try a couple of simple things…

First thing I did, was do a simple pan fried bison steak. I just wanted to see how this meat cooked and just treated it like any steak. Seasoned with a bit of salt and pepper, I let it hit the grill. That was a bit of a mistake. First thing I noticed was that it cooked extremely fast. Quite a bit faster than beef due to the low fat content. In fact, it cooked so fast that I almost took my medium rare to well done. You can see that some of the cuts of meat looked more done than the other half. Oops. It was still good though, but one side was a little tougher than the other. Definitely still tasty.

I tried again the next day and used a little less heat. After searing the first side for about thirty seconds, I flipped it over and turned the heat to low. I then let it cook till it was medium rare by touch. I then removed the meat from the heat and let it rest. The bison steak turned out evenly cooked to medium rare and was very tender and juicy. Followed by a side of greens and some yam fries, it kept me quite full throughout the GetConnected Party. It was probably one of the best steaks that I’d had in a while.

With a quarter of this beast inhabiting my freezer, I’m definitely going to enjoy this meat many more times in the coming months. I think I’m going to have to defrost that bison roast for a bit of slow cooking action this weekend.

Dot Com Dinner Chef - The Battles Continue!

We’ve done Chicken Breasts, Sea Bass two different ways, and even stuffed a few peppers and baked them to perfection. Now we’re going to do a few more things. Over the last few days, I’ve played with some food and here’s what I’ve come up with…

Battle Pork Chops

The pork chops and apples were looking good at the local grocery store so I decided to do a version of pork chops and apples…

I seasoned the chops up with salt and pepper and fried them up. Once they were done, I removed them from the heat and covered them in foil. Leaving the juices in the pan, I dropped in some butter, bacon, diced ginger and then the apples. Once the apples were tender, I dropped in some sugar, a litle bit of lemon, and deglazed the pan with some brandy.

Once the sauce was thickened, I removed it from the heat. I plated the pork chop on top of some pan fried string beans and then scooped a good sized portion of the apple mixture on top of the pork chop, with a little bit of fresh chopped parsley on top. I loved that apple mixture, but I’m going to have to do this again with some thicker cut pork chops.

Battle Chicken Breasts -Redux

Chicken boobs were still on sale at the local grocery store, so I picked some up and made a chicken parmesan served on top of some of that broco-asparagus hybrid veggie. The breading on the chicken was made with the same panko and parmesan mixture that I used for the chicken fingers. A very easy to make and tasty dish.

Battle Full Metal Chicken

After messing around with boobs, I graduated to the whole chicken and made this awesome roasted chicken…

This dish was inspired by one that I saw on FoodTV by Jamie Oliver. I modified the recipe to include bacon and upped the garlic count. The original recipe called for prociutto. Basically, a mixture was created from bacon, thyme, lemon zest, butter, and seasoned with salt and pepper. After washing and drying the chicken, I gently seperated the skin from the meat and then inserted the mixture wherever I could fit it. With the remaining mixture, I rubbed the whole chicken down and then inserted the lemon, sliced in half, into the cavity of the bird. I roasted the chicken in the oven with some California yams that were parboiled and some rough chopped fennel.

I’ve eaten a lot of roasted chicken in my time, but I gotta say, I WIN with chicken. It was so tender, flavourful, and did I mention downright delicious? It’s definitely on the list of to do again. The only thing I wish I had was a rotisserie so that I could get all the skin nice and crispy.

Future Battles…

So as you can imagine, I’m going to be sick of chicken pretty soon. Here’s what I’ve got coming up…

I ordered up a quarter of a bison butchered up all sorts of ways. I’ve got steaks, ground bison, roasts, even ribs. This is a whole lot of bison and if you’ve ever seen a bison, you’ll know it’s a big animal. I’m sure I’ll be looking for a lot of ways to make all this great meat tasty. I’m going to have to pick up some new kitchen gadgets including a slow cooker.

Dot Com Dinner Chef - Battle Chicken Breasts

Thrifty Foods was having a chicken sale so I decided to see what I could do with the meat that tastes like every other meat…

A couple nights ago, I came up with a Panko and Parmesan Crusted Baked Chicken breasts over seasoned and steamed Broco-Asparagus (I don’t remember what they are called. They look like both, but neither) and roasted red peppers. It was topped with a wasabi tomato sauce and finished off with fresh chopped cilantro leaves. The chicken was very tender on the inside, but the crusting was crispy. All this achieved without frying. It was definitely one of the tastier ways to make chicken.

The next night, I made use of the rest of the chicken breast and used the same homemade Panko and Parmesan crusting to create some of the best chicken fingers that I’d ever tasted. I dredged the chicken strips in flour, then coated them with some egg, and finally, crusted them with the panko and parmesan mixture. I fried these because I wanted them to be evenly crispy on both sides. They were very tender on the inside and the frying made them extra crispy on the outside. They were accompanied by some homemade yam fries and some field greens. The sauce was a mustard mayo concoction with a bit of salt and pepper and a squeeze of lemon juice.

Both dishes were easy to prepare and neither of them were pulled out of a box from Costco. It’s amazing what kind of stuff you can come up with if you make the effort and try a few new things with such a generic meat. I think tomorrow night, I’m going to see if the sale is still on and do something I haven’t done in ages: A full roasted chicken. I promise that bacon will somehow be incorporated into this dish