For The Union-Tribune
Several years ago I did a series for the Food section on unusual proteins — everything from octopus and bison to seitan and tempeh. It was eye-opening to see how much flavor you can create when you go beyond the standard beef, lamb, pork, chicken and fish.
Back then I should also have checked in with The Lion’s Share in downtown San Diego to even further expand my knowledge. It’s been around more than 15 years with a menu of game meats that aren’t standard in restaurants across San Diego County. Executive chef Dante Romero describes what he does as game meats with French technique and a touch of Baja flavors.
At the time I was there recently, his summer menu hadn’t yet been released but on the menu I saw and tasted from, there were salt and pepper frog legs; venison sliders with boar bacon and onion jam, Havarti and garlic aioli; a duck and rabbit terrine with kabocha squash mole; bone-in elk chops; boar Bolognese; and coq au vin.
Given that we’re entering the summer grilling season, Romero has shared recipes that are perfect for summer entertaining: the bone-in elk chops with the most gorgeous barbacoa marinade, the venison slides with butter onions and garlic aioli, and his oh-so-creamy duck fat potato puree.
Romero and his older brother Danny, chef at Ponyboy at the Pearl Hotel in Point Loma, grew up in Calexico near the Mexican border and learned to cook because their parents worked long hours and they were bored with eating Jack in the Box.
“It’s funny,” he recalled. “In our hometown of 30,000 people I think we have seven, the highest per-capita number of Jack in the Boxes. I think Danny’s and my DNA is made from Jack in the Box.”
The brothers started cooking via trial and error. Eventually that led to restaurant jobs that didn’t involve cooking. Danny was a server, Dante a dishwasher. Romero described his mentality as one of trying to help his team and managers to make service as smooth as possible: “How could I be more helpful?” he explained.
He started moving up in the kitchen but wanted to learn more than how to make specific dishes on a menu. The brothers started buying cookbooks, watching YouTube videos, and learning from chefs and other co-workers to build their knowledge. All that research sent him on a path to learn French technique — particularly the refinement of sauces — that he has now married with the seasoning and spices of Mexican food.
Through the years, Romero has worked at Barona Casino, Stone Brewing World Bistro & Gardens, a pop-up with Danny called Tortoise in the loft above The Lion’s Share, SEA 180 Coastal Tavern, Wormwood with Danny, the Two Ducks pop-up with Danny and, since spring 2024, at The Lion’s Share.
I asked Romero what people should know about venison and elk if they haven’t yet eaten either.
“I feel like a lot of people who have tried lamb but may not love it because of the strong lamb flavor may think venison and elk may also have that distinctive flavor,” he explained. “In fact, neither have any gaminess. They’re cleaner in odor and flavor. If you like beef, I’d recommend them.”
The other thing to note is their leanness. In fact, we are adding beef fat to the venison slider to give it more flavor and better texture. He pointed out that you can add suet instead.
“Usually in a restaurant burger you’d get an 80/20 blend of meat to fat,” said Romero. “Here, we’re going 75/25.”
So, let’s get real. Where are you going to find elk, venison and other game meats, let alone the fat? Romero suggested Siesel’s Meats in Bay Park and its sister store, Iowa Meat Farms in Grantville.
The venison sliders start with that meat and fat mixture. Romero emphasized that it should be ground, frozen fat. He grinds and blends his meat and fat at the restaurant, but you can ask the butcher to do that for you — or at least grind the fat. To make the sliders, mix them together until the white specks of fat are perfectly combined. Weigh them out to 2.5 ounces each. Romero uses a standard ice cream scoop to speed things along and get the size standardized.
Then the fun begins. I’d never heard of this, but the technique is brilliant. Instead of having loose balls of meat, you’re going to shape a ball, push the meat together as much as you can with both hands, then throw it hard from one hand to the other like a baseball.
“What you’re doing is pushing out all the air pockets so the patty won’t break,” Romero explained. “If it’s making a slapping sound, you’re doing it right.”
The rest is easy. Just heat up a grill or cast-iron pan. Sprinkle the balls you made with salt, add a little cooking oil to the pan and press the patties down so the bottom is making full with the pan for a good sear and you have a patty. After a couple of minutes, flip and let it cook until it reaches your desired doneness. It should take five minutes altogether. Add a spoonful of the butter onions on top. To make this, cook diced onions in a pot with butter and a pinch of salt until they just brown. Then add a slice of Havarti cheese and cover briefly to let the cheese melt.
While they’re cooking, pull out your brioche slider buns, spread garlic aioli on both pieces and give them a little grill time until lightly toasted. To make the garlic aioli, start with prepping garlic confit by placing horizontally sliced garlic heads into a small pot with olive oil to cover. Cook on low for 30 minutes until the garlic is soft, then remove from heat to cool. At that point, add the oil into a bowl with Kewpie Mayo, lemon zest and juice, and salt. Place a few pickle slices on the bottom bun slice, and top with the patty with onions and cheese. Over that, place the top bun and they’re ready to eat.
