Meat guru, Hugh FearnleyWhittingstall, inspired this recipe. In his rendition, he states that, “If you don’t like kidney, or you’re not quite sure, this recipe will convert you.” I fell in the “not quite sure category”, but I also believe it’s important to consume the whole animal, so thought I would give it a try. I was quickly converted. It is a delicious dish, and would make a terrific hors d’oeuvre for your next party. Ingredients: 1 – Wild Idea Buffalo Kidney 1 – cup milk 2 – tablespoons olive oil 1 – teaspoon salt 1 – teaspoon black pepper 1 – cup mushrooms, chopped 2 – tablespoons cider vinegar ¼ – cup red current or plum jelly 1 – cup dry sherry 1 – cup white wine 2 – teaspoons Worcestershire sauce ¼ – teaspoon cayenne, *I added more 1 – tablespoon, Dijon mustard 1 – tablespoon cream or sour cream fresh parsely & chives, chopped Preparation: 1) Rinse kidney, pat dry, and cut into pieces. Place kidney in a bowl and cover with the milk. Soak for 2 to 24 hours. Drain the milk from the kidney and pat dry. 2) In a sauté pan over medium high heat, heat oil. Add the kidney and season with the salt and pepper. Sauté until browned, tossing or stirring occassionally. 3) Stir in the mushrooms and sauté for a couple more minutes. 4) Add the cider vinegar and then the jelly. Stir to incorporate. 5) Add the sherry, wine, Worcestershire, cayenne, and Dijon. Stir to incorporate. Cover, reduce heat to low, and simmer for about 30minutes. 6) Remove lid and stir in cream. Season to taste, garnish with fresh herbs, and serve with toast points.
B.B.Q. Summer Sausage & Shrimp Skewers
Simple summertime grilling recipes that don’t skimp on the “wow” factor are pretty hard to beat. The ingredient combination of this recipe is sensational, but quality ingredients are the key. The number of skewers will depend upon the size of shrimp you purchase. 16 to 24 sized shrimp per pound work well, but larger would be fine too. Seek out wild caught shrimp, no other will do, and of course Wild Idea’s Bison Summer Sausage! Ingredients: 8 – ounces Wild Idea Buffalo Summer Sausage 1 – pound wild caught shrimp (16 to 24 size), peeled & deveined 1 – lemon, cut into wedges 1 – teaspoon lemon pepper 1 to 2 mango’s, peeled and cut into thick pieces 2 – tablespoons olive oil ½ – cup of your favorite B.B.Q. sauce Wooden skewers, soaked in water Cilantro for garnish Preparation: 1) Cut Wild Idea Buffalo Summer Sausage into circle slices and then into pie pieces, in keeping with the size of your shrimp. You may have extra summer sausage. Cover and set aside. 2) Peel, devein, and rinse shrimp. Blot dry with a paper towel. Place in a bowl and squeeze half of the lemon wedges over the shrimp, and season with the lemon pepper. Toss to incorporate and allow to rest for 20 minutes. 3) Skewer the tail part of the shrimp on first, then the summer sausage, securing the meatier part of the shrimp around the summer sausage. Add a piece of mango to the end of the skewer. *The mango pieces can also be added after the grilling. 4) Place on pan and drizzle with olive oil. 5) Grill over medium high heat, for 30 seconds each side, closing grill while grilling. Repeat two more times brushing with B.B.Q sauce while turning. 6) Arrange skewers on a platter and squeeze with additional lemon slices. Garnish with cilantro and drizzle with additional warmed B.B.Q. sauce if desired.
From Birds To Bison
Wild Idea Buffalo Company, LLC and Dan O’Brien were recently featured in the April 19th, 2015 edition of the Rapid City Journal in an article titled From Birds To Bison.The article examines the genesis of Wild Idea Buffalo Company and why Dan O’Brien shifted his focus from endangered birds of prey to bison. Click Here to read more.
