That one ingredient . . .
 

You know when you go to the store, and you see a fabulous, unusual ingredient--you're tempted to get it. But you don't know what to do with it!

Today, I saw ground bison in my grocery store. I know that buffalo meat is supposed to have less cholesterol and fat than beef, but -- I wasn't sure what I'd do with it. Or even if I'd eat it. I've wasted a lot of food that way.

I suppose you couldn't go too wrong putting it a chili or something.

If I had a fancy ass phone or pocket computer, I could index by ingredient and look up in the store. Maybe someday. For now, I'm attempting to put recipes on del.icio.us. Handy--'cause lots of times I'm at work or something before I go to the store, and I don't carry my cookbooks with me in the car.

Most of the time! :)

In a neighboring town, weird meat is the menu. Yes, if you go there that big ass ratty looking buffalo is sitting there! :3eye:

It took me a while to work out what you meant. In this country we call it mince you see - ground is what you do to coffee or pepper. I was picturing it in a little jar in the spice section. "Just add a pinch of buffalo to your meat dishes for that authentic American flavor!"

Surely you'd just use it the same way you would ground beef (see, I even translated for you). I used to use ground turkey (and again) in canneloni and bolognaise dishes because it was healthier. It didn't hold the robust flavours in chilli as well to my mind, but worked well with Italian meals.

BTW Shawnee, when I come visit we're going to Buffalo Jacks. I can't get over how cheap it is to eat out in the States. Green with envy for your sausage samplers.

Use it any way you'd use hamburger, it's quite tasty.

weird meat and cheesecake--what a combination!

how funny, SG. "Minced" here means--cut up very, very fine, like you do an onion; ground meat is put through a mill which makes little cylindrical ropes. sort of.

Oh my god, a buffalo burger on brioche and a slice of cheesecake would really hit the spot right now.

We call that a mincer.

We call it a couple of things: "meat grinder" is the older term, marketing 'oids are trying to tell us "food mill," on account of you can do things like steel-cut your own steel-cut oats and such.

Famous but OT quote about meat grinders from late in WW2. Scroll down about halfway for the quote.

I think we use the term meat grinder as well as mincer.

Use buffalo exactly as you would beef.

I have a tonne of those types of ingredients in my pantry.

Exotic ingredients that I want to use (and will get around to one day) but have bought without a clue what I was gonna do with them.

I know the kind of things I do with green cardamom -- indispensable for curry powder that perfumes as it should -- but had to google up black cardamom to get even one clue.

I just this lazy sunny afternoon scooped up a recipe for phô -- per Linda Ellerbee it sounds like "fuh" to her Texan ear -- which doesn't include either color. Seems the secret is the nuoc mam and the squeeze of lime into the beef stock... eh, it's a start.

I saw some awesome looking black cardomom the other day. I pondered whether to buy some--but those pods look so big! I put 1 green cardomom pod in carrot juice, but those--I think they'd be overpowering.

Don't you wish you could just Google up ingredients in the supermarket? Like, when they have -- persimmons on sale or something, and you're thinking, those look good but what the heck do I do with them? I'm sure some of you could . . . that time has yet to come for me.

That is the only meat we use for our hambergers. The only one. Fantastic! Sprinkle some blue cheese crumbles and a few pieces of very thick peppered bacon precooked on top. Yum.

It's my understanding (I've never personally eaten it) that it has a stronger taste than beef, so you may want to make it in something like chili or meatloaf where you can get a sense of the flavor, but not be overwhelmed by it.



Here in South Florida, there's apparently a whole culture of people who eat manatee, which is illegal.

(For the record, I think eating manatee... or dogs... is effing gross)

http://www.boatfix.com/images/mmeat.gif
Baked Manatee
6 manatee steaks
lemon juice
lemon slices
garlic powder
butter
chopped parsley
salt and pepper to taste

Arrange manatee steaks in an ovenware dish large enough to place in a single layer, sprinkle with salt, pepper and garlic. Squeeze lemon juice over steaks. Cut a generous amount of butter into squares and place over the steaks. Arrange lemon slices over the steaks and then sprinkle generously with parsley. Bake in a 375 F oven until steaks are cooked. Serve with french bread.

Grilled Manatee
2 lbs manatee steaks
1 Tbs. onion powder
1 Tbs. garlic salt
1 Tsp. butter for each steak

Season steaks with onion and garlic. Place in an aluminum pan ( or wrap and seal in aluminum foil ) on grill. Dot each steak with butter. Turn over half way through cooking. Cook over medium grill for 15 to 20 mins.

Manatee Broulettes
2 lbs manatee
2 egg yolks
1/2 bell pepper oil
2 stalks celery
salt and pepper to taste
milk
3 sllices of bread
2 onions
1 cup water

Grind together with the manatee, onions, celery, and bell pepper. Soak bread in milk and press out. Add to ground mixture. Add egg yolks and season to taste. Spoon into hot oil and brown. Remove and in another pot add the water and bring to a boil. Put in the broulettes in the water and steam on low heat for 35 minutes with a cover on.

Beer Fried manatee
1 lb manatee
flour

Trim meat and cut into finger sized pieces. Soak pieces in beer overnight. Drain. Deep fat fry until golden brown.

Manatee and Scallops
4 manatee steaks - 1 inch thick
1 egg
1 cup milk
1/2 cup butter

Trim all fat from steaks. Cut and pound steaks until 1" thin. Beat egg and add milk. Dip each piece into egg mixture. In a skillet, heat butter. Saute steaks on each side 2 to 4 minutes. Serve 'scallop sauce' over manatee steaks.

Soup Du Manatee
2 lbs manatee meat, cubed
2 tbsps oil
1 cup roux
1 cup onion, chopped
1 cup celery, chopped
2/3 cup bell pepper, chopped
1 lb can whole tomatoes in juice
1 lemon sliced across
1 tbsp salt
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp red pepper
1 tsp black pepper
2- inch cut basil sprigs
2 quarts water
4 tbsps parsley

Heat oil. Add roux, tomatoes and juice, onion, celery, bell peppers, lemon, seasonings and herbs. Stir well. Add water. Bring to a boil. Cover and simmer 2-1/2 hours or until meat is tender. Add parsley and simmer a few minutes more. Add dry sherry if desired when serving.