I am a huge fan of trying new recipes. There is nothing more gratifying than the sound of “Yummmm” coming out of my hubs’ mouth. After being married for six months, I’ve gotten bored of our standards – chicken, turkey, steak, salmon. So when I went to the store last week, “Gourmet Elk” caught my eye. Yup – you heard me right, Elk.
In the wake of Sarah Palin’s mooseburgers, I was inspired. So in the last couple hours, I did some homework. Here is what I learned:
1) Elk has 22.8% protein, 137 calories and 0.9% fat. Compare that to USDA Choice Beef, with 22% protein, 180 calories and 6.5% fat.
2) Elk can be purchase free range and organic.
3) There are quite a few Elk recipes on the internet: http://www.eatingelk.com/recipeindex.html
Once I had convinced myself that I was actually going to cook my Elk steaks, I settled on the following recipe:
| Elk Steaks with Red Pepper Sauce |
| 1 tablespoon butter or margarine 3 large tomatoes, peeled, seeded and chopped (2 cups) 2 roasted red peppers*, chopped 3/4 teaspoon dried oregano leaves 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder 1/2 teaspoon paprika 1/4 teaspoon cayenne 4 boneless Elk loin steaks (4 oz. each, 3/4 to 1 inch thick 4 servings In 1-quart saucepan, melt butter over medium heat. Add tomatoes and peppers. Cook for 3 to 4 minutes, or until tomatoes are soft, stirring frequently. Stir in oregano, garlic powder, paprika and cayenne. Cook for 3 to 5 minutes, or until sauce is thickened, stirring frequently. Set aside and keep warm.Spray rack in broiler pan with nonstick vegetable cooking spray. Arrange steaks on rack. Broil with surface of steaks 4 to 5 inches from heat for 6 to 8 minutes, or until desired doneness, turning steaks over once. Serve steaks with sauce. * Use roasted red peppers from a jar, or roast your own. To roast a pepper, place it under broiler with surface of pepper 3 to 4 inches from heat. Turn pepper frequently until skin is blackened and blistered. Seal pepper in plastic or paper bag, and let steam for 10 minutes to loosen skin. Peel pepper. |
My hubs loved it – he said eating it made him feel manly. While I don’t think that I’m going to switch from Chicken to Elk on a regular basis, it was definitely an interesting, relatively healthy, experience. Yummmm….Elk.
Elk Steaks with Red Peppers
http://www.uselk.com/elkSteaksWithRedPepperSauce.html
~ Nina
