A couple of days ago I was wondering what to do with a spare piece of reindeer fillet, a couple of hundred grams of it, that had been left in the fridge. A little googling gave me the idea of turning it into riimiporo, cured reindeer.
In Finnish the word riimi is most often attached to beef, and it means raw fillet or roasting joint that has been salted, seasoned or marinated and cut into paper-thin slices. Reindeer suits the purpose splendidly, and curing meat is really easy, no harder than curing salmon.
I am not writing a proper recipe this time, only explaining the idea simply. The card below has the principle and the amounts I happened to use. Let everyone vary their cured meat with the seasonings they like best.
A reindeer fillet is a thin, long muscle, and I think that kind suits this well. I trimmed off the visible fat and the membranes, salted the meat all over with coarsish sea salt and rubbed pink peppercorns, rosemary and thyme into the surface. Juniper berries would be worth trying too. Into the freezer bag with the meat went a splash of cognac, just under two centilitres, and the juice of half a lemon. The alcohol kills off a few bugs and gives flavour, while the citric acid in the juice tenderises the meat. I wrapped the bag up tightly, so that as little air as possible was left inside, and left the meat to sit in the cold part of the fridge. Then I wiped the surface dry, wrapped the meat tightly in cling film and froze it, because paper-thin slices can only be cut from frozen meat. I cut the slices with a sharp knife, and on the plate they thawed enough to eat in no time.
My plan was to eat something quick and simple today, so I decided to boil just a couple of puikula potatoes, the almond potatoes of Lapland, to go with the reindeer. A puikula is so floury that it falls apart in the pan if you do not keep an eye on it. With the potatoes already boiling it occurred to me that I could make the Cumberland sauce I had planned for the Christmas table in advance, since it is good cold as well. Cumberland sauce has traditionally been served with dark meat, so one would think it suits reindeer too. There was even port in the cupboard, left over from yesterday's onion soup. It nearly turned into a rush, and I all but ran out of hands, with orange peel to be cut into strips and shallots to be chopped before the potatoes split.
On to the plate went the split potatoes, the sauce over and beside them, and the reindeer in thin rounds with pink pepper showing round their edges. The sauce turned out a washed-out pink, and the strips of orange peel in it stayed rather thick.
Recipe card
Cured Reindeer (Riimiporo)
- Marinating a day or two in the fridge
- Freezing until the meat is frozen
You will need
| about 200 g | reindeer fillet, or another neat fillet or roasting joint |
| coarsish sea salt | |
| pink peppercorns, rosemary and thyme, or other seasonings such as juniper berries | |
| just under 20 ml | cognac |
| 1/2 | lemon, juice only |
Method
- Choose a neat fillet or roasting joint and trim off the visible fat and any membranes. A fairly thin, long muscle suits the purpose well.
- Salt the meat all over with coarsish sea salt and rub seasonings into the surface. I used pink peppercorns, rosemary and thyme. Try juniper berries too.
- Put the meat in a freezer bag. Splash in some alcohol and lemon juice. The alcohol kills off a few bugs and gives flavour, while the citric acid in the juice tenderises the meat. I used just under two centilitres of cognac and the juice of half a lemon.
- Wrap the freezer bag up tightly, so that as little air as possible is left inside. Leave it in the cold part of the fridge for a day or two.
- When the meat feels marinated enough, wipe the surface lightly dry and clean, wrap the meat tightly in cling film and freeze it.
- Once the meat is frozen you can cut paper-thin slices from it with a sharp knife.
Perhaps not the prettiest plate this time, but it tasted quite nice. More about the Cumberland sauce a little later, as there is a cake I ought to conjure up in between.
2 comments
Näyttää tosi herkulta. Oispa kivaa että olisit täällä laittamassa jouluruokia. Kävin tänään Fairwayssa, jossa ihmiset tönivät metrolakon hermostuttamina jo alkuiltapäivästä. En meinannut uskoa silmiäni kun joulutarpeet maksoivat $28. (Ballpark estimate olis ollut $100 enemmän). Saaliisiin kuuluu vahattu lanttu, Abba-silliä, lohifilee, hillosipuleita, kalkkunaleikettä (sad) ja perunalaatikko- ja rosollitarpeet. Huomenna olis tarkoitus keitellä noita ikkunat höyryssä ja sitten käydä katselemassa Dyker Heightsin elämää suurempia jouluvaloja.
Tuleeko sulta rosollipostaus vielä ennen joulua?
ZZ
Ugh, sanomattakin lienee selvää että tiedät suhtautumiseni kalkkunaleikkeeseen... 20+ lbs Butterballin pintaan runsaasti rubbadubbaa kivasta tin canista, maha täyteen Pepperidge Farmin stuffinkia ja lintu pariksi tunnuksi uuniin lämmittelemään.
Olin ihan unohtanut rosollin. Tokkopa siitä viitsii sen kummemmin kirjoittaa, mutta valmiista voisi napsaista ainakin kuvan. Perinteinen valmistusprosessimme kun ei teollis-utilitaristisessa muodossaan ole kauhean valokuvauksellinen 😉