Spanish Style Chorizo-Potato Stew with Dove

Ingredients:
Dove
Spanish Chorizo sliced half inch thick
Potato, cubed
Lentils (optional)
Smoked Paprika
Green Chili, deseeded and cubed
Garlic, chopped
Onion, chopped
Chard, chopped
Bay Leaf
Thyme
Flat Leaf Parsely, chopped
Chicken Stock
Olive Oil

Debone the breast of dove.  In hot stock pan brown dove in olive oil (don't cook through) and set aside for later.  Lower heat and add chopped onion until translucent then add chorizo.  Once sausage is browned add garlic, chili, bay leaf and thyme after one minute add potatoes, lentils and paprika.  Add stock, cover and simmer until potato and lentils have soften.  Add chard until wilted and place dove into the stew to finish cooking.  Taste and season accordingly.  Ladle stew in a bowl placing the doves atop, sprinkle flat leaf parsley and serve with crusty bread.

Tired Of Turkey

Decided to whip out some of the venison steaks Dave gave me the last time I went up to the Owens.  Served with mash potatoes and mashed peas with a herbed, juniper, star anise and chive sauce.

Greenwing Teal Sushi!?!

Ingredients
Duck Breast
Grated Ginger
Momiji-oroshi
Chives
Sushi Rice
Rice Vinegar
Mirin
Salt

After rice is finished cooking.  Mix vinegar, mirin and salt and set aside to cool.  Heat skillet in medium low heat and add oil.  Season the duck breast and cook skin side down until golden and flip to cook the other side.  Cook to medium rare and set aside to cool.  Once cool slice the breast on a bias.  Wet hands and form the sushi rice.  Top with duck, momiji-oroshi, grated ginger and chives.

Peking Inspired Duck Green Onion Pancake and Chinese Picked Cucumbers

This dish is obviously not Peking duck.  Peking duck's focus is on the crisp skin.  The meat is secondary.  This is just an inspired version of it that is a lot easier to make.  I cooked the breast a in a skillet to medium rare.  Original Peking uses a steamed bun or thin pancake.  I store bought the pancake and used a thick green onion pancake.  You can make them easily by hand.  There are several recipes online if you are so inclined.  I used Hoisin and Sriracha  sauces to finish.

Spicy Pickled Cucumbers
Cucumbers
Red Peppers
Ginger
Garlic
Rice Wine Vinegar
Soy Sauce
Sugar
Sesame Oil

Cut cucumbers lengthwise in half.  Spoon out the seeds.  Cut into strips.  Place in a colander.  Sprinkle with a liberal amount of salt.  Don't worry about using too much you will rinse it off later.  The purpose is to exact as much water so the more salt the better.  In a container place slice one clove of garlic and let it sit in the rice wine vinegar.  Then slice ginger and red peppers and place in the container with sugar.

After about 20 minutes rinse cucumbers with water.  Then grab a handful of cucumbers and squeeze with your hands removing as much a water as possible, continue until the batch is finished.  Place cucmbers in the vinegar mixture.  Add soy sauce and sesame oil.  Place in the fridge and let sit for at least half a day.  The longer the better.

Dove And Pickled Beets Salad

Ingredients:
Dove
Beets
Mirin
Soy Sauce
Rice Vinegar
Shallots
Mixed Greens

Pickled Beets:
Wrap beets in foil and drizzle with oil.  Roast Beets in 400 degree oven until al dente (usually anywhere from 30-45 minutes).  Careful not to overcook and keep the beets somewhat firm.  Once cooked remove form oven and let cool.  Once cooled, with a spoon scrape the skin off.  Slice the beets.  Chop the shallots and mix with all the liquids in a tuperware with beets.  Taste for desired level of acidity season with salt and whit pepper.  Cool the pickles in fridge until ready to use.  Ideally this should be done a day or more ahead so the flavors meld.

Dove:
Spatchcock (butterfly) the doves. Generously season with salt and pepper.  Heat a cast iron skillet.  Once hot add oil and cook the dove skin side down.  Once golden flip the other side.  Cook to a medium.

Serve with mixed greens and any other vegetables of your liking.   Use beet juice mixed with olive oil to use as salad dressing.  Place doves on top.

Specklebelly Au Poivre

Ingredients

• Goose breasts
• Heavy cream
• Vermouth
• Demi glace (or powdered chicken stock)
• Green peppercorn

Preparation

Put breast in a pan, skin side down, and cook on low heat.
Discard the fat and turn them and brown for a few minutes.
Put the duck warm plate and cover with tinfoil. Deglaze the pan with the vermouth and add the green peppercorn, cream and chicken stock.
Salt and pepper lightly.
Simmer 2 minutes over low heat until the sauce thickens.
Remove the duck breasts on hot plates, surround them with sauce.

