This is the Sweet Bread entree we had before our Bison. I must confess that I am not a fan of Organ and Muscle Meats, if I would not have know it was actually a glandular meat and would not have seen and done the production process I probably would have enjoyed these two crunchy balls better. Since that is not exactly what happened, I ate one of the since it tasted quite nicely but passed on the second one since my rational palate really does not like any meats other that the usual big cuts.
This was the Bison that we roasted and served with our Steak Fries as the main plate. I had never had Buffalo meat (Bison) before and thought it was quite tasty and tender. We roasted Medium Rare, almost too rare for my palate but I learned that that is how we are suppose to cook Game Meats, such as Bison, Venison, Duck, Rabbit, Quail and Pheasant. Since they have so much muscle and therefore connective tissue, they have to be cooked mainly in a Low Heat oven and always served Rare or Medium Rare in order to be tender.
For this piece of Bison Rib we strongly seasoned it since it is a thick piece of meat and started it off in a 500 degree oven. That gave it an outside browning effect. A little while on we moved it to a lower roasting till the end. We took it out when it was still quite rare inside about 110 degrees F and it reached a carryover time of 125 or 130 degrees F.
Here goes the Chef's and the Book's definition of Game Meat: Any meat that was originally caught in the wild, such as the ones mentioned above. Our Bison came from Montana, USA, and was organically raised and grass fed, but since it comes from a wild origin, it is still wild game. The other way around also applies: if a wild cow is caught and cooked, it will still be considered a domestic animal since cows were originally human breaded.
Finally we used our simple breading procedure (Flour, egg wash, bread crumbs) to pan fry our sweet breads.
The Sweet breads that were poached in our vegetable liquid.
Here we are making a seasoned vegetable stock where we will Shallow Poach our sweet breads before pan frying them.
Apart from this vegetable stock we also made a Veloute Sauce that was served with our game meat.
Veloute is a Mother Sauce, in other words, it is one of the leading sauces from which you make other small sauces. There are four other leading sauces in the Classic French Cuisine: Bechamel, Tomato, Espagnole (or Brown Sauce and Hollandaise.Each of these has a main liquid agen and a thickener. Bellow goes our Veloute Recipe, later one I will talk about the others.
Make a blond Roux with equal parts of Cake Flour (preferably, since it contains more starch and less gluten) or All Purpose Flour (a second option) and Clarified Butter (preferably since it does not gelatinize like Whole Butter and it has a higher smoke point. When making the Roux you can also add some Mire Poix or other vegetables to give it more flavor.
Add the warm white stock (either chicken, veal or beef) to the Roux and whisk non-stop until it comes to a boil. Keep whisking now slower until all the starchy flavor of the flour disappears and you reach the proper thickness. If you are going to use it as a final sauce, as we did, you may season to taste. The other option would be to use it as a base for your small sauce.
Additional Information: Clarified Butter is the butter without the milk particles and the water particles. You make it by bringing the butter to a boil, lowering to a simmer and skimming the scum from the surface until it becomes COMPLETELY clear.
Mire Poix is a mix of vegetables that are used to make basic stocks: 50% Onions, 25% Carrots and 25% Celery. It is usually added half way through the cooking time of meat and veal stocks, after the first boil and skimming of a chicken stock and at the start of a fish stock preparation.
These were the Grape fruits from which we extracted the juice for our Gastrique.
Since there was some left over, I treated my self with a few pieces of this delicious organic grape fruit. It was one of the best parts of the meal: simple fresh fruit.
We served our Breaded Sweet Breads with a Passion Fruit Gastrique. The Passion Fruit Gastrique essence was brought to us directly from France in a little cute glass perfume like pot. We mixed that "essence" in the pan with caramelized sugar and white wine vinegar. Once it came to a boil we removed it from the heat and added some fresh strained grape fruit juice. Finally we mixed it with some Veal Demi Glace and some greated orange zest. The Demi Glace is theVeal Stock reduced to a Nape consistency (a Nape consistency is when the glaze, or Glace coats the back of a wooden spoon when submerged. At this point you pass your finger vertically through it and the liquid holds its shape without dripping down). A Demi Glace has a much more defined flavor and an "umami" feeling to the palate.
Ps: "Umami" is a tonge taste definition of something that is "meaty," unique and delicious in flavor. It is a feeling that usually coats the whole tongue and makes one feel nourished or happy.
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