Thursday, April 29, 2010

Bison Stew With Spring Greens


Divas, did you know that eating lean, grass fed meat has the same health benefits as eating wild caught fish?

That's right, it's chocked full of protein and omega-3's!  In fact, grass fed meat has more omegas and EFA's than 90% of fish.  And you don't have to worry about (1) pesky mercury and (2) overfishing.  Not only that, but grass fed meat is much healthier than both industrially farmed meat and farm-raised fish!

So this explains why my freezer is always full of grass fed bison from Lindner Bison!  Not only is bison very lean, especially when compared to beef, but the flavor is incredible and super meaty.  I'm in love with it.

This preparation, adapted from a French recipe, uses stew meat, which is a very affordable cut.  I sear it stovetop and then gently braise it in white wine.  When it's almost finished cooking, I stir in a ton of fresh spring greens from Sage Mountain Farm (baby chard, spinach), leeks and chives, and serve it over long grain brown rice.  Not only is this a super flavorful dish with great complexity, but it's also incredibly healthy and makes use of the wonderful greens that are in season right now.

And don't forget to enter the Avocado Giveaway!  The giveaway closes on Tuesday, so click here to enter!

Bison Stew With Spring Greens (Adapted From "Food & Wine" April 2010)
Serves 4 people
Cooking time: 20 minutes (active); 2 hours (inactive)

Ingredients
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 pound grass fed bison stew meat (may substitute beef or venison)
salt and pepper
1 cup dry white wine
2 cups rainbow chard, chopped
2 cups spinach, chopped
1 leek, finely chopped
1/4 cup chives, finely chopped, plus more for garnishing
2 cups cooked long grain brown rice, for serving

Directions
Preheat the oven to 325 degrees.

In a braising pan or large enameled cast-iron casserole pan, add the olive oil and heat over medium high heat.  Season the bison with salt and pepper.  Add to the pan and sear on all sides until browned, about 12 minutes.  Add the wine, cover the meat with a piece of parchment paper and the lid and braise in the oven ofr about one hour, until the meat is nearly tender.

Add the chard, spinach, leeks and chives to the stew.  Stir well and sprinkle with salt and pepper.  Cover again with the parchment paper and the lid and braise for another 30 minutes, until the greens are wilted and the meat is tender.

To serve, place the rice on a plate and spoon the stew over it.  Garnish with some chives and some fresh cracked pepper.  Enjoy!

Source For Ingredients
grass fed bison stew meat from Lindner Bison (Hollywood Farmers Market)

organic baby rainbow chard and organic spinach from Sage Mountain Farm (Hollywood Farmers Market)

organic leeks and organic chives from Hollywood Farmers Market

white cooking wine and long grain Basmati rice from Trader Joe's

Wine Pairing
With this dinner, we drank a Tablas Creek 2005 Antithesis.  The wine is made from one hundred percent Chardonnay grapes and has a very Burgundian style, which was fitting for these this recipe which was created by two Burgundy winemakers. This crisp white wine worked beautifully with this dish! 

1 comment:

  1. Thanks for the great recipe. I once got a pound of ground bison from Lindner. I made some burgers which we fine, though a bit dry (I overcooked them -- bison burgers are done in about two seconds).

    Since then, I've been hesitant to get more bison until I had a clear idea of what I was going to do with it. So now... I'll be there Sunday morning!

    ReplyDelete