Aug

Pistachio-crusted Elk with Wasabi Mash

Sean Sellers in Red Wines, Grenache, Carignan, Blow the Bank, Meat & Poultry 2005, Emporado, Espelt, Recipe, Spain

InterWined Food
Every Friday, InterWined.com pairs one great wine that exceeds its normal £10 ($20) threshold with one great meal, prepared following the instructions of some the Internet’s best food blogs.

This week’s ‘Blow the Bank’ comes courtesy of Lynette at Lex Culinaria and a tantalizing Pistachio-crusted Elk Roast with Wasabi Mash.

Alongside the recipe at Lex Culinaria is a post on a story that appeared in The Age, an Australian, Melbourne-based Newspaper, concerning fraud in the food industry and recipe theft in particular. In 2006, a Melbourne restaurateur, it seems, had begun copying other restaurants’ recipes and serving them in his restaurant. Given the shapelessness of the Web, Lynette pondered what, if any, lessons the article imparted to the food blogger. Her conclusion? The same as InterWined’s: few ideas and few recipes are truly original; and, whether copying or adapting, always give credit where credit’s due.

Bearing this sage advice in mind, InterWined decided to adapt Lynette’s excellent Pistachio-crusted Elk Roast with Wasabi Mash recipe, rather than copy it. And, instead, prepared a quicker ‘Blow the Bank’-friendly Pistachio-crusted Venison Steak with Wasabi Mash. (For those disinclined toward elk or venison, Lynette assures that beef works too.)

To accompany InterWined’s Lex Culinaira-inspired Pistachio-crusted Venison Steak, the 2005 Espelt Sauló, from Emporado along the Costa Brava in Catalonia, Spain, £12 from Philglas & Swiggot and widely available online in North America.

Sauló is Catalan for sand gravel and, oddly, an almost fitting description of the wine and the soil in which the grapes (Garnacha & Cariñena) were grown. There’s a dirt quality to the wine, but it’s also low in tannins, soft, and has a nice fruitiness. The wine’ earthiness makes it durable and helps it stand up against the Asian, sugary flavours of the dishes glaze, while the soft fruit pairs very nicely with the meat.

Lynette’s Recipe in Full

Pistachio-crusted Elk Roast with Wasabi Mash

Ingredients:
2-4 pound elk (or beef) roast
1/2 cup beef stock
1/3 cup oyster sauce
1 disc palm sugar (or about 1/3 cup)
1/4 cup unsalted white rice wine
1/4 cup fresh squeezed orange juice
1/4 cup fresh squeezed lime juice
1 teaspoon orange zest
1 teaspoon lime zest
1/2 tablespoon sesame oil
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 teaspoon red chilli flakes (or 2 small red chillies minced)
2 cups crushed pistachios

1. Combine all ingredients except pistachios in a large Ziploc bag. You might need to melt the palm sugar first by melting into some of the liquid ingredients, which have been warmed.

2. Marinate for 1 to 6 hours.

3. Remove roast from marinade. Reserve marinade and pat roast dry. Sear roast on all sides in a lightly oiled frying pan.

4. Preheat oven to 450F.

5. Boil marinade in a medium sized pot over medium high heat for 5 minutes. Reduce until it forms a sauce about the consistency of pancake syrup.

5. Brush roast liberally with about half the sauce and press handfuls of pistachios onto the roast surface. It may help of you just dump the nuts in the bottom of a large shallow dish, pop the roast in and use you hands to press the nuts to the surface of the meat.

6. Transfer roast to a roasting pan with a metal rack.

7. Pop the roast into the oven. After 20 minutes reduce the heat to 400F.

8. Roast until the centre reaches 120F to 140F for a rare to medium rare roast. For a 2 pound roast this should take about 30-35 minutes total cooking time.

9. For the wasabi mash: Boil 1.5 pounds Yukon gold potatoes. Mash well with 1/4 cup butter, 1/2 cup sour cream, 1.5 teaspoons wasabi powder and salt to your liking.

Serve the meat and potatoes with a little of the extra sauce drizzled over.

Even though steaks replaced roast, InterWined followed the recipe as described, reducing only the cooking time for two venison steaks — ed.

Download & Print Recipe

Like what you've read? Why not subscribe to InterWined.com and get the lastest posts delivered fresh to your feeder.

Tasting Notes