Tuesday, July 7, 2009

Braising Bison "Hump" with Donabe


I cooked Bison's hump meat for the first time today. It was a big 3-pound chunk of the grass-fed natural bison's meat, which I picked up from the farmers' market.

It was so easy and fun. I used the soup & stew donabe ("Miso-shiru" nabe) to braise the meat. With the thick and porus clay, combined with the Far-Infrared Radiation (FIR) effect, the meat cooked so beautifully. Before cooking, I seasoned the meat with just salt and pepper, and let it rest in the fridge for overnight. Then, it was ready to cook.

First, in the donabe, I simply let the meat rest on the sliced onions (2 medium-size onions), and added the water to cover the meat to its shoulder level. Then, covered the surface with a piece of foil and closed the lid.

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Then, I just popped it into the 350F degree oven, and let it braised for 4 hours. The aroma coming out of the oven was so wonderful. I turned the meat over once meanwhile.

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After 4 hours, the meat became so tender! The meat was cooked evenly all the way, thanks to the slow-cooking with the FIR by the donabe.

With the braising liquid, I made the curry sauce. I can't really write down the specific recipe, because it was my whimsical creation with many different Indian spices...and it worked!

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When the sauce was ready, the meat was sliced and reheated with the sauce. I served the meat and curry with the brown rice, which was cooked with the donabe rice cooker ("Kamado-san"). Wow, it was really a wonderful dish. I loved the density of the meat, while it tasted so clean. The meat was "spoon-tender". It was great with the sauce, too.