Curry Buffalo

Though I've been wanting to curry a buffalo for a while, it took me a while to get to it. It's not that easy to find bison meat in Toronto, or anywhere, I imagine. I knew that I could get it at The Healthy Butcher (www.thehealthybutcher.com) but avoided doing so because I suspected, correctly, that it would be outlandishly expensive. Instead, I spent three months poking into mom & pop butcher shops in my neighborhood (Dufferin/Rogers/Oakwood/St. Clair) and politely asking for bison meat. No one has it. At least I made a friend: the beautifully ham-handed butcher at Macelleria Atlas (800 St. Clair Avenue West), who gave me a super recipe for stew beef and a rich explanation of why it is important to brown meat and vegetables separately. I finally hit up Healthy Butcher today; $50 later, my most giant saucepan is full of curry bison and my veins are full of iron and "good" cholesterol. $16.99/pound, people. Oh well. It's Christmas.

Bison are super cute animals, so it's no surprise that they're also delicious. And yeah, prairie folk definitely get down like that; I know people back in Winnipeg who keep a buffalo hump in the freezer and eat the stuff regularly. Bison burgers are pretty commonplace on the prairies, and some people are into the prairie oyster/tendergroin/cowboy caviar situation...oi! As for me, I'd never tried the stuff before today. No, I know bison from the diorama in the first display one walks through at the Manitoba Museum of Man and Nature; fluffy beasts, like hoofed teddy bears, with soulful eyes that seem to be full of tears even after being stuffed and standing in a museum for 25 years. I know the stories of buffalo running, in which a bold adventurer would risk his life to lead a humble herd of trusting beefalo to their death over the edge of a cliff, poor things. I know that there were once something like 50 million bison, seriously, on this chunk of land that I live on - before they were hunted for their hides and tongues, tasty meat left to rot by money-hungry colonizers. Governments on both sides of the border actively encouraged extermination of the indigenous bison herds, which were the main food source for another indigenous group that was being actively exterminated...the humans. Lucky for me, bison are now being farmed sustainably and herd sizes are healthy, though nowhere near what they were when they fed entire nations of people.

A quick look at www.bisonbasics.com will tell you that bison meat has never been genetically modified, is 100% grass-fed, and is lower in fat, calories, and cholesterol than lean beef, pork, or turkey. Has more protein too. Awesome, right? As a person with Caribbean blood, I was pretty confident that any meat could be curried, and the bison didn't disappoint. I wasn't sure whether to prepare it like a curry goat or curry beef, so I kind of split the difference. If I can ever afford to do this again, or if I get a line on some cheap bison meat (bison farmers: holler at me) I will make it more closely to the way I curry goat, and see how that turns out. I'd also slap it into a roti skin next time instead of serving on rice. Bottom line - it was rich and juicy with an earthier taste than any other curry dish I've had. The mister says delish, but he's easy.

RECIPE

Curry Buffalo
Serves 4-6.

3 lb bison, cut to bite size
2 tbsp lemon juice
Salt to taste
Dash of thyme
Double dash of Seasoning
3 tbsp curry powder
2 tbsp vegetable oil
1 small onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 potatoes, cubed
1 tsp pepper sauce

1. Wash bison with lemon juice, then season with salt, thyme, Seasoning, and 1 tbsp of curry powder. Leave to sit for 30 minutes.
2. Combine onion, garlic, remaining 2 tbsp curry powder, and 1/4 c water. Heat oil in large saucepan over medium heat, add onion mixture, and brown.
3. Add bison and stir. Add 2 c water, cover, and cook 40 minutes over medium-low, stirring occasionally.
4. Add potatoes and pepper sauce; cook another 20 minutes.

Enjoy, peoples!

Pieroti!

Pierogy, pirogi, pyrizhky, variniki...fabulous little dumplings from the east of Europe. When I think of perogies, I think of my dear friend Leigh-Ann, 7 months pregnant and seated at a kitchen table at a cottage somewhere on Lake Winnipeg, clapping her hands and chanting "Pi-Ro-Hee! Pi-Ro-Hee!". I think of the freezer bags of no-name potato & cheddar perogies, 2 for a dollar, that my brother used to boil up for him and me late-night after our respective dance class & swim practice. And I think of a Ukranian granny in a farmhouse east of Foam Lake, Saskatchewan, a circle of silky dough in one hand and a spoon full hot mashed potatoes in the other, standing over a giant boiling pot of water. Good images!

Roti brings other pictures to mind - breakfast with my mom in the hot sun outside a laundromat in Port of Spain; dinners to stay at the front table at Caribbean Roti Palace; eating steaming paratha from a white paper bag at Ali's West Indian Roti Shop; the looks on the faces of the two little white-bread girls my parents were minding when my dad decided to take us all out for goat roti, bone in. Another happy food. The hot, doughy packages, oozing spicy gravy, are one of the greatest comfort foods I know.

Curry potato is the most common and basic filling for roti, and easy to substitute for the usual bland potato/cheese stuff that goes inside perogies. It was a little odd to bite into an innocent-looking boiled flour dumpling and find spicy-hot curry inside - but it was a good surprise. Me and the bass-playing bear found it confusing but good. Good-confusing.

The verdict: pieroti is pretty labour intensive but massively delightful. Tasty enough to eat 3 nights in a row.


RECIPE

Pieroti
Makes about 4 dozen pieroti.

Dough
2 eggs
0.5 c vegetable oil
1.5 c warm water
1 tbsp salt
5 c all-purpose flour

1. Beat eggs and oil in a large bowl; add water and salt and blend well.
2. Gradually add flour to make a soft dough.
3. Knead on a floured counter for about 5 minutes.
4. Cover in a bowl and let stand for 15 minutes.
5. Roll out on a floured counter until very thin, and cut out with a 3" round.

Filling
1 tbsp olive oil
1 onion, chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
1.5 tbsp curry powder
1 lb potatoes (about 4 small), chopped
1 tomato, chopped
Salt and hot pepper sauce to taste

1. Heat oil in a large pot; saute garlic and onion for 1 minute.
2. Add curry powder mixed with 1/4 c water and cook for a few minutes.
3. Add potatoes and stir to coat.
4. Add tomato, salt and pepper sauce and cook for a few minutes.
5. Add about 3/4 c water, cover, and cook at low heat until potatoes are tender.
6. Mash well.

To make the pieroti:
Place 1 tsp filling on each circle. Fold in half and pinch edges together to seal. Drop 1/2 dozen at a time into a pot of boiling salted water. Boil for about 5 minutes, or until they float to the surface. Place in a bowl with a little oil.

Serve with fried onions and bacon, which are delicious everywhere, and sour cream. And pepper sauce. Obviously.