Primal passion: what is cooked in game restaurants
Autumn is the season of game and many domestic restaurateurs try to adhere to this rule. In recent years, this trend has been particularly pronounced and actively developing in gastronomic projects that rely on regional culinary traditions and local products. Izvestia found out what interesting positions with wild meat can be tried in restaurants in different parts of our country and what those who are going to cook hunting prey at home need to know.
What is the value of game
Wild animal meat is one of the delicacies, which is primarily due to its rarity. At the same time, interest in game among gourmets has been steadily growing in recent years, as dishes with hunting trophies provide an opportunity to gain a new and interesting gastronomic experience.
Venison Tartare
— Game is a product with character, it is always a little unpredictable, and this is its charm, — Alexander Korobkov, the chef of the Steindamm 99 restaurant (Kaliningrad), told Izvestia. — Everything is stable in the meat of domestic animals, and wild animals live in a natural environment, they eat grass, berries, bark, and all this is directly reflected in the taste. This is a lively gastronomy where nature, not the farmer, dictates the nuances.
Due to constant physical activity, the muscles of wild animals become more dense and elastic, which makes them especially intense in taste, explains Igor Shiyanov, chef of the Nizhny Novgorod restaurant Red Wall. In addition, animals eat natural food, do not receive hormones and antibiotics, and in this sense their meat is a cleaner and more environmentally friendly product.
Salad with dried duck and persimmon
— Game has a rather specific taste, so working with it requires a subtle and competent approach from the chef, — adds the brand chef of the Kurbatov restaurant at the Rodina Grand Hotel & SPA Irkutsk (Irkutsk) Pavel Ivolga. — It is not uncommon for people, once they have tasted improperly cooked wild meat, to completely deny it. To prevent this from happening, you need to know and follow certain rules, adhere to seasonality, and cooperate with licensed hunting farms.
Which wild animal meat is prepared by chefs in different regions of Russia
Game dishes have become a kind of calling card in many regional restaurants. At the same time, different parts of our country have their own local specialties.
— Our philosophy is not to imitate European cuisine, but to speak the language of Siberia, so we make the most of local products and traditional cooking methods, such as stewing in the oven, smoking on alder and larch, pickling, — Alexander Mordashov, brand chef of the Baikal cuisine restaurant Lamu (Irkutsk), told our publication. — Working with wild game, we strive to preserve and reveal its natural taste, to make it accessible and interesting for a modern guest.
The square of the reindeer
Our interlocutor particularly noted the reindeer meat, which has a deep taste and subtle aroma of the wild forest. In the southern part of Eastern Siberia, raisins are also appreciated — red deer with slightly fatter and softer flesh with notes of sweetness. Dishes with these animals are included in the menu during the autumn and winter periods, when their meat is saturated with flavor and density. The guests are particularly interested in the bear meat. The meat of brown bears is harvested in autumn, before the animal hibernates, since it is during this period that it becomes the fattest and tastiest.
Lamu moose cutlet with potato cream and cherry sauce
"We traditionally choose duck and capercaillie from wild birds, and roe deer and wild boar from animals," adds brand chef Ivolga. — Our other important local specialty is maral. We make steaks from the fillet and serve them with potato cream in the spirit of the Siberian heat with prunes, soaked cranberries and teriyaki sauce.
Tartar from the northern Maral
According to our interlocutor, the addition of Asian notes helps to slightly dilute the liver flavor of game, which sometimes manifests itself too vividly. At the same time, sauces and spices are used in moderation so as not to clog the main taste of the meat.
Borscht with smoked venison and rustic bacon
— Dried wild meat is one of the most popular dishes in our restaurant, and for me it is one of the main gastronomic features of Siberia, – says the brand chef of the restaurant of modern Siberian cuisine Tunguska (Krasnoyarsk) Nikolai Bobrov. — Wild duck, moose, wild boar, and yak are used. We dry the maral fillet at home to get soft, moist and juicy meat with a concentrated taste. You can try it on its own or on rye brioche with grayling caviar.
Taimyr deer with glazed beetroot, wild cherry and black garlic aioli with porto, bone marrow and pickled cherries
One of the new dishes on the Tunguska menu, which vividly reflects the concept of the restaurant, is deer tartare with jelly and smoked bone marrow. Local venison is combined with Mediterranean tonnato sauce, but made from tugun and accompanied by South American tacos, only baked from traditional Khakass talgan.
Deer tartare with jelly, tonnato on tugun and sauce with smoked bone marrow and talgan tortillas
— Deer, elk and wild boar are mainly cooked in our region, — continues chef Shiyanov. — The most delicious venison is the one that is harvested in late autumn, since during this time the animal's body accumulates the greatest amount of useful components and fats.
Deer tartare
One of the most popular dishes at Red Wall is deer fillet tartare. Chopped shallots, barrel cucumbers seasoned with spicy pepper, confit yolk with the addition of demiglas from bones, wine vinegar, green onions and spices are added to the sliced meat. The dish is rubbed with dried heart on top (it is pre-salted and kept in a dry-aging chamber for a month) and complemented with fried garlic croutons. Moose meat is usually on the menu in late autumn and early winter. To soften the meat, it is soaked in wine or in herbs and berries and placed under pressure, and then used for stewing. Moose cutlets are also prepared from moose, into which boar meat is added for greater juiciness, wrapping the minced meat in its fatty oil seal.
