Bison Stir Fry over Brown Jasmine Rice

Bison Stir Fry
Originally uploaded by L.TON

Back home in Connecticut, somewhere between Buttonwoods Farm (best ice cream EVER) and my house, there is a Bison Farm. All summer long Andrea, Vaughn and I discussed doing from scratch, homemade burgers (condiments & buns included) and using Bison as the protein. But before I knew it, summer came and went and I was packed to the brim in my little Corolla and making my way to the Windy City! Our homemade burger endeavors never came to fruition. Bummer.

I'm also not going to lie when I say I've been wanting to try bison for quite sometime. It's a red protein and it has less fat, calories and cholesterol then chicken! I've had just about everything else: rabbit, venison, veal, quail, squab, ducks, turkeys, what ever, but the Bison! It's eluded me FOREVER.

So I thought I was going to get to fulfill the dream of having Bison when I was in Colorado. For some reason, I was under the impression that there was a bounty of Bison everywhere! And that when I got to either Boulder or Breckenridge, I would be stuffing my face in a nice, delightful, tasty, Bison Burger. That was a Fail alright!

Christel was like "Lisa I don't know why you thought that there would be Bison here." I don't know either Christ, I sure don't.

Anyhow, with a craving for red meat, on the hunt for some quality beef, I stumbled across this fridge full of South Dakota Bison at the local Whole Foods. The stars aligned just right and that was it. It was love. Today was the day. I was finally going to have some Bison.

I did an overnight marinate of soy sauce, hoisin sauce, garlic, chopped basil, brown sugar, agave nectar, chili flakes, shallots, splash of red wine vinegar and olive oil.

Then with a myriad of veggies: mushrooms, carrots, broccoli, red onion, & red bell peppers, I sauteed them up in olive oil, garlic, crushed fresh ginger, and a splash more of soy sauce (salt and fresh cracked pepper to taste of course).

Over all success: I'd rate pretty high. It's hard to screw up a stir fry... unless the Salt Lady came and fell right into your dish... but thankfully, that didn't happen! Bison itself, if you gave me beef stir fry or bison, I wouldn't have known the difference. Next time, I am going to have to try to just as it, grilled with some sea salt and cracked pepper.