I'm On A Boat: You Say Dolphin, I'll Say Mahi, Lets Eat!

We were invited to go fishing in the Keys on a boat chartered by my friend Kendall, who has way to much disposable income since he's a 40's-something bachelor with a major position at a Fortune 500 company (yep ladies, he likes ya'll and would like a good one who will put up with his peculiar self).  Unfortunately, for Craig and I it was to be a whirlwind trip, work half day Friday then drive down 7 hours, get up at the butt-crack of dawn to spend Saturday on the boat, then back home Sunday in time to pick up the dogs from being boarded at the vet by 6 pm.  It was amazing though, first we'd been in the Keys in about 9 yrs or so.

We stayed at a quaint (for want of a better term) historic inn on Tavernier.  Actually, it was perfectly fine for what we needed, which was a cheap clean place to sleep.  I wouldn't go there for a family vacation, but it served great as a base of operation.

I slept as well as I could (don't do well in hotels the first night) and our party of four made it to the marina by 6:30 with no problem.  This charter is run by Capt. Ron Allen aboard the Fish Tales, a 50-footer that was amazing.  Our extremely competent mate, Pete, handled all the chores of getting the lines out.  It was a low-stress trip, we just basically helped out where Pete told us to and waited for the fish to bite.

Cruising out of Whale Harbor Marina on Islamorada in the early twilight.

A beautiful morning awaited. We drove out to the reef and the Capt Ron and Pete caught some live bait with a cast net.  We attracted a turtle and a shark while doing it, cool to see in the crystal clear water.  Then we slowly trolled outward.   We had a few minor bites but not much, Our Benefactor (my friend who hired the charter) caught a Mahi that was too small to keep and the other guy with us caught a tuna relative that the mate assured us wasn't worth eating.  The Capt. and Mate were old-school and called mahi "dolphin", of course, and called the real dolphins porpoises, as to differentiate.

We were taking turns at the reals, and my first up produced a nice mahi. This was the first time I'd ever seen a live mahi in the water.  Words can barely describe the incredible colors of these fish as they flare up and fight for their lives in that ultramarine and azure ocean.  The only think that I've seen that can compare is maybe a blue-and-yellow macaw, but even so it isn't really that close.

Fish on!

Pete holding my first.

The biggest excitement of the day came shortly afterwards.  Craig was next up, and his bite was a good sized female mahi.  As he was reeling it in, Pete threw out a fresh line with a scrap of fish meat on it and handed it to me, since I was closest.  A few seconds later, it went taunt, and I had a fight on my hands. Craig and I both had fish out at the same time, and they were both big time firsts for both of us!  Mine didn't break any records, but it was a 18 lb mahi, and it put up a damn good fight.  It jumped 3-4 times as Pete coached me on my crude reel skills.  I was half afraid the fish would would win, but the line held, and before long we had a shaking ice chest as they thrashed their last before cooling down into the dark abyss.

Not a lot to report after that, the fishing dried up for the afternoon.  According to Capt., the other boats weren't having much luck either.  We had a nice cruise though, Pete explained how the ocean floor features affect the fishing, and the behavior of the various oceanic bird species.  Pete says they become really good birdwatchers, since the birds are great natural fish finders in their own right.

We made it back to port late afternoon.  We collected our fillets after the mandatory fish photos.  We cleaned up at our hotel and then headed over to the place Kendall was staying for dinner, which happened to be the Hilton Key Largo resort (he's got a penny or two, I guess).  We all had the chef prepare some of our mahi three ways: grill, blackened, and jerked.  They did a great job, serving it up on a platter of citrus slices.  We devoured it as the sun left us on time (see the pic at the head of this post).  I forgot to take a before pic, but here is the aftermath of the carnage:

Good bread, good meat, good God, did we eat!

We only ended up with about three meals worth of fish to take home, but I'll be working on something to show you for it.

BTW, I would have loved to have had a permit like this for our canoe trip on the Suwanee River a few years ago:

Venison Tamale Pie

The new kitchen cabinets and countertops (that were a result of the unfortunate events of late last year) are now fully installed and functional, and I have to say its great to have a nice place to cook again.  I'm celebrating my return to domestic normalcy with a cervidaceous take on a classic casserole, tamale pie.   After some Googling about the origins of this dish, the general idea is that it was invented by Americans who wanted to approximate the taste of a real tamale without the work of stuffing corn husks.  Its not a recent invention either, published recipes for it date back to at least 1905.  It is, of course, basically a kind of meat pie (although plenty of meatless versions circulated during wartime shortages), typically with ground beef cooked between, or under, layers of corn meal batter.  I though this would be a good way to use up some venison shoulder chunks I had in the freezer.  I started by putting the shoulder meat in my trusty crock pot with a large container of beef stock, a chopped onion, and a few minced cloves of garlic.  I left this on high for about 5 hours, then on low for another couple hours. 

New countertops and cabinets, same old crockpot.

Since this is a dish that seems to have been designed by American housewives as a quick and fairly cheap way to feed their families, I thought I would just stick to typical ingredients to make it "authentic":  Three boxes of Jiffy corn bread mix, a can of Ro-Tel, a fresh pepper (this is a Cubanelle because they looked really good that day), chili powder, onion and garlic. 