The elk chops are lean but not tough. First, the silver skin needs to be removed; it’s the white or shiny material on top of the meat. Then the chops need to be frenched. That means scraping off the meat on the bone with a carving knife up to the ball of meat (think lamb chop) so you have a handle. Now prepped, follow Romero’s lead and make his luscious barbacoa rub. His recipe makes two cups. If you have any left over, spread it over chicken or beef, or grilled veggies. It’s that good.
It’s also pretty simple, but there are a lot of ingredients — olive oil, guajillo peppers, garlic, ginger, ancho chile powder, oregano, apple cider vinegar, black pepper, cumin, cloves, cinnamon, tomato paste and salt. The peppers need to soak and then be seeded. Blend the oil, garlic, ginger, oregano, black pepper, cumin, cloves, cinnamon and tomato paste together until smooth and heat them in a small pan until fragrant. Whisk in the ancho powder. Separately, blend the seeded guajillo peppers with apple cider vinegar in a blender for about 30 seconds. Then combine both mixtures in a bowl; add salt to taste. If you need to thin it, Romero said to use chicken stock instead of water to fortify the flavor.
Massage the chops with the barbacoa rub up to two days in advance. When you’re ready to cook, preheat a hot grill or cast-iron pan. Salt the meat, then sear and flip the chops to sear the other side. Use an internal thermometer and remove the chops from the heat when the inside reaches 135 degrees. Let them rest for five minutes and give them a squeeze of lime juice.
What goes great with both sliders and chops? Potatoes, of course. Here we have something even smoother and creamier than mashed potatoes: Romero’s duck fat potato puree. Peel and quarter Yukon Gold potatoes and bring to a boil in a pot of water, then lower the heat and simmer until tender. Remove the potatoes and let them cool but keep the water in the pot. You’ll use that as a double boiler later.
Push the potatoes through a ricer into a mixing bowl and add the heavy cream and duck fat. Place the bowl on the pot with the hot water to warm up the bowl while mixing. Add butter a slice at a time until fully incorporated, then add some salt to taste. It should be very creamy. Want to be a little fancy? Instead of plopping them into a bowl or on a plate, make an easy quenelle with one spoon by gliding some mixture onto a large spoon, letting it curl over itself into an oval before lowering it onto a plate.
Duck Fat Potato Puree
Makes 4 to 6 servings
INGREDIENTS
5 pounds Yukon Gold potatoes
2 cups heavy cream
1/2 cup duck fat
4 ounces (1 stick) unsalted butter, sliced and at room temperature
Kosher salt, to taste
DIRECTIONS
1: Peel potatoes, cut into medium blocks, and set inside a pot and cover with room temperature water. Set on the stove to medium-high and wait for it to come into a boil, uncovered. As soon as it boils, lower heat to medium-low so potatoes can simmer. Cook until potatoes are tender and can easily be pierced by a fork — about 15 to 20 minutes.
2: Strain cooked potatoes but keep the hot water in the pot so that a mixing bowl can fit on top without going into the water. Lay on a pan to cool down a bit for 5 minutes. While waiting for it to cool, you can start heating up the heavy cream in a small pot.
3: Push potatoes through a ricer into a metal or glass mixing bowl. Now you can start mixing in duck fat and heavy cream into the potatoes and mix with a rubber spatula. Since duck fat has a flavor, you will be adding the duck fat until desired flavor. Place the bowl on top of the pot with the leftover hot water from cooking the potatoes and warm up the bowl while mixing the potatoes. You will get to see exactly how the potatoes will behave and appear when ready to eat. Add the butter a slice at a time until fully incorporated. Add salt until you get the desired taste.
Garlic Aioli
Makes 2 cups
INGREDIENTS
For the garlic confit:
2 heads of garlic
2 cups of any flavor neutral oil (avocado, canola, vegetable, olive oil — but not extra-virgin olive)
For the garlic aioli:
2 cups Kewpie Mayo
2 tablespoons garlic oil from Confit Garlic above
1 lemon
Kosher salt to taste
DIRECTIONS
1: Make the garlic confit: Cut garlic heads in half horizontally to expose the cloves. Place into a small pot and fill with oil to cover. Place on the stove and turn on to medium-low. Make sure no browning occurs at the bottom of the pot by moving garlic around every few minutes with a spoon or rubber spatula. This will take about 30 minutes. Cook until the garlic becomes soft or slightly golden brown. Remove from heat and let the oil and garlic cool down to room temperature.
