Grillet Reinsdyrstek

Last September, I wasn't sure if I should buy a chunk of reindeer meat home simply because the man hadn't tried grilling it. Dunno how it would turn out in Singapore. 1.2 kg is a lot of meat. But I bought it anyway. Maschmanns Matmarked does such wonderful produce that once the meat was deep frozen, carting it home was easy. Finding an occasion to eat it was tougher. There's no way the man and I could conquer this, even if we use leftovers for a steak sandwich or salad. Finally, after six months, we thawed it out for an impromptu dinner with the friends, whom we warned of the menu. In case they aren't used to venison.

The man was excited to try his hand at cooking reindeer meat. 1.2 kg of it. It's low in fat and high in protein, and shouldn't be cooked like beef. It has to turn out tasty and tender. Found a recipe online that called for it to be stuffed with mushrooms. He used porcini and brown buttons. Then he seared the meat in a pan before shoving it into the oven for 25 minutes. We were nervous about it. Had a little debate about whether to follow the roasting time in the recipe. In the end, we didn't. We extended its stay in the oven by about 10 minutes.

The final skewer test indicated promising results which were only concrete upon slicing it up. Oh beautiful colors. Yes! The knife slid through the chunk easily. It was tender and surprisingly flavorful. The man was delighted. My meat quota of the year is tiny and it's totally worth apportioning some to this evening's meal. Lean meat is awesome. Good for me because I hate wagyu-anything and dislike striploin. I think the friends really enjoyed the reinsdyrstek too.

The problem was the sauce for the meat. Reinsdyrstek er spist med tyttebærsaus. We don't have tyttebærsaus. I really really like tyttebærsaus, especially made from berries I could pick from the woods. Not going to happen here. I don't want it ready-made in a jar from Ikea. The man suggested other sauces. I rejected all, even yoghurt-lime-chilli dip. Can lah, local interpretation. But since this was the first time the friends had it, I insisted on having something similar to tyttebærsaus, and making it from ground up. So we bought cranberry juice and raspberries. Boiled up celery and onions and beef stock, then stirred in the cranberry juice and raspberries. Hurrah! Way better than anything out of a jar. This sauce worked great with the meat, cutting across the rich flavors.