The Tragedy of Phiney Flat
The north end of our ranch is part of a many thousand acre, level piece of ground known as Phiney Flat. By the county soil maps I know that the Flat is a fertile place for this part of the world and, in the places where the native, perennial grass still grows, it does extremely well. But people have been trying to farm other parts of the Flat since homesteading began in the early part of the twentieth century. For the most part, the efforts of these farmers were not successful. When we moved to this area, the neighbors with farming tendencies joked sheepishly that they only got a crop every three or four years, but that the federal government paid out for these “disasters” and so farming was profitable. Some of them would not meet your eyes when they talked like this but some actually winked. We are not crop farmers, we are farmers of grass. We know that plowing up native grasses destroys an ancient ecosystem of plants, animals, birds, and insects that have evolved here for thousands of years. Along with the plants, animals, birds, and insects goes the unique system that pulls CO2 from the air and, with the help of some microbes in healthy soil, splits the carbon (C) away from the oxygen (O2) and deposits it in the ground where it can’t create havoc in the atmosphere and cause climate change. As a happy side effect, the native grasses expire those two atoms of oxygen and make them available for us to breath. The reason that the native, perennial grasses do such a good job of this nifty trick is that sometimes 90% of a perennial plant’s mass is below the surface of the soil. It keeps growing every year and carbon builds with the root system. Of course, when someone plows up such a plant and root system and replaces it with an annual plant, which only lives for one year and has no time to build an extensive root system, the ability to sequestering carbon is reduced by a huge percentage. The fertility of the soil is hauled away in grain trucks each fall and the carbon is released into the atmosphere. Many people would disagree, but one of the lucky things about the American Great Plains is that, for the first hundred years of settlement, there was seldom enough rain to grow grain. The Great Plains was always considered one of the world’s greatest grasslands, but a poor place to farm. From the time of the buffalo right up through the era of the cowboy it has nourished countless herbivores. The buffalo, elk, antelope, cattle, and sheep grazed on the renewable grass and the fertility and the carbon stayed in the ground where it belongs. But now, in the first quarter of the twenty-first century all that is beginning to change. To get the whole picture you have to understand a few things about farming: Farming is about nurturing a single kind of plant and destroying all other plants that can compete with that chosen plant. In places where moisture is in short supply a farmer’s job is to make sure that the crop that he chooses to grow gets as much of the rainfall as possible. On most of the Great Plains, crops like corn, beans, wheat, and sunflowers do not get enough water to grow unless all the competition is killed. We call the other plants that try to grow in a farmer’s field weeds, and for generations the only way to get rid of them was to mechanically …
Employee Spotlight: Amy Benson
Employee Spotlight – WIB is proud to introduce Amy Benson. Amy has been with the company since August of 2013. Her hard work, enthusiasm and attention to detail, not to mention her great customer service, has earned her the position of our lead Sales Associate. Amy has worked in every position within the Sales Department. She has built up our Wholesale Accounts, streamlined our internet sales processes, and manages our Retail Sales and Customer Service. Amy is originally from Montana and attended Montana State University in Billings. Amy loves the outdoors and is a strong advocate for the family farmer, restoring the native grasslands, and supporting the sustainable agriculture movement. Amy is an expert on all aspects of the Wild Idea Buffalo Co. Got a question? Contact Amy: 866-658-6137 or info@wildideabuffalo.com
Cabbage Rolls in Tomato Sauce
(Serves 4 to 8) I remember my grandma Mosey making these like it was yesterday. She would always, brown the meat before stuffing the leaves, and have noted that option at the bottom. Additional ingredients, such as chopped olives and artichokes can be added too. Enjoy! Cabbage Rolls Ingredients: 8 cabbage leaves 4 quarts water 1 tablespoon olive oil 1 pound ground bison ½ cup green or yellow onion, chopped 1 tablespoon oregano 1 teaspoon paprika ½ teaspoon allspice (optional) 2 teaspoon salt 1 tablespoon black pepper 1 cup rice, pre-cooked Tomato Sauce Ingredients: 2 15 ounce cans crushed tomatoes 2 tablespoon brown sugar ¼ cup lemon juice 2 teaspoon salt 1 tablespoon black pepper 1 tablespoon chopped garlic Preparation: Mix all tomato sauce ingredients together over medium heat and let simmer for 10 minutes. Remove core from cabbage center. Bring water to a boil in stock pot, place cabbage in pot, turning cabbage occasionally. As able remove outside leaves from cabbage and place on a paper towel. Remove any stiff white core from leaves, for ease in rolling. Cover remaining cabbage and simmer for ten minutes. Remove cabbage, drain on paper towel and slice into strips when cool. Set aside. In a large bowl, mix oil, ground buffalo, onion, spices, prepared rice, and 1 cup of the tomato sauce together. Hands work best. Place a spoonful of meat mixture in the center of each cabbage leaf and roll. Place sliced cabbage in the bottom of a placing cabbage rolls on top, and cover with remaining tomato sauce. Bake in a 375* preheated oven for 30 minutes, covered. Serve with wild& brown rice and crusty bread. *Note: Meat mixture can also be browned first and then stuffed in cabbage leaves: In sauté pan over medium high heat, heat oil. Crumble in ground bison, onion and seasonings and brown. Remove from heat and stir in 1 cup of the tomato sauce and rice. Continue with step 6. Reduce cooking time to 20 minutes. Mixture can also be used with grape leaves, for the making of “Dolmades”. Wine Pairing: Try a full bodied, non-oaky chardonnay.