Adventures in Bison: My Presidential Inaugural Lunch Experiment

Confession: In the kitchen, I'm more awkward than a seventh grader at a school dance. My problem is two-fold: I find the process of cooking laborious and boring so I cook everything on high heat and on the rare occasions I actually do cook, no one wants to eat my food. Years after we broke up, an ex-boyfriend confessed that when I offered to cook for him, he would lie and say he had other plans. I even lived in an apartment for eight months and-I swear-never stepped foot in my kitchen (hello, takeout!)

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But the thing is, I love to eat. And when I read the White House menu and recipe for the upcoming Inaugural Presidential luncheon in January, the main dish immediately caught my eye: Hickory Grilled Bison with a side of red potato horseradish cake. I'd been hearing a lot about bison lately-it has 30 percent more protein than beef, less cholesterol and calories than skinless chicken, and is packed with high omega-3s, a.k.a, healthy fats. And although bison has recently become a buzzword in the foodie scene, it's always been the Joyce DeWitt of livestock, never really achieving its culinary moment unlike its showier counterpart, beef. I did a little digging and while I was surprised to learn that although Presidential Inaugural lunches of yore have always been cutting edge-Franklin Roosevelt dined on tongue, James Buchanan opted for venison, Harry Truman sipped green turtle soup, and George W. Bush feasted on quail-bison has never made the inaugural main menu until now.

Intrigued, I knew there was only one way to taste it: Cook it myself.

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When I told my husband (A French man who thinks nothing of whipping up coq au vin or boeuf bourguignon on a Tuesday afternoon) that I'd be cooking that evening, he chuckled and said, "I would love to zee zis."

I was indignant. How hard it could be, really? I had a list of ingredients, directions for how to put them together, and now, apparently, a sarcastic husband to prove wrong.

The White House recipe served four people but I figured there'd be leftovers. I shelled out $71.48 at Whole Foods and returned home armed with two good-sized cuts of bison and an assortment of basic ingredients. After shooing my husband out of the kitchen, I got down to the business of marinating. I saturated each cut with olive oil, rosemary, garlic and a hefty shake of pepper and stored them in the fridge in a zip-lock bag. So far, easy.

I had four hours to kill while the steaks marinated so I got started on the potato horseradish cake, boiling four potatoes with a pinch of salt for 15 minutes. After draining the water, I dumped a tablespoon of horseradish, half a cup of Dijon mustard, two tablespoons of butter, half a cup of heavy cream, salt, pepper, and a handful of chopped chives into a bowl, then mashed away. When my arm got tired, I greased up a baking sheet I didn't even know I owned, and scooped little chunks of my raw potato creation onto the sheet. The recipe called for an ice cream scooper to achieve the firmest cake shape but I wasn't running Baskin Robins so I did the best I could with a tablespoon, then stored the sheet in the fridge.

Then, back to the bison. According to the recipe, I had to soak one quart of hickory wood chips in warm water for 30 minutes to enhance smokiness prior to grilling but since I don't own a grill or a smoke box, I flame-licked the steaks on the stove for 10 minutes until the meat was medium rare. While the bison was sizzling, I slid the potato cakes into the oven for about fifteen minutes and baked until crispy.

Setting the table, I couldn't wait to taste the meal and I was eager for my husband's reaction. Taking a tiny bite of the bison, I watched his expression morph from cautious to pleasantly surprised. "Well?" I asked impatiently.

"Zee bison is amazing!" he exclaimed. And it actually was. In the end, I was sweaty and exhausted, but I was also proud of myself for at least trying to cook something as exotic as bison. OK, the potato cake was a tad too creamy but I'd say it's not too far off from what the White House plans to roll out on January 20th-of course, they probably won't set off the fire alarm.

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