Venison steak au poivre. Classic for a reason. Here's what's trending on Hunter Angler Gardener Cook: - Seems people might be getting a jump on Healthy January, because my instructions on how to pan sear fish is booming. In it, I tell you how we cook fish at a restaurant, crispy on one side, perfectly done in the center.
- My recipe for classic French steak au poivre, peppercorn
sauce, is moving up, too. This is a perfect sauce for both steaks and to sauce a holiday roast. Works great with duck or goose breasts, too.
- Another sauce, this one British parsley sauce, is also doing well. I
use this sauce for white meats like chicken or turkey or pheasant or rabbit, and for fish.
- It's winter, so people are salting and curing meat. One super easy project is duck prosciutto, a classic. A more modern take on this is duck bacon, which is smoked and then cooked, like, well, bacon. (Goose breasts work, too.)
- Just want comfort food? Venison ragu
seems to be doing the trick. A ton of people are making it right now.
Love these or any of my recipes? Please rate them while you're there so people searching for recipes know they're worth clicking on! Move over, Sweden. These are Norwegian meatballs. Both Christmas and New Year's are big time appetizer territory. Finger foods, fun things to eat, a little here, a little there. Moveable feasts are the norm, as people drive from party to gathering to soiree. Here are a few top-notch apps for when you're hosting. - Meatballs are always a winner, and I honestly
could go on and on about them. But traditionally, Swedish meatballs are a hit at the holidays. If you're bored with them, try my Norwegian
meatballs. I actually like them better. I know, right?
- Christmas Eve is a time for fish and seafood, so fish meatballs are definitely in order here. I have a recipe for German fish meatballs
that's awesome, and here's a Scandinavian recipe for pike balls, which you can make with any white fish.
- If you like mushrooms, and are looking for something easy, try teriyaki glazed mushrooms. Super simple and a crowd pleaser. I'd think this is more of a New Year's thing...
- You really can't go wrong with fried
empanadas. Fill them with chorizo and potatoes and cheese, or whatever you want. They'll disappear quick.
- Another sure-fire winnrer are sliders. I love these duck sliders because they make great use of "off"
ducks like divers or spoonies. But you can certainly use any ground meat you want.
- Another easy-peasy app is smoked trout dip. This + chips or crusty bread and you're golden.
- If you want the
quintessential, hand-held, perfect Mexican app, it would have to be either sopes, or tetelas. Each are made with
masa dough, and are deceptively simple, yet elegant.
- Finally, life sucks without deviled eggs. So they have to show up somewhere in the holiday feast. I really like my crab deviled eggs; I use Dungeness crab. Smoked salmon deviled eggs are rad, too.
Christmas dinner is definitely more free-form than Thanksgiving, as is Christmas Eve. New Year's Eve can often be a more intimate date night, where luxury steps forward. Here are a selection of both homey favorites and schwanky ideas for New Year's. - Roast haunch of venison is about as festive as it gets. A whole deer hind leg, slow roasted with herbs. Carved like a roast beast, it's the thing you want on Christmas Day.
- Bird, birds, birds. Perfect Christmas dinners. Turkey, obvi, but roast pheasant is a classic. Got ruffed grouse? Roast grouse rocks. Want something fancy on New Years? Roast quail, or roast woodcock. Put a bird on it.
- A whole side
of smoked salmon, or smoked lake trout, is a showstopper that also doubles as a great app if you let
people pick at it with crackers...
- A mushroom tart is a great side dish for those who eat meat and fish, but it serves as a really nice main if you're a vegetarian. It's super pretty, too.
- Finally, there may be
no better New Year's dinner than venison steak Diane. If you've never tried it, get on the train. It's simply the best.
4. The Road Less Traveled After my Oklahoma deer hunt, I did something strange, at least for me: I didn't haul ass back home to butcher my deer. Instead, I took my time. I traveled the blue highways north, exploring the very center of the Great Plains. And in so doing I reminded myself how vital it is to our health and
life that we sometimes just wander. Life is not lived on the interstate. It's my latest essay in To the Bone. If you like what you read, it would mean the world to me if you
would consider subscribing to To the Bone. You can start subscribing for free, and upgrade to paid if you want to support my work. Thanks in advance for considering it. Squid ink pasta with a black garlic and mushroom sauce, topped with whitefish caviar. So here we are. Solstice. Christmas, with the New Year close at hand. What you see above is what I made for Solstice, a dish of black, squid ink pasta, sauced with black garlic, squash seed oil, aspen boletes, some tinned cuttlefish in its own ink, topped with golden whitefish caviar. I like playing a bit at Solstice, making various black dishes. This is a favorite, a close second to my infamous Snow in Winter. And yep, I took this photo. It's flawed, I know, but I am slowly getting better at photography. I still have a very long way to go to fill Holly's shoes. Paso a paso. I'll be solo for Christmas
for the first time in memory. Maybe ever, I dunno. Going to be weird, but I'll make the best of it. With the year I've had, it'll be a good time to take a long walk and take stock of where I am, and where I might be going. I'm starting to make some new friends, though, which is important. My ongoing experiments with baking rye bread have been a boon for that -- sharing bread is a great ice-breaker.
I wrote about the mystical powers of fresh bread in my latest essay over at To the Bone. After Christmas, I'll be in Salt Lake City for New Year's, and for a few days afterwards. Got any
recommendations? ~ Hank Comments?Let us know what you think about Wild Bites by using our anonymous comment form - we love to hear from you, and we read
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