Wild roe deer tartare with wild garlic
According to a long-standing tradition, with the onset of autumn, a wild goose dish appears on the menu of the Moscow restaurant Expedition. To do this, chef Yuri Sysoev and his team go on a seasonal hunting trip to the Arkhangelsk region and personally harvest a couple dozen birds. And upon returning to Moscow, he pleases his guests with his signature goose breast, which he cooks directly in the hall.
Breast of Arkhangelsk wild goose with vegetables
"We pre-marinate the meat in herbs, then fry it in butter with a sprig of rosemary and a couple of garlic cloves, flask it with tincture of antlers, add finely chopped vegetables, soaked lingonberries, red wine and lightly cook," says Yuri Sysoev.
The result is a real delicacy, which is definitely not a shame to serve in perhaps the most expensive restaurant in the capital, but which, with its spicy herbaceous aromas and delicate liver flavor, evokes strong associations with a hunting camp near a cozy campfire.
Duck leg with green buckwheat
Goose breast is a strictly seasonal product. But this is not the only game dish on the Expedition menu. There is always a signature stewed boar shoulder with baked potatoes, grilled roe deer meat with buckwheat, and moose fillet with mashed roots and salted ginger. Among the rare items even for Moscow, beaver stew deserves attention — neatly pressed fillet slices are served with milk onions and spinach, and seasoned with tomato sauce, meat broth and butter.
— Large ungulate game like moose or deer is prepared in two ways: it must either be served fresh with blood, with medium rare roasting, or it must be cooked further into stew or long languor, — explains Yuri Sysoev. — The middle doesn't work. If you just fry a piece of meat, making it very well done, it will be tasteless. The meat will be dry and tough. After all, no one fattens the game on purpose, it walks and grazes on its own, therefore, its fat reserve is relatively small.
Zucchini and potato pancakes with venison paste
According to Chef Korobkov, moose, wild boar, duck, goose, and sometimes pheasant are traditionally cooked in the Kaliningrad region, but the most recognizable is deer meat, which is more often found in the region's hunting farms.
The square of the reindeer
— For me, game is an integral part of Kaliningrad's gastronomy. — adds our expert. — We try to preserve its original taste, texture and aroma, carefully adding the roots, the necessary sourness and smoky notes.
Stewed deer shin
During the season, deer drumsticks appear on the Steindamm 99 menu, which are stewed in an oven at low temperature with spicy herbs and berries to soften the fibers. Meat is served with green buckwheat cooked in mushroom broth with the addition of wild mushrooms (white, aspen, podberezovikov), baked beetroot cream and sauce based on the juice of stewed drumsticks with the addition of cherries and wild cranberries.
How to cook game at home
Wild animal meat in Russia is subject to very strict sanitary and epidemiological rules, so it is impossible to find it in supermarkets in an unprepared form. But if someone has managed to get game from a hunter they know, then tips on cooking it from our experts will surely be useful to you.
Roast wild boar ribs with pickled cabbage and potatoes
"Deer meat is low—fat and harsh, so it requires marinating before cooking," says Chef Igor Shiyanov. — When frying for a long time, it becomes dry and hard, so it is better not to bake the deer fillet.
Venison fillet with mashed red apples, cranberries and meat beetroot
To reduce the peculiar smell, first of all cut off all visible fat from the venison. Then the meat must be rubbed with salt and spices and some kind of marinade with acid is added. It can be vinegar, table wine, or lemon juice. Then fry it from all sides in a frying pan with a thick bottom in vegetable oil until a browned crust forms. Add the coarsely chopped carrots, celery, onion, and potatoes. Put the peppers, coriander seeds, cumin, rosemary, thyme, garlic cloves, bay leaf, and, if desired, tomatoes in a saucepan. Add salt, broth, a little dry red wine and simmer the meat for three to four hours. An hour before the end of cooking, add butter and fresh chopped herbs to the dish. Ready-made game is best combined with sauces and marinades with fragrant herbs and berries (juniper, cranberries, lingonberries, gooseberries, mountain ash, elderberry, currant).
Wild boar cutlet with morels and porcini mushrooms with garlic puree and mutton beetle
"The main thing with game is to take your time and not try to cook it like regular meat,— warns chef Alexander Korobkov. — To keep the meat juicy, it should be stewed at a temperature of 120-140 ° C for a long time, and not fried over high heat.
Our interlocutor also draws attention to the fact that game is a natural product, so if you are not sure of its origin, the meat must be completely fried.
Low-roast roe deer loin with mushroom demiglas, broccoli and potato dumplings
— Bear meat must be kept in a sour marinade (wine, berries, kvass) for at least a day, — brand chef Mordashov strongly recommends. — When frying, be sure to use a thermometer, as bear meat must reach 75-80 ° C inside in order to completely eliminate the risk of infection with parasites. Don't be afraid to combine any game with fat (butter, bacon) — this will help balance the lean texture. And in addition to wild meat, berries and mushrooms will never be superfluous.
Переведено сервисом «Яндекс Переводчик»
