Bison en Croute and other Adventures

Bison En Croute

A couple weeks ago Lady Sally and her Mum returned from one of their Costco forays and asked me  "Have you ever had bison, or buffalo?"

"Sure." I said.  When I lived out West one of the local grocery stores had an annual Buffalo Week sale and carried roasts, chops, ribs and more.    When I lived on Kwajalein, once a month there was a Bison Burger lunch special that even food service there didn't mess up.

"Here, see what you can make us for a special Mother's Day luncheon with this."   This was a 20oz package of beautiful ground bison meat.

So I tossed around, and tossed out, several ideas -- buffalo chili, bison cottage pie, buffalo lasagna, bison burgers -- this had to be special.  I wanted the rich flavor of the meat to shine, not be buried in a bunch of tomato sauce or other flavors.   That's when I came up with Bison En Croute.   For side dishes I chose corn on the cob and roasted new potatoes with mushroom gravy.  Dessert would be a Mango Crumble.

"En Croute, of course means "in pastry".  The most famous meaty example is Beef Wellington, where a steak or roast is coated with pate and a duxelle of mushrooms, then wrapped in puff pastry and baked until GBD --- Golden, Brown and Delicious.

Duxelle?  That's minced mushrooms sauteed in butter than nearly pureed into a paste.

Bison is the quintessential American meat and is readily available these days in ground form at your local megamart grocery. Naturally 97% fat-free, it is arguably the healthiest red meat you can eat. Because it is so lean you normally don't want to cook bison to more than about medium rare (that's an internal temperature of about 140F). Because I added onion, mushrooms and BBQ sauce; and cooked this "en croute", I was able to cook it a bit more and still keep the meat moist, not a dried out hockey puck. 

20 oz pkg Ground Bison

½ cup Crimini mushrooms, chopped

¼ cup Panko

1/3 cup Diced Sweet White Onion

½ tsp Liquid Smoke (hickory)

½ tsp Worcheshire Sauce

¼ cup Bourbon Peach Barbecue Sauce

1 Egg, whipped, for the meat mixture

1 sheet Puff Pastry

1 Egg, whipped, for egg wash

Preheat oven to 400F. Set puff pastry aside to thaw.

In a large bowl, bring together the ground meat and other ingredients except the puff pastry and egg wash. Mix well (hands are always best for this). Form the mixture into a log.

Roll the thawed puff pastry out thin enough to cover the meat. Carefully place the mixture on the pastry, and pull the pastry up around and over the meat.  Trim away excess pastry, and seal the overlapping edges with a brush of egg wash. Carefully place the wrapped meat, seam side down, on a lined baking sheet, and pierce the top of the pastry with a knife 3 times. Egg wash the top of the pastry to help get that golden hue.

Bake at 400F for 30-40 minutes and check for done-ness with a meat thermometer. When the interior temperature is 140-150F, remove the roll from the oven and allow it to rest 15 minutes and re-absorb the juices.  Slice the roll into 1” rounds and serve with a dollop of mushroom gravy.

Mushroom Gravy?  Make your own with Bisto, hot water and sauteed mushrooms.  Bisto is a great British product -- granules to be dissolved in boiling water -- that has been around since 1908.  Find it in the Imported Foods section of your local megamart.

Mango-Blueberry Crumble

Dessert was a simple mango-blueberry crumble.    The mangos came from Lady Sally's tree last year.  I froze, if I remember right, 20 quarts of  golden deliciousness.  We have mango-banana dessert smoothies, mango upside-down gingerbread cake and other delights all year 'round.

Filling

3 large sweet Mangos, sliced (about 1 quart of cubes and pulp)

6-8 oz fresh Blueberries

¼ to ½ cup Brown Sugar, depending on sweetness of your mangos

Fresh grated Nutmeg to taste

Topping

1/2 cup Butter

1 cup Brown Sugar

3/4 cup Flour

3/4 cup Quick Oatmeal

1/2 tsp. Cinnamon

1/4 tsp. Salt

Preheat the oven to 350. Put the mango in a saucepan with brown sugar, cinnamon, and nutmeg.

Cook on low-medium low, stirring often, for 5 minutes.

Put the flour into a large mixing bowl and rub the butter in with your fingertips. You want the ingredients to hold together, but still break apart. Add the sugar, cinnamon, salt, then the oats, and mix again.

Put the mango mixture into a buttered ovenproof dish and sprinkle over the crumble topping.

Bake for 30-40 minutes until the topping is golden brown. Serve with vanilla ice cream.

Bonus Dessert

The Crumble recipe above makes enough for a 9x13 dessert and I was only making a 9x9.  So I had a lot of crumble leftover.  Not being one to waste potentially Good Eats, I grabbed my silicon loaf pan and spread the leftover crumble in it about 1/4" thick, and put it in the oven with everything else.  Voila!  Chewy and sugary and GB&D!  Sally says this is pretty close to what the Brits call a Flapjack – a simple candy/snack made from oats, treacle and butter.  

You could always skip the mangos and just make a big batch of Crumble.  Spread it out on a lined baking sheet and bake for about 30 minutes at 35-400.  Let it cool a bit, then slice and serve with a scoop of vanilla bean ice cream.