Jo Mama's Alaskan Moose-aman Curry

Moose.  I love me some moose!  I love to watch them and I love to eat them. Here in Alaska they are just a staple of life even here in the city you see them all over the place in random areas.  Like on my back porch! We have had a ton of snow here in Anchorage this winter, around 11 feet so it seems like they are hungrier than ever because a lot of their food sources are covered with snow.  They are pretty resourceful though, using snow berms and even roofs in some places to get at trees they wouldn't normally get at.  I for one have never hunted a day in my life but the more I eat moose that is graciously given to me by my uncle I'd love to go hunting.  I can shoot a gun, I used to have good aim and I have patience. Patience came from fishing with my dad.  Its not called catching and it can be so boring waiting for that bite but you get to enjoy your company and relish in it when you do get a fish! Generally, skunk rule doesn't apply to me and I love to catch the biggest and the most fish, just saying :)   Which is why this summer I am going to embrace the salmon, not just give them away.  I have not fished in Alaska since my dad left.  We fish in Oklahoma just about everyday when I'm there but I need to get back to salmon slaying again!

So lets back get to eating these tasty ungulates.  Moose is a very lean protein and if processed correctly has little gaminess to it. Its also very versatile and you can do virtually anything with it.  I'm sure there will be many more moose related recipes posted in the future. And for the record, I'm sure I could make a person a delicious meal tell them it was beef if they had an opinion just by hearing it was moose and they would never know the difference! 

Here is a link to more detailed information about the nutritional values of moose:
http://www.livestrong.com/article/466820-moose-meat-nutritional-value/
It was surprising that aside from cholesterol its high in potassium and has good amounts of selenium in it as well.  Read the article!!

I also found this while doing my search, if you have time peruse through it!
http://www.aswcd.org/ValueofMoose.pdf

 All of these recipes can be used with beef or pork, well heck, even chicken if you wanted to.

Enjoying my rosebush.

This guy was literally standing on my porch @ 3am...Scared the bejeebus outta me! 

And the guy in the back using his resources

Jo Mama's Alaskan Moose-uman Curry

So I took the moose out a couple of days ago, these were all items I had in my pantry

Ingredients:
1 lb ground moose meat
1/2 onion finely diced (so I can sneak them in) you could cut them as chunky or fine as you'd like
5 mushrooms diced
1/2 yellow pepper diced
1/2 green pepper diced
4 garlic cloves minced
1 heaping tablespoon Masman curry paste
1 can coconut milk (I had a small can I used but ended up opening another large can and using 1/2)
1 8 oz can tomato sauce (an addition that wasn't in the above pic)
a good splash of soy sauce
splash of fish sauce
about a tablespoon of sesame oil
about 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
rice
lettuce leaves

A quick word about Masman curry paste, its not too spicy and you still get the nice curry taste with out the heat.  I like the heat personally but sometimes a girl has to compromise!

Preparation:

So, I have been dying for a cast iron Dutch Oven for forever and I've been watching this one at Wally World for a while, its Better Homes and Gardens and I got it for $54.00!  Someday I'll have a Le Cruset, someday....but until then I'm rocking my Wal-Mart special!!

So turn on your burner to medium and let your Dutch Oven (or whatever pan with a lid) warm up

Once your oil is nearly smoking add your onions and saute for a minute

Then add the peppers and saute them for a minute or two.

Followed by the mushrooms, garlic and green onions

Once the veg is sauteed, about 5 minutes push to the side and add your meat

I let this cook until all the liquid from the moose evaporated and got a bit of a crust on the bottom, this took about 15 minutes

Then I pushed everything to the side and added my curry paste

Jo Mama's Mama taught her to cook the curry paste and open up the flavors within it

Mix in the curry paste after a couple minutes and proceed to add the soy sauce, fish sauce (this is my first time using fish sauce but it wasn't that bad! And there was no extra salt added to the recipe) coconut milk (this is where the little can wasn't enough so I added 1/2 of a big can), and the little can of tomato sauce I thought would be good, then a cup of broth, all I had on hand was chicken so I just used that. Also, I forgot to take pictures of that part but I'm sure you can figure it out!

  Then...

I forgot the potatoes, duh, so I cubed 2 medium potatoes (that I dug up with my bare hands last fall :)) and threw them in as well. 

I covered my dutch oven and put it in the oven @ 350 for a little over an hour...I am going to tell you why next!

Again, I went through my refrigerator and noticed I had some romaine lettuce so I wanted to reduce the sauce and make sure my curry was nice and thick to make lettuce wraps

This is what it looked like when I took it out of the oven, you can see how thick it ended up getting!

This can be served over rice, mixed in with some noodles or like I did

with the lettuce wraps.

I took a tablespoon full of rice and the curry and added a sprig of cilantro.  The only thing missing was a lime wedge to squeeze over the top, but I did take a sampling over to my neighbors yurt (yes, yurt) and brought back an empty plate...and he had limes :)

Even the man, who we all know is a picky eater ate THREE bowls last night!!

So there you have it.  If you do do not have moose, like I said before substitute for what ever else you'd like. You could even do this vegetarian and just cut the veggies up into larger chucks and it wouldn't have to cook as long!