When the meat was ready to go, I sauted the onion, garlic, pepper, with about half the can of Ro-Tel until they were slightly softened.

Veggies diced and sauteing

Shredded venison shoulder.

I went ahead and pulled some of the venison out of the crock pot (the rest is for another dish in the near future) and shredded it well.  I combined it with the veggies in the pan along with chili powder and some of the crock pot stock and let it simmer down for a bit.

Filling cooking down.

I used some more of the crock pot stock instead of the suggested milk to make the corn meal batter, then spread it in an even layer across the bottom of a Pyrex baking pan.

Filling on top of lower cornmeal batter layer.

Spread the meat filling on top of the first corn meal batter layer then spread another batter layer on top.  

Top layer of cornmeal batter in place.

 

Fully cooked and ready to go.

 

OmmNommNomm

I got invited to go saltwater fishing on a chartered boat out of Islamorada in a few weeks.  My saltwater fishing experience is about nil, but I'm really looking forward to a day on the water.  I think we will be doing some blue water stuff out in the gulf stream for dolphin and mahi and maybe fishing some reefs for grouper.  There will definitely be some updates on that, and hopefully some fish recipes to follow.

Sausage. Long overdue.

Haven't posted anything in a long while, I realized.  I was by myself for a month while the man went to visit his family in the old country, and I quit cooking anything too grandiose after a while.  However, I did make a feeble attempt at creating venison sausage, so here is my long overdue report on that endeavor. 

I started with this bowl of cubed deer meat and fat.  I wanted to used raw pork fat, but I was too late in the day to get any from the local grocery stores, so I settled for fatback instead.  The venison was scraps of shoulder and some flank steak, basically what I salvaged from around the bloodshot impact point on Queen Mother.  I found an old hand-cranked grinder at a thrift shop for $7, it worked fairly well at producing the minced meat.

 

I added in a lot of herbs, dried basil, rosemary, paprika, etc.  and squished it together.

Here is the main pile divvied up, the closest one doesn't have herbs in it because I was making it into maple sausage.  The other two are hot and mild Italian-like sausage.  

Sausage bagged up for storage.

Breakfast for One.

Spaghetti.

Spaghetti.  I made spaghetti.  With venison meat sauce.  Seriously, that's all I did.  I browned some Italian-like venison sausage and poured in a can of Bertolli marinara sauce.  I added some onions and garlic too.  The only remotely special thing I did was mixed some fresh spinach into it, because I had a bag that needed to be used up.  And whole-grain spaghetti since fiber is important.  I expect it will feed me tonight and tomorrow for lunch, at least.  Here are the customary blurry iPhone pics:

Freshest ingredients.

Italian-like sausage browning.  The twigs are rosemary, I added a lot.

Exotic!  Waiting until near the end to add the spinach.  I'm not even going to bother with a plate shot, I'll just do a lunch shot tomorrow.  Peace.

Its been raining for days here, folks.  My melatonin reserves are running low.  I'm also sleep deprived because my one dog that never false-alarms went ballistic with his "I'MAGONNARIPYOURTHROAT" bark at 2:30 am and jarred me wide awake.  I came really close to grabbing the shotgun but he settled down in just a few seconds.  I couldn't find anything wrong, but that's the bark he reserves for when there is a stranger right outside the door (very useful as Saturday anti-evangelical deterrent).  Could be he scared someone off, if so then the system worked. Could have been an damn cat on the windowsill, that happened once before and scared the shit out of me.  The house never quite settled down again after that though, I gave up trying to sleep right before 6.

Hopefully I'll get some needed sunny outdoors time over the weekend, and the clock change can't come soon enough for me.

Vignas and Venison: A Chili Reception

Since this is what passes for winter in North Florida I've been wanting some chili .  Actually, these last two years that's not as much of a joke as it could be, since we've seen 20 degree weather on a few occasions.  I've also wanted to do a dish with the strain of field peas (Vigna unguiculata) I've been growing the last 5 or so years.  Field peas are also sometimes called cow peas or southern peas; the famous black-eyed pea is among their ranks, as well as the Asian long or asparagus bean.  They can be really cool with a lot of variety, as you can see from the following pic of my genetic mix.  Those ones that look like black-eyed peas?  Yeah, they aren't, there were no black-eyes in the original mix.  I think they came from the black seeded long bean varieties I interplanted, but at this point I'm not sure, there are no really long podded phenotypes anymore, but they all vine great which is what I wanted.  I like them to vine because my lack of space requires me to grow them up a trellis. 

I only have about two pints right now, so I actually hated to lose these genetics, but if I don't cook them, how will I know, eh?

They are a type of bean, really, so why not use them in chili?  I used the "quick soak" method: basically bring a pot water to a boil, then turn it off and add the peas.  I let them steep for about an hour, then changed the water and set them to simmer with some salt for a couple hours, adding liquid as needed, until they were almost done but not quite.  For the venison, i used another piece of the same hindquarter mix I put into the chilindron stew.  This recipe was just as easy as you would think. I didn't grind the meat, but just diced it fairly fine like so:

I enjoy the pics of the meat most for some reason.  Full of promise.