2: Make the garlic aioli: Place Kewpie Mayo into a mixing bowl and pour in confit garlic oil slowly while mixing with spatula. Zest the skin of the lemon onto the mayo until desired flavor, then strain juice from lemon into mayo until desired flavor. Mix well and salt to taste.
Venison Sliders
Makes 13 sliders
INGREDIENTS
For the butter onions:
2 pounds yellow onions, peeled and diced
One 4-ounce stick unsalted butter, sliced
Kosher salt to taste
For the slider patties:
3 pounds ground venison
1 pound frozen beef fat, ground, or suet
For the sliders:
Kosher salt for patties
Cooking oil
2.5-ounce venison slider patty
1/2 tablespoon garlic aioli (see recipe above)
1 tablespoon butter onions
3 pickle slices
1/2 slice Havarti cheese
Brioche slider buns
DIRECTIONS
1: Make the butter onions: Place diced onions into a pot with butter slices and a pinch of salt. Turn on the burner to medium low and have a rubber spatula in hand as you will be moving the onions around a lot to prevent browning. Let them slowly cook; water from the onions will also evaporate. This process will take about 20 to 30 minutes. If the onions start browning, they are done. Remove from heat and place the cooked onions into another container so they stop cooking.
2: Make the slider patties: In a mixing bowl mix ground venison with frozen ground beef fat until the white spots of the fat are mixed uniformly with the meat and no big clusters of fat are present. You can weigh them to 2.5-ounce portions or get an ice cream scoop or any size spoon that will be the size to fit with your brioche buns and roll the portions into uniform balls until all mix has been portioned. Place in the fridge until ready to cook.
3: Put together the sliders: Set a cast iron or other cooking pan onto medium-high heat. Once the pan is really hot, add a sprinkle of salt on top of the portioned meat and put a little of cooking oil into the pan. Place 1 or as many patties in as will fit. Make sure you leave room for each slider as they will be pressed with a metal spatula.
4: Once you place the sliders onto the pan, gently press each one from the top to make sure the bottom surface is making with the pan to create a nice sear. After 2 minutes press each slider patty down until it creates a small disk shape or hockey puck. After a minute flip and press down to make both sides uniform and flat. Cook to desired temperature. I prefer to cook these at a medium rare temperature. It should take a total of 5 minutes cooking to get to the desired temperature.
5: Place a small spoonful of the butter onions on top of the slider. After that you will place a slice of cheese on top to completely cover the onions and locking the onions inside the cheese. Toast buns on a separate pan with a little garlic aioli spread on the bread to create a golden brown, even toasted surface. Place pickles on bottom bun, then slider patty, then garlic aioli, then top bun.
Barbacoa Rub
Makes 2 cups
INGREDIENTS
1/3 cup Guajillo peppers, soaked in warm water and seeded
1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil
1 tbsp grams garlic cloves (tablespoon or grams?)
2 tsp grams fresh ginger, peeled (same?)
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
1 teaspoon dried ground cumin
3 cloves
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
2 teaspoons tomato paste
1/4 cup ancho powder
1/2 cup apple cider vinegar
Kosher salt, to taste
DIRECTIONS
1: Soak seeded guajillo peppers in warm water for 15 minutes.
2: Blend oil, garlic, ginger, oregano black pepper, cumin, cloves, cinnamon and tomato paste together until smooth. Add to a small pot and warm over medium low heat until fragrant. Don’t let it brown on the bottom.
3: Add in ancho powder to the warm mixture and whisk.
4: Drain guajillo peppers and add with apple cider vinegar in a blender. Puree on high for about 30 seconds. Add both mixtures to a mixing bowl and while mixing add salt to season to desired taste. Use with any proteins or vegetables.
Elk Chops
Two 6- to 8-ounce chops (including bone) per serving
INGREDIENTS
Elk chops
1 tablespoon Barbacoa Rub per chop
Salt, to taste
Limes for squeezing juice on cooked chops
DIRECTIONS
1: Place elk chop on a cutting board and with a carving knife remove the silver skin from the meat. Silver skin is a tough material on meat that will be sometimes white and/or shiny. Then remove the meat on the bones, a process called frenching. It is not mandatory but makes it more elegant.
2: Place the chops in a container and massage 1 tablespoon of the rub all over the meat of each chop. This can be done up to two days in advance.
3: When ready to cook, preheat a cast-iron skillet or grill. Salt the meat right before placing on the cooking surface to create a nice sear. Sear one side, then flip over and sear the other. Depending on the size of the elk chop, the cooking time can vary, so use a meat thermometer and cook it until it reaches an internal temperature of 135 degrees. You can cook lower to reach rare, but any higher and you risk it being tough.
4: Rest for 5 minutes before serving. You can top the chops with fresh-squeezed lime juice.
Recipes from The Lion’s Share.
