Cheryl’s story about bison as an alternative to beef inspired the braised entree that’s at the center of this menu for four. Start the bison cooking about 2-1/2 hours before you’re ready to eat and you’ll have plenty of time to pull together the other elements of this menu.
To start:
Begin with a salad made with seasonal ingredients like bitter greens, apples, beets, citrus and other winter fare. Lia has great ideas to improvise with what you find at the market. But if you want a recipe, she offers up a tasty Fennel and Granny Smith Salad with Blue Cheese.
Main event:
I used bison stew meat in this Buffalo Carbonnade for our riff on a Belgian classic that calls for braising the meat in hearty dark ale. The result is a comforting, fork-tender dish that I love served over Celery Root, Potato and Apple Mash. If you want to keep things really easy, simply serve the meat over egg noodles. And, of course, pour a glass of that lovely ale to sip with it. You’ll have some leftovers, which will make wonderful midweek lunches (warm up a container of this in the office microwave and your co-workers will be envious!).
Sweet finish:
A warm, winter meal like this calls for a warm dessert. Try our Chai-Spiced Amaranth Pudding. The recipe calls for serving the pudding chilled, but I can tell you it’s just good–even better with this menu–warm.
Bon appetit!
It hit me that when I defaulted to my comfort zone in colder months the cost was a triple whammy: the taste wasn’t that inspiring (virtually none of the ingredients were in season, which means that they were being shipped from afar and likely of a variety that was bred more for durability than for taste), it took a heavy toll on the environment (with the miles those ingredients traveled, I could rack up a free airline ticket) and it was expensive (have you ever noticed how expensive cucumbers are outside of summer?).