August 13, 2024

Inspired by Montana

THE MEAL

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It feels like we’re so close to finishing this state meal challenge! We’re in the home stretch! Just a handful of states and a few territories left!

And I’m so excited about this region of the States. Having lived in Utah or Arizona most of my life, the Northwest and West Coast are familiar but still different enough to be exciting. I actually almost moved to Montana instead of Indiana, but the cost of living was the main factor, so… I still hope to live there someday. It’s gorgeous!

Bison Burgers

Montana has historically had a strong population of bison, though they almost went extinct in the 1800s. Today, there’s estimated to be about 500 wild bison in Montana. I had the privilege of having my car surrounded by a bison herd on the Montana side of Yellowstone Park in 2021, and it was amazing. I especially loved seeing all the baby bison in the herd.

Anyway, while the wild population of bison is insanely smaller than it used to be before European expansion, there are tens of thousands on bison farms throughout Montana, and bison burgers are one of the first things people think of when they think of Montana food. This might be more touristy than authentic, but their official state food is a kind of pasty, which I’d already made for Michigan so I wanted to try something more unique.

I got to try bison tenderloin in Denver earlier this summer, and it was surprisingly delicious! I expected it to be gamey and unpleasant, mostly because I only ever heard about people eating bison in ground form slathered in sauce and stuff. It was good to know that it was tasty on its own before I went with making burgers.

These bison burgers did taste a little different than a regular beef burger and were more lean, but they were pretty great! I don’t have an outdoor grill, so I just used a pan grill on my stove, and it got super smokey and threatened to set off my fire alarm, but I think that was the fault of poor ventilation, not the meat itself.

Overall, I was happy with these burgers. I’m happy with most kinds of burgers. 🙂 Bison meat is more expensive than beef, but not so expensive or inaccessible that I wouldn’t make these again. Definitely worth trying at least once!

Berry BBQ Sauce

To go with my bison burgers, I made a spicy blueberry barbecue sauce. I wanted to make a huckleberry sauce, because Montana is famous for their huckleberries, but I can’t get them where I live. They’re not in any stores, and ordering them would’ve been extremely expensive. So I substituted blueberries instead, but it was still pretty great! Very spicy, so not something I’d make regularly, but it paired well with the bison and was easy to put together!

Buttered Peas

I chose peas for the Montana-inspired side dish because Montana is known for growing a lot of pulse crops—crops grown solely for the seeds, like lentils and peas. So this might not be a recipe that has come from Montana, but it kind of represents an aspect of their food identity.

Peas are one of those awesome foods that barely even need a recipe. I’m usually happy to just microwave them, stir in some salt and butter, and call it good. Most recipes online are pretty similar. But I tried to go fancier with some yellow onion, minced garlic, and thyme, and it was delicious! Still very easy and simple, just embellishing the natural taste of peas a little.

Blueberry Bear Claws

My first choice for a Montana-inspired dessert was huckleberry ice cream. But again, I couldn’t find huckleberries. And I like blueberries, but not enough to make ice cream with. So I went with bear claws instead. Though bear claws originated in California, made by a German bakery in the 1920s, Montana has a lot of bears. It only made sense for them to adopt a pastry named after one of their iconic animals. 🙂 You can find them all over Montana, but the most famous—and the alleged origin of bear claws in Montana—were developed by a baker named Dan Kaufman at Polebridge Mercantile.

This was the most difficult and time-intensive part of this meal. Since the burgers, BBQ sauce, and peas were all very simple to make, I decided to challenge myself for the dessert. It would’ve been much easier and probably understandable for me to just buy puff pastry pre-made for this recipe. But nope. I decided to make it from scratch.

I’ve always been intimidated by puff pastry, but I’m really glad that I finally tried it. It turned out not to be TOO hard, but it was definitely tricky. I kept losing track of how many times I’d already folded the dough, and the dough got really stiff toward the end. Thankfully I’ve watched a lot of Great British Bake-Off and knew that whacking it with a rolling pin was a perfectly acceptable technique. 🙂

After hours and hours of folding buttery dough, filling, shaping, cutting, and baking, I had one of the best pastries I’ve ever made!! I honestly went into this expecting it to be a disaster, but the pastry was so buttery and flaky on the outside, but nice and custardy on the inside. I kept finding myself staring at the layers as I ate them. The combination of almond and blueberry was AMAZING!! I’m super happy with how they turned out, and I would definitely make them again, but maybe with store-bought puff pastry, if I’m honest.