"Bear burger bowl"
It's hunting time! So it's the perfect time to give you a recipe idea to make with your "harvests" so you can enjoy them to the fullest!
As many of you know, I went bear hunting this summer and it was a truly great experience. (I would like to take this opportunity to thank my friend, Stéphane Monette, from La ferme Monette for being an excellent "coach". Hi Steph! Thanks! 👋) I still had a few pieces of frozen bear meat left at home, so I thought I would take them out to prepare something really "wild" and give you the recipe. 🐻
Lately, poke bowls, buddha bowls, and anything called "bowls" are all the rage, but you know me, I like making "funky" recipes... so I decided to make a "bear burger bowl"! Oh yes! Plus, the ingredients I put in it, well, are, in part, ingredients that are part of the bear's diet, so it's like taking a "real bear bite"! (Good deals for humans there, don't worry. 😉) You'll see, the result is delicious!
One thing I absolutely must mention, though: some bears can carry bacteria (less than 2% of them could carry trichinosis), so if you're cooking them and want to make sure the meat is safe and just as delicious, just cook it until it has an internal temperature of at least 170°F and, of course, thoroughly clean your hands and any instruments that have come into contact with the raw meat.
So, now that all that is said, let’s get to the recipe!
Required tool:
Ingredients (for 2 “bear burger bowls”):
Bear “backstrap”, whole (or any part in ground meat) (see step 3 directly if the meat is already ground)
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Dry marinade 49th parallel BBQ Quebec X La ferme Monette , to taste
Butter, to taste
½ red onion, very finely chopped into cubes
Hazelnuts, finely chopped, to taste
Wild blueberries, to taste
2 tsp honey (1 per bowl)
2 slices Monterey Jack cheese (1 per bowl)
Preparation :
Place the bear backstrap in the freezer for a few minutes to give the meat more tone.
Preheat the BBQ for indirect cooking at 450°F*.
Using a knife, cut the backstrap into thin slices about 1 inch wide, making sure to remove as much fat as possible from each slice.
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Sprinkle 49th Parallel Dry Rub and Yukon Dry Rub over meat slices and place in a meat grinder with pieces of butter**. Grind until meat has the texture of ground beef.
Place meat in the Stuffing Bowl, then “dig” a hole inside the meat by placing the domed lid of the Stuffing Bowl on top and pressing down on it. Remove the meat from the Stuffing Bowl and repeat the step to make the second “bowl”.
Place the bowls on the BBQ grill in the indirect cooking zone and cook until they have an internal temperature of 170°F (this is very important!).
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When the bowls are ready, without removing them from the BBQ, add onion cubes, hazelnut pieces, blueberries and 1 tsp. of honey inside their respective "holes". Place 1 slice of cheese on top of the 2 "holes", then let everything cook on the BBQ until the cheese melts.
Remove the bowls from the BBQ, serve and enjoy!
* If you are using a gas BBQ, light the 2 burners at the ends of your BBQ, keep the middle one off, and let the temperature inside your machine increase.
**If you don't have a meat grinder, you can ask your butcher to grind your meat for you.
Happy BBQ!
