Bison

This makes a simple and hearty one-pot meal. The meat becomes fork tender and the stock simmers down to a rich sauce. Leftovers are terrific served over corn cakes.

Sweet potatoes and maple syrup add natural sweetness to these muffins—perfect for prepping for a week of breakfasts, dinners, or lunches.

Our mini-burgers have exotic spices and herbs to make sports day gourmet.

One of our favorite images of the romanticized American West of the nineteenth century is a watercolor by Alfred Jacob Miller depicting six trappers gathered around an evening campfire. One is holding a skewered slab of bison hump ribs, smoking and grilling over the fire and smoke. Miller deemed bison hump ribs to be "that most glorious of all mountain morsels." Today the bison hump is sold as a boneless roast. Most vendors sell bison short ribs or back ribs, with no references to hump ribs. Channel your inner Old West trapper spirit anyway and prepare these back ribs with this easy basic recipe, which we believe would bring a delighted smile to Alfred Jacob Miller's face.

Puffy tacos have become modern-day icons of the San Antonio food scene. You can find the meat-filled, deep-fried corn tortillas throughout the Alamo City and—believe it or not—on the baseball field, too, where Henry, the Puffy Taco, serves as a mascot for the San Antonio Mission, a minor league team. I propose a build-your-own puffy taco party, where guests crowd into the kitchen to feast on hotfrom-the-skillet tacos stuffed with bison chili, a dab of guacamole, and whatever other fixings you set out. Ask friends to act as revolving fry cooks, so nobody gets stuck by the stove for too long, and in the meantime, assign others to shake up batches of Silver Bullet Margaritas (page 175). Diana Barrios Trevino, friend and the restaurateur behind San Antonio’s La Hacienda de los Barrios, gave me permission to use her famous puffy taco recipe. It was the recipe that beat TV chef Bobby Flay in a puffy taco “throwdown” staged for Flay’s popular Food Network show. If you can find fresh masa dough, use it to make the tortillas. Otherwise, dried masa mix will work just fine.

Bison contains choline, a nutrient that may help keep stress at bay.

Bison (a.k.a. buffalo) is available at some natural foods stores, specialty foods stores, and farmers' markets.

Bison meat is very lean and is best served rare or medium-rare.

Serve with warm flatbread or pita bread.

The coffee marinade is sweetened slightly with a little maple syrup, and the sauce gets a kick thanks to a jalapeño chile.

Smoked salt and herbs add depth and sweet pickled radishes bring some zing to this bison rib eye.