SAVE a TREE ~ EAT a BEAVER Traditional Cache
SAVE a TREE ~ EAT a BEAVER
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Difficulty:
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Terrain:
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Size: 
(small)
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BEAVER STEW
Ingredients for soaking the meat:
- 2 lbs (900kg) of choice beaver cuts (from back straps or hind quarters)
- 1 cup (250ml) of vinegar
- 1 gal (8L) of water
Ingredients:
- 1/4 cup (60g) of butter
- 1 T (15ml) of Canola oil
- 5 rashes of bacon
- 1 small onion
- 1/2 of a small head of cabbage
- 1/4 cup (60ml) of soy sauce
- 2 T (30g) of dark brown sugar
- 2 cloves garlic
- 1/4 cup (60g) of wild mint leaves
- 1 cup (250g) of stinging nettle leaves
- 2 tsp (10ml) of liquid smoke
- 1 organic vegetable, onion, or beef bouillon cube
- 1 small can of stewed tomatoes
- 1/4 cup (30g) of whole wheat or rice flour
- 1 cup (250ml) of cold water
- 1 handful of miner's lettuce leaves
INSTRUCTIONS
Preparation:
- Before you begin cooking, make sure to soak the beaver meat in vinegar water for at least 5 hours. 1/2 cup vinegar to 4 litres of water is a good ratio. You can also add 1T baking soda. This all helps to curb the strong flavour of beaver. After soaking, pat the meat dry and cut up into sizeable stew size chunks.
- Ahead of time, blanch roughly two stalks of nettle to give you 1 cup. Remove the leaves and pat dry in a towel. Cut up the blanched nettle leaves and set aside.
- On the day of cooking, preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
Cooking:
- Cut up cabbage into rustic chunks and crush or slice up the garlic cloves.
- Add oil and butter to a hated skillet, then add bacon until a nice sizzle is underway. Then add beaver chunks and fry over medium heat until beaver starts to brown. (One option for thickening your stew is to drench the beaver meat in flour before frying, but if you prefer, you can add flour-water thickener at the end of the cooking process.) Add onion and continue browning until meat and onions begin to caramelize.
- In a small bowl, stir together soy sauce, brown sugar, and liquid smoke and stir into the frying pan.
- Add the cabbage, blanched nettle leaves, along with the sliced or crushed garlic cloves and stir until all ingredients are well mixed and coated, then transfer the stew into a roasting pan.
- Add stewed tomatoes and fresh mint, and 1/2 cup (125ml) of water, stir well, then place in preheated oven with a lid on the roasting pan. Bake for at least 1 hour. * A 1/2 cup (125 ml) of red cooking wine added just before the stew is placed in the oven is a nice variation on this recipe, but you may have to cut the soy sauce in half as it may taste a bit too salty.
- Before you remove the stew, (if you did not already drench your beaver meat in flour before frying), mke a thickener by adding flour to 1/2 cup (125ml) of cold water and shake in a lidded container.
- Remove the stew from the ovenand place over a burner at low to medium heat. Immediately remove lid and stir in the thickening mixture until stew begins to thicken (about 2 minutes).
Assembly:
- Ladle into serving bowls, garnish with miner's lettuce, and serve with bannock or crusty bread.
- The best wine pairings are of course the ones you enjoy the most, but I might suggest a well-aged Mourvedre, or a Willamette valley Pinot Noir, to compliment the bold flavour of beaver.
BON APPETIT!
Additional Hints
(Decrypt)
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