Conceptualization

Rose hips along the Ridge
trail in Riverdale (Fall 2013)

This post is a long time coming. The idea behind this it is what inspired me to really think about food, and develop my own philosophy in it's regard.

I used to run along the bluffs that overlook Whitehorse, Yukon from the west. They are relatively flat, get lots of sun, and are covered with wild roses. Good place for a run, and good place for rose hip foraging in the fall.

In the fall, the wild roses turn into little pods called  rose hips, which have a nice aroma reminiscent of roses, tomatoes, and strawberries. When the temp starts to drop below zero at night, they turn sweet, and also take on a bit of cranberry tartness.

I used to eat a few while resting and one day a simple but influential concept dawned on me: Moose burgers with rose hip ketchup and sage.

Very underwhelming I know, but conceptualizing was still kind of new to me. I enjoyed cooking but I did so mostly out of cookbooks. This moment marked the first time I tried to fabricate flavour combinations in my head, and how to really do an ingredient justice.

This past fall, some friends gave me some moose, and the rose hips were the best I've seen them in the Yukon for years - maybe due to a really warm summer. I finally got around to seeing this idea through.


Rose hip Ketchup

Ingredients

- Rose hips x 1 soup bowl full
- Sugar, salt, and apple cider vinegar at ~ a 2:1:1/2 ratio.
- Water x ~ a cup.

Directions

1) Add some water to your bowl of rose hips to rinse them, and to help with the process of removing the seeds and stems.

2) Remove the stem, and gently (AND I MEAN GENTLY) squeeze the rose hip like you were getting a mint out of its wrapper. The seeds are clumped together in a little cluster like a pit, and the idea is to get it out, without braking the membrane and losing the seeds into the flesh of the fruit.

I conveniently screwed one up (see left) to show the seeds. The image to the right shows what the clusters look like if successfully removed in tact.

It took me about 35 min to get through the entire bowl. I think pushing them through some type of mesh that would allow the flesh through, but catch the seeds would make this a lot less painful.

Rose hip flesh with seeds removed

3) Add the flesh to a small sauce pot, add ~ a cup of water and bring to a simmer. Allow to simmer until the flesh breaks down and the solution reduces to the consistency of a chutney.

Once reduced, add sugar, salt, and vinegar at the ratio of ~ 2:1:1/2 a little at a time until it has the familiar sweet, tangy, and somewhat tartness of ketchup. It seems to come together a bit too after a few hours in the fridge, so don't be discouraged if it is initially underwhelming.

4) Pour into a jar or container, let it cool down and then store it in the fridge over night to let the flavours meddle into each other a bit.

Voila

Moose Burgers

Ingredients

- Ground moose x ~ 500g
- Sage x ~ 4-5 sprigs. I used fresh sage, wild sage next time!
- Salt

I don't like to jazz up the meat in a burger too much. Just meat, and salt. I added sage in this case because it was an important piece of the puzzle but I think adding it to the ketchup would have resulted in the flavours blending together over night, instead of offering the nice contract of being kept separate.

At this point, just make a normal burger: form some paddies, cook them on some heat until they are to your liking. If you have a bbq, great, it was -30 when I made mine so I just used a good cast iron griddle pan on medium-high, with a bit of oil. A lot of people like their moose cooked a bit more well-done than their beef, so if its your first time eating moose, maybe make a practice paddy and try it at different cooking times. I like mine a little medium-rare.

Turned out great! It had that deep unami flavour that I want in a burger. The tartness and sweetness from the ketchup was present enough to keep the gaminess of the moose at bay, while also allowing it to shine on a different spot of your tongue. The sage added some nice depth, but I might find another way to incorporate it next time. Like sage quick-pickled dandelion greens or something. It would seem my rule of "only meat and salt in a burger paddy" still stands.

All in all, this was a near-perfect Yukon burger for what I was hoping for. But when I have a burger craving, I'd probably tell you the same thing about a McDonald's cheeseburger so take it for what it's worth.