Wednesday, July 1, 2009

Cracker Cooking: Alligator Tenderloins

© 2009 Albert A Rasch and
The Rasch Outdoor Chronicles
.
Cracker Cooking: Alligator Tenderloins

Just waiting to be basted!

After the last few days of drama, I thought a light hearted post was in order.
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This is a local recipe that I have heard about for years. There are about as many ways to do it, as there are gators in the swamps. My guess is that the best tasting gators come from clear streams or strongly brackish water near the coast. You can also get some in the supermarket cold aisle by the poultry section. It’s cleverly marked as chicken breast.

B-B-Q Alligator Tenderloins

1 lbs of alligator meat, preferably the tenderloin, and cubed like chicken nuggets.
1 ½ cups of bourbon. (Stick to the inexpensive stuff for marinades and drink the good stuff)
1 tsp. of cayenne pepper (More if you like that flavor.)
1-3 clove of garlic
1 tsp. onion powder
1 tsp of salt
1/2 cup olive oil

In a mortar, mash 1 to 3 cloves of garlic with a tablespoon of olive oil and the teaspoon of salt. Mash it until you have a homogeneous mixture.

Taking a sip or two of the bourbon and make sure it’s ok. Now combine all the ingredients. You can use a food processor or blender if you want, but I think it just makes more to clean. I just use a plastic bowl and a whisk.

Take a wide flat container, pour your marinade in it, and add the gator or chicken pieces. Make sure they all get coated.

Cover and refrigerate for 3 to 6 hours, occasionally turning the pieces so they get well marinaded.

You have a couple of options at this point. You can either barbeque them or stir-fry. I’ve done it both ways and they’re both good!

Barbeque:

Get the grill ready with a good layer of coals.

When the grill is ready, place the meat on grill over the hot coals for 5 minutes or so. Occasionally brush on some marinade. When the edges of the gator or chicken start to turn white, brush on some more marinade and flip the meat over. Hit it with more marinade and cook it for another 5 or 6 minutes.

Serve it with corn, vegetables, or potatoes.

On the skillet:

Get the skillet hot. Pour a little oil in the skillet and when it is shimmering add a few pieces of gator. Don’t put too much in at a time!

As the meat cooks, move it around on the hot skillet so it browns nicely and doesn’t burn. Don’t cook it all the way through yet.

Put the first batch on a warm plate, and continue to cook the rest batch by batch until you have them all almost cooked.

When the last batch is done, make sure everything else is ready. All your side dishes should be done. Now, as the first plates are being prepared, put all the meat in the hot skillet and finish cooking them. It shouldn’t take more than a minute. Push the meat to the edges, and add some marinade to the center of the skillet and let it simmer and boil while you serve the meat piping hot on a bed of rice, noodles, or vegetables. Then pour some (just a little) of the marinade over all of it.

Yes, I did take a bite of it!

It takes longer to describe than it does to cook.

For all you folks watching your weight, this is a real healthful dish. Pile on the vegetables, get all your vitamins, and fiber too! We don't want our Vegan friends to think we aren't conscientious about our health. If you also take into consideration the exercise you get from wrestling that gator to the table, shoot you can't lose!

Enjoy!

8 comments:

The Suburban Bushwacker said...

Storytelling, aggravating vegans,Alligator wrangling, Barbecuing, is there no end to your talents?

In a few fancy bathroom installations time, I'm going to make it over to Florida to hunt and eat one 'gators with you.

SBW

Albert A Rasch said...

SBW,

Make sure you work out the strong arm, I'm going to have Todd over at Primitive Point forge me a couple of proper harpoons. After we tire it out, we'll drag it on shore and finish it off with hatchet! No sissy guns for us, no sir! It will be a joint UK-USA operation with warm beer, cold bourbon, cigars, and scantily clad native girls. (I'll look into the latter and see if there are any at the University of Miami that are willing to accommodate the needs of the adventure.)

Albert

jes said...

Thought you'd like to see this gator story as I got it, called:


SUMBICH!

A filthy rich Florida man
Decided that he wanted to throw a party and invited all of his buddies and
Neighbors.

He also invited Leroy, the only Redneck in the neighborhood.
He held the party around the pool in the backyard of his ma nsion.


Leroy was having a good time drinking, dancing, eating shrimp, oysters
And BBQ and flirting with all the women.

At the height of the party,
The host said, 'I have a 10 foot
Man-eating gator in my pool
And I'll give a million
Dollars to anyone who has the nerve to jump in.'

The words were
Barely out of his mouth when there was a loud splash. Everyone turned
Around and saw Leroy in the pool!

Leroy was fighting the gator and
Kicking its ass! Leroy was jabbing it in the eyes with his thumbs, throwing
Punches, head butts and choke holds, biting the gator on the tail and
Flipping it through the air like some kind of Judo Instructor.


The water was churning and
Splashing everywhere. Both Leroy and the gator were screaming and
Raising hell.

Finally Leroy strangled the gator and let it float to
The top like a dime store goldfish.

Leroy then slowly climbed out of
The pool. Everybody was just staring at him in disbelief.


Finally the host says, 'Well,
Leroy, I reckon I owe you a million dollars.'
'No, that's okay. I don't want
It,' said Leroy.

The rich
Man said, 'Man, I have to give you something. You won the bet. How
About half a million bucks then?'

No thanks, I don't want it,'
Answered Leroy.

The host said, 'Come on, I insist on giving you
Something. That was amazing. How about a new Porsche and a Rolex and some
Stock options?'
Again Leroy said no.


Confused, the rich man asked, 'Well, Leroy, then what do you want?'

Leroy
Said, 'I want the name of the sumbich who pushed me in the
Pool!'

native said...

Made my mouth water Albert!
There are some things of which I do miss about my old stompin' grounds, and Gator huntin' and eatin' is definitely one of them.

Oh! and by the way, I left a comment over at Doris blog for you.

tom said...

Wrestling cooked gator to the table is easy. Wrestling a big one in a little 12 foot johnboat...THAT was exercise!

Anonymous said...

Aligator tenderloins?

I would have to try that one, it does sound tasty.

Albert A Rasch said...

Bion,

Good one!

Albert

Dick said...

The first time I had alligator tenderloin I was in culinary school. We were at national food show in Orlando. What a treat! Now if one could afford to buy some.:-(