Mild game feast
Unless there’s a hunter in the family, dishes like these don’t often grace the dining room table.
Even those who fill the freezer each year with the fruits of the fall hunt probably don’t eat as well as the guests of the annual Wild Game Feast at North Idaho College. At home, if elk sausage is on hand it’s probably not served braised in brandy with granny smith apples and red cabbage.
The menu of the annual dinner has featured all manner of wild beast over the years – rattlesnake, ostrich, alligator, kangaroo, even wild boar – but this year’s four-course dinner had a decidedly Northwest feel.
Sous-chef Casey Fassler, who created the menu with Coeur d’Alene Inn Chef Gene Tillman, said they wanted to feature many local ingredients and other foods from the region in this year’s feast. Fassler, who worked his way up to sous-chef in the Coeur d’Alene Inn kitchen, presented the meal this year because Tillman is recovering from a recent knee surgery.
Saturday’s dinner opened with the Sweet Brandy Elk Sausage with Caramelized Apples (recipe follows) and a spread of cheeses, vegetables and fruit. It was followed by a passed plate of smoked salmon and spinach canapés.
The salad course featured Priest River organic mixed greens with tomatoes, sweet Maui onions and a tangy poppy seed dressing. Bacon-wrapped roast buffalo with peppercorn brandy demi-glaze, steamed vegetables and Idaho twice-baked potatoes were the main course. The finale was warm individual peach and huckleberry crisp tarts with a dollop of sweet cream.
Fassler, who has worked in the kitchen for the past few feasts, said the dinner is not just a treat for diners.
“Most of the stuff we offer is just for the Wild Game Feast, so it’s kind of fun for us in the kitchen, too. You get to cook something that you don’t usually do,” he said. They began by researching possibilities and looking up recipes. Then, they tweak dishes with their own signature ingredients to come up with the finished meal. Kitchen and wait staff members often become the guinea pigs for the experiments of flavor combinations and recipe testing.
Those who attend the popular dinner said they’re always surprised by the meals.
“I’m a beef and chicken kind of gal,” said Laurie Thomas president of the North Idaho College Alumni Association. “But I’ve eaten elk, venison, buffalo, duck… Last year I did the rattlesnake.”
Chefs seasoned the snake with Cajun spices and served it atop a Caesar salad. “It was really good,” Thomas said.
The feast was started by Chef Bill Rutherford seven years ago when he was NIC’s executive chef and director of food services. The idea was sparked by a National Public Radio story about a wild game buffet at the University of Montana, he previously told The Spokesman-Review. He presented his idea to the NIC Alumni Association, which seized it as a way to raise money for scholarships.
Diners also embraced the experiment. At the first dinner, they were served roasted red pepper sauté with rabbit, herb-rubbed bison brisket, duck sausage braised in sweet Guinness and honey, goose with winter vegetables and wild mushrooms, Oregon berry and rattlesnake flambé and venison scaloppini morel. And people kept coming back for more.
Salmon, huckleberries, venison, bison, trout and apples have made regular appearances on the menu. Tasters have also tried alligator, hare, caribou, duck, kangaroo, ostrich, emu, wild boar, quail and pheasant.
By the fourth year, the dinner had outgrown its home at the North Idaho College Student Union building and moved to the Coeur d’Alene Inn.
“It’s a great way to introduce people to North Idaho College as well as experience unique food,” said Sara Fladeland, alumni relations coordinator for NIC.
Last year’s menu was a tribute to the 200th anniversary of the Lewis and Clark expedition and featured wild game the duo encountered in the Northwest. Journal entries written about the animals were displayed along with taxidermy arranged by the Idaho Fish and Game Department.
Wildlife education specialist Beth Paragamian sets up animals featured on the menu each year in settings resembling their natural habitat. The displays may be disconcerting to some diners, but the animals and the displayed information also spark interesting dinner conversation.
The Wild Game Feast attracts some 200 to 250 people each year and has raised $20,000 for scholarships since its inception. Twenty seven students have benefited from that money, Fladeland said.
Here’s one of the recipes from this year’s feast courtesy of the Coeur d’Alene Inn chefs and the North Idaho College Wild Game Feast:
Sweet Brandy Elk Sausage with Caramelized Apples
Courtesy of the Coeur d’Alene Inn chefs and the North Idaho College Wild Game Feast
1 pound of elk or venison sausage
1 small red onion, sliced
1 Granny Smith apple, sliced
Salt, to taste
2 cups shredded purple cabbage
2 ounces brown sugar
2 ounces red wine vinegar
2 ounces brandy
In sauté pan, brown sausage in oil. Add onions. In separate sauté pan, brown apples. Add salt to taste. Add cabbage to apple mixture. Add half of the brown sugar to apple mixture and remaining sugar to sausage mixture. Add brandy to meat mixture and vinegar to apple mixture. Reduce. Plate together and serve.
Yield: 4-6 servings
Approximate nutrition per serving: Unable to calculate.