I went ahead and browned that in a bit of olive oil until it was just done.  Then I put the meat aside and sauteed a mix of diced bacon, onions, and poblano peppers.  I chose poblano mainly because I didn't want anything nuclear spicy, and the story had very pretty ones that day. 

I also love Visions cookware, you can get it so cheap at the flea market nowadays.  But it's hell with terrazzo floors, you drop a lid and it becomes deadly shrapnel.

I was going to make my own chili seasoning from scratch, but said store also a mix in their spice bins that smelled HEAVENLY, so I decided to go with the shortcut.  At this stage, I combined the bacon/pepper/onion mix, the meat, the chili powder, and the peas with some of the pea cooking water.  I set that to simmer on a very low flame.  I don't really remember how long, just until it looked right.  Maybe two hours with an occasional timely stir.

Getting there.

Final product.

As I also think chili is also a dish best served as leftovers, like the chilindron before it, this too was destined to wait until lunch the next day for a tasting.  I can say the venison held its own, I was still able to tell that it was something with a little more kick than beef I was consuming, but it blended in very well.  That store-bought chili powder along with the poblano did their job, spicy with a bit of smokey.  And as for my field peas, they fit right in.  I love vignas now more than ever, outside of a good boiled peanut they still reign as my favorite legume. 

Lunch!

Chillin' with Chilindron

After searching the interwebs for a good venison stew recipe, I decided to go with one called "the ultimate wild game stew" by a blogger I enjoy following.  This stew is called chilindron, a Spanish recipe composed of roasted red peppers, tomatoes, onions, wine,  various herbs, and plenty of garlic and paprika.  The name of the stew is supposed to be borrowed from the name of the large heavy pot that it was cooked in.  Chicken or lamb is the most common protein, but apparently the recipe can accommodate a wide range of meats by varying the wine type involved.

I started by dicing and browning the meat.  I used some random cuts from a hind quarter of Queen Mother that I had bagged up and froze for stew.  After trimming out the silverskin and such I cut them in bits about an inch square and then browned them in olive oil in a large pan.

Venison always looks so awesome.

I removed the meat from the pan and added coarsely sliced onions and coated them well in the pan juices.
I then added chopped fresh mushrooms, minced garlic and bacon cut into squares of about an inch.  The recipe called for dried mushrooms but I couldn't find any on short notice.

This on its own would have been tasty :)

I then added the venison back to the pan and poured in a good bit of red wine and simmered it on high to reduce.  At this point the aroma was heavenly.

After reducing I removed this mixture to a large pot, and added the seasoning (paprika, rosemary, bay leaf) and beef broth, then set it on low to simmer away.

Too cute.  Bay leaf from my own tree, btw.

I let it bubble for a good four hours, turning it off before I went to bed (yeah, it was always destined for leftover status, but I find most stews are better that way).  I'm enjoying the results right now at lunchtime over some white rice, very delicious.  Its not nearly as spicy as I imagined it would be, but it does have a strong red pepper taste.  I'll most likely make this again when the hubby returns from his overseas trip to visit his family.  I gave some of it to a friend of mine who is a natural-born foodie, I'll be interested in his opinion.

Last peek before bed

LUNCH!

Braisin' 2: Julia and Me

For my next act, I decided to revisit the braised shoulder, this time adhering closely to the recipe detailed in  "Mastering the Art of French Cooking, Volume 1" by Child, et al.  Really, I didn't deviate far, basically just omitting celery from the marinade because I was too lazy to go to the store to get some and then adding pearl onions and carrots directly in the braising liquid with the venison instead of preparing them separately.  I won't go into every detail, but the new elements for me were marinating the shoulder 24 hrs in the fridge in a mix of red wine, diced carrots, thin cut onions, bay leaves, and some other stuff I forget right off the bat.  The meat was then well-dried and browned on all sides over fairly high heat.

The marinade was then reduced, and went into a pot over low heat with the meat and a few cups of beef broth.  I added larger cuts of carrot and pearl onions about an hour later.

This bubbled away for about four hours (Julia Child recommended baking in the oven but I though stove top heat was fine).  Meanwhile, towards the end of the braising I prepared rice using some beef broth I reserved and some salted butter.  When the meat was done, I removed it from the pot and pulled it apart.  The stock I further reduced with some butter.  I was supposed to add a thickener but I didn't feel it even needed it.

This is actually the next-day version, great for leftovers.

I'd say that of the non-grilled venison, this was the best so far.  Possibly even 1st place overall.  The vegetables were just as good.  Its hard to believe that some people consider the shoulder only fit for grind.  But then again, I'm sure the animal makes a big difference, all my personal experience so far is with a sample size of two muley does, I have no idea how versatile a whitetail buck will be.

I pulled a bag of random bits from the hindquarters out to thaw for a stew, not sure where I'm going with it yet.  I probably won't cook it until the weekend, so I have time to research.