in Eating In 254 Words

Ostrich Stroganoff

Sara is visiting from Zurich this weekend. According to my sources, meat in Switzerland is as varied as it is expensive. For fun, Sara brought along ostrich and horse meats for us to experiment with.

I’d never had ostrich before which I’ve been told again and again is “um … like beef” and since Sara considers beef stroganoff to be a comfort food, we made a variation with ostrich. I followed the recipe from the Joy but used white wine instead of beef stock, and I used grainy dijon, since that is what I had in my fridge.

Sara’s mom always serves stroganoff on top of rice with a garnish of super thin and crispy frites on top.  Sara fried the frites in two little batches, adding back the first batch again before serving to re-crisp them. I don’t know how her mom’s usually turn out but Sara’s were, as far as I could judge, perfect.

I had bought bärlauch since it is in season and I thought it would go well with dark meats. I wilted it with butter and seasoned with salt and pepper. We didn’t bother with rice, since I didn’t have enough pots. Instead, we sopped up the superlecker sauce with some baguette. The ostrich was tender and mild; the sauce was tangy and rich; the bärlauch was aromatic and indeed complementary, and the frites — as I’ve said — were perfect.

If this photo is to be believed, we ate with our hands.

5 thoughts on “Ostrich Stroganoff”

  1. Bärlauch! Yes! Dare I say it rivals cilantro as my favorite herb? Was it at all stringy cooked like that? I don’t think I’ve ever had the leaves whole like that before.

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  2. It was not stringy at all, no; it was tender and yummy. When does the season end? I saw some potted bärlauch for sale in the market yesterday. I could try my best to keep some alive in a pot until you visit. No promises: I have a brown thumb.

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  3. I should hit the end of the season. Last year it was pretty much over by the time I got there, but I think that’s because last April was so hot. I’m guessing that won’t be a problem this year. It’s really unlikely that you (or anyone) would be able to keep it alive in a pot like that for almost a month. If you did happen to see a pot towards the end of the month, you might have a chance. No extra trips though.

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  4. jealous 🙂 there’s so much Sara can’t eat here in Canada, and it puts a lot of limits on what we might eat together.

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