Fried rice on the Blackstone teppanyaki-style is almost a rite of passage into the Blackstone club. As far back as I can remember, I don’t think I’ve ever done it actually. Crazy to think about since I love the style and the restaurants. We’re going to change that today.
But we’re using deer venison today. I’m still motoring through the freezer bags I’ve got here. I received a text from a good friend who said he had a recipe I had to try. That recipe is below. I did some minor modifications, but the heart of his original recipe is there.
The Prep Table
We’re going to be using quite a bit of sesame oil for this cook rather than a neutral oil. We’re pushing some flavor for this cook. Let’s get the carrots, garlic, sesame oil, green onion, honey and amino acids mixed up and in a bag for the deer to soak up.
Man, that sesame oil is potent! This one is going to be good. We’re going to let this relax overnight and get to cooking in the afternoon. I was already pumped up when I got the recipe – when I finished up this mix, I knew we had a winner. Let’s throw those strips of deer meat in there and let it sleep.
So I wanted to throw some love into the fried rice game as well. Garlic butter was an absolute must. When you visit your favorite teppanyaki, you know they seriously slap on the butter. But do they do a smoked garlic butter? We will. And we did.
Didn’t do anything crazy inventive here. Exposed the cloves, oil it up and threw some salt and pepper on there. Smoker at 225 for like 30-45 minutes or so. Give her a squeeze – when they’re soft and brown, you’re good to go.
If you’ve never smoked garlic before, as soon as you pop that lid, the smell is outstanding. I’ve heard some BBQ places have started flavoring their charcoal/pellets with garlic and onion and whatever.. but if you want to do it right, just drop a head of garlic in and smoke it and do it right.
The Process
There was a bizarre pleasure I got out of squeezing the softened cloves out. Especially when they were so powerfully smoky and flavorful. Used a couple of cloves for this and saved a few for MrsForensicBBQ (The only person who may like garlic more than I do).
Anyway, nothing crazy with the butter. My go-to brand has always been Kerrygold, so I softened up a half-stick of butter, smashed up 2 garlic cloves, splashed some amino acids/lemon juice in there and put it back in the refrigerator.
Time to bring the goods out to the Blackstone. I had already cooked up some white-rice the night before and kept it in the fridge until ready to go. We have the marinated venison up front, that beautiful garlic butter.. I chopped up some carrots and green onion for color. Scramble up some eggs, some bok choi.. some flavoring. We’re getting it today.
We got the Blackstone up to about medium/high on the left side, and low on the right. Cracked the eggs and got the scramble going. Also have the veggie going to soften up the carrots a bit. As we’re going to cook these up, we’re going to move it over to the right side to “warm” while I put a “cook” on the left side.
Eggs are good, time to add the rice and butter. The big ol’ glob of garlic butter. Mix that all together with some soy sauce (amino acids) until good and warmed up. I’ll say as I’m mixing all this together, I used a olive oil to coat the Blackstone to start. As I went through, I switched more Sesame oil when I needed a little bit of something extra. Same goes with the flavoring.
I couldn’t do a proper Blackstone Japanese Grill without some sort of griddle art. Could’ve done the onion volcano… Maybe the sake squirt bottle.. but no. I made a rice heart for MrsForensicBBQ. I’m a romantic devil, aren’t i.
The Result
Push all that rice over, and let’s finally get to the meat. Deer venison, so we’re cooking it rare/medium rare. The marinade provided enough moisture to sauce that grill and made cooking a breeze.
I sliced the bok choi in half and got a quick cook on that as well. I drizzled some of that hoisin sauce over the bok choi as it cooked. When it got a little color and was wilting, got that off there. Temp checked the meat, pulled that off and it was time to assemble.
Throw some sesame seeds and green onion on top to finish it up and we have ourselves a full dinner meal here. This very well could be my favorite teppanyaki dish yet. Everything worked so well together. Bok choi was new for me, and it tasted great! (More recipes coming soon!). The venison was cooked beautifully, and that marinade was spot on.
I don’t know how you all do your Blackstone cooks, but it’s always a “splash here” and a little more seasoning “there”. It’s a fun way to cook, but also makes it a bitch to write up what I did. Especially when I type it up a few weeks later. Don’t be afraid to alter recipes – make it your own – everyone’s taste buds hit differently. If you want to add hoisin sauce in the rice instead of soy, do it. All of these flavors all mesh together and accompany each other, really hard to screw it up.
I’ve made variations of this fried rice many times since, and it’s always so good. I haven’t gone smoked garlic butter crazy with it, but give that a try. Thanks for the recipe ZH!
The Recipe
Korean Venison w/ Bok Choi, Fried Rice
Ingredients
Venison
- 1 Lb Deer Venison Thin Slice
- 1 Tsp Ginger root minced
- 1 Scallion chopped
- 1 Carrot sliced
- 1/4 Cup Amino Acids or Soy Sauce
- 1/4 Cup Sugar
- 1/4 Cup Sesame Oil
- 1/2 Tsp Black Pepper
- 1/3 Cup Water ish
- 1 Tsp Honey
Bok Choi
- 1 Bok Choi Sliced in half length wise
- 2 Tbsp Hoisin Sauce
Fried Rice
- 1 Cup Uncooked long-grain white rice
- 3 Eggs Scrambled
- 1 Carrot Sliced
- 3 Green Onions Sliced
- 1/4 Cup Amino Acids ish (or Soy Sauce)
- 1 Tbsp Hoisin Sauce
Garnish
- Sesame Seeds
- Green onion
Instructions
Venison
- (1) Mix together your marinade (ginger, scallion, carrot, amino acids, sugar, sesame oil, black pepper, water, honey) in a small bowl. Place sliced venison and marinade in a ziploc bag and refrigerate overnight.
- (2) Since we're starting the day before, get your white rice cooked up to, cover and refrigerate overnight for use the next day (You can also make it a few hours before the cook)
- (5) Throw on Blackstone at medium/high heat until about 130 Internal Temp.
Fried Rice
- (3) Crack your eggs on the Blackstone, scramble over medium heat. Add your carrots/green onion while you're at it. When cooked and fluffy, slide over to the low temp side of your blackstone.
- (4) Add rice, spread out to a thin layer, add sesame oil/amino acid (soy) and cook. When done, combine with eggs – mix thoroughly (taste and add sesame/soy as needed)
Bok Choi
- (6) Split in half length wise, add to Blackstone at medium/medium high heat. When starting to brown and soften, drizzle hoisin sauce – flip, drizzle and cook.