Southwest Spice Elk Rub with Cherry Sauce
Chef Walter Whitewater (Diné/Navajo) of Red Mesa Cuisine shares a recipe for elk prepared with a southwest spice rub and cherry sauce. This elk dish is a meal appropriate for special occasions, such as after a hunt, ceremony, or gathering.
Ingredients List:
Sweet Potatoes
4 Sweet potatoes
2-4 tablespoons of Butter
Garlic (optional)
Salt, to taste
Elk
2 Elk tenderloins
Sunflower Oil
Pinyon Pine Branches, enough to cover elk.
Southwest Spice Rub
2 tablespoons each of
thyme
coriander
cumin
fennel
star anise
mild NM red chili powder
Cherry Sauce
Cherry juice (to taste)
1 cup Sweet Cherries, pitted
1 cup Tart cherries, pitted
1 cup Chokecherries, pitted
Collecting Ingredients: Pinyon Pine and Chokecherries
This meal requires two ingredients you are not likely to find on store shelves. However, both should be relatively easy to find in the outdoors if you live in the Southwestern United States.
Pinyon pines, known predominantly for their nuts, are long-lived, drought-tolerant trees found across the Four Corners states and Nevada, California, Wyoming and Texas. These trees are easy to find within this range, usually growing alongside junipers on plateaus, foothills, mesas, and mountain slopes between 4,500 to 9,000 feet. To easily identify Pinyon pines, look for their squat stature and needles, which grow in pairs of two per twig.
To harvest pinyon for this meal:
Prune the tips of several branches, avoiding those with cones.
Take only what you need.
Rinse and pat dry before using.
Chokecherries are small, tree-like shrubs which, from during mid-August until September, bear their eponymous bright red drupes. Chokecherries need a lot of water, so in the Desert Southwest, they grow in valleys and close to rivers, particularly along roadsides or near clearings, as they prefer to receive full sun. Make sure to wait until the cherries are fully ripe before collecting as they taste quite poor unripe. Ripe chokecherry is a deep red. Be careful to avoid the lookalike “common buckthorn.” The two should be easy to distinguish because chokecherries have a single large seed, while buckthorn contains several seeds
The Night Before: Prepare Elk
Prepare elk by trimming silver skin and fat off. Using a sharp knife with the blade parallel to the meat, cut away skin and fat and discard. Place on a baking sheet and oil generously. With good thoughts in mind, sprinkle with salt and spice rub. Oil again, turn and repeat on the other side. Place rinsed pinyon branches on the meat and sprinkle rub generously over both branches and meat. Cover sheet and contents with plastic wrap and leave overnight.
The Morning of: Prepare Sweet Potatoes
Cut the ends off, peel them, and cut them into fours. Place them into boiling water and boil until soft, about 20-25 minutes. Drain and set aside. Shortly before plating, mash sweet potatoes. Add a pinch of salt while mashing. If desired, add butter and garlic.
Cook Elk
Preheat the oven to 350. Heat sunflower oil in a pan over medium. Gently place the elk to sear briefly. Sprinkle on the additional rub. Once the elk is well browned, place the elk onto the baking sheet and place the sheet into the oven for about 15 minutes.
Prepare Cherry Sauce
Take chokecherries, sweet cherries, and sour cherries and place in a blender, setting a few aside as a garnish. Blend until smooth. Add in cherry juice to taste while blending. Pour into a pot and allow to simmer over low heat. Remove from heat when it reaches the desired consistency. To determine desired consistency, stir the sauce with a spoon and then trace a line across the spoon’s back with the tip of your finger. If the line remains visible, the sauce is the right consistency. Add more juice if it is too thick, or cook longer if too thin.
Plating
Place mashed sweet potatoes on a plate. Layer sliced elk on top. Next, drizzle cherry sauce over the top. Place the remaining cherries on the plate and pinyon branch on the side. Serve, and enjoy.