Specklebelly Breast With a Soy Glaze and Onigiri

After about a week of aging, I finally prepped the speck from last week's hunt.  Jeff warned me that cleaning these specks are going to be a pain.  He was not kidding.  It at least an hour to clean the bird and even then it wasn't fully plucked.  There still were down and pin feathers that needed to be removed.  It took forever and ended up butchering the bird and then take a butane torch to the remaining feathers.

Ingredients:
Goose breast
Chives
Short grain rice

Marinade:
Shio Koji
Mirin
Sake
Dashi powder

Sauce:
Soy Sauce
Sake
Mirin

Place the breast and marinade ingredients in a ziplock bag and leave for several hours.   Start with the sauce by placing all the ingredients in a sauce pan and bring to a boil.  Once bubbles occur lower the heat and simmer until it thickens to s syrup like consistency.  Using cooled cooked rice place rice in an onigiri mold.  Place duck fat in heated pan and place the rice frying until golden on each side. With duck fat, pan fry the breast to rare or medium.   Once acheived place on a plate and top with thickened sauce.  Not there is no need to season the meat, the shio koji will salt the meat.

Kamo Seiro Soba

Kamo seiro soba is a cold noodle dish with a hot duck dipping sauce.  I had some left over duck from the other night and I decided to make this for lunch.

Ingredients
Duck Breast
Soba noodles
Dashi powder mixed with water
Soy
Sake
Mirin
Japanese Leeks or green onions

To cook the duck look at this post. Boil the water for the soba noodles and cook according to directions.  Cut the leeks into about a one inch pieces place on a hot pan.  Once you brown one side flip it to the other side. Once the other side is brown put all the liquids in the pot and bring to a simmer.  Once the soba noodles are cooked remove from the water.  DO NOT DISCARD THE COOKING WATER.  Put the cooking water in a small tea pot.  Under cold running water rinse the noodles and then place into bowl of iced water.  Drain and place on a bamboo soba mat top with shredded nori.  Place your sauce in bowl and enjoy.  Once you have finished your noodles pour the cooking water into your dipping sauce and drink it as a soup.  The cooking water is filled with nutrients from the noodles that have been removed in the cooking process.

Seared Duck Breast With Shallot And Mirin Vinaigrette

Ingredients:
Well Aged Wild Duck Breast
Shallots
Extra Virgin Olive Oil
Dijon Mustard
Sherry Vinegar
Mirin
Chives

Make the vinaigrette first by chopping the shallots.  Once chopped place in a bowl and pour the vinegar.  Mix well and leave it for 10 minutes.  This will cook the shallots and mellow it out.  After the 10 minutes mix the Dijon mustard and mirin into the shallots.  The slowly add the olive oil mixing as you go.  Add the chopped chives at the end.

Pan sear the duck breast on medium low heat.  Cook to medium rare.   Let rest for a few minutes.  Cut at a bias and top the breast with the vinaigrette. 

I served this with sautéed mushrooms with garlic, tomatoes, and fries.

Although I used wild duck for this, I imagine it would be even better with a fatty domesticated duck.

Is Goldeneye edible?

I'm an upland hunter at heart.  I prefer hunting quail and chuckar in the high deserts of the west but since the upland season has been so dismal the past years I have switched my focus to waterfowling as you probably can tell if you're a regular reader.  While I've been hunting for years, I really haven't taken that many variety of duck species.  Therefore I have not eaten all the duck species.  I generally have to go by what people tell me (I don't always trust it as many of these people have crap palates) or what I read in books or the web. 

I've been told goldeneyes are not edible and taste like garbage.  I've taken bufflehead and I tried cooking it and it was inedible.  I threw it out after one bite.  I would have given it to the dog if I had not cooked it in wine (grapes being hazardous to canines).  So I was a bit worried for this diving duck.  Few days ago I decided to try it out.  I plucked it and as I did with the spoonie I cut a piece of the rear end of and fried it in a hot pan, smelling it to see if it was off or fishy.  It did have a slight fishiness but not too bad.

So I decided to leave the skin on and butcher it and cook it the same way I did my spoonie.  While it was not as good as the spoonie, it was edible.  In fact it wasn't half bad.  A few things I believe, marinating the bird in Japanese BBQ sauce helps a lot.  First when you cook it, the marinade caramelizes.  As a result the natural sweetness of the duck becomes sweeter.  Second any fishiness that is present is masked with the sweet and spicy  flavors of the Ohgon No Aji.  If it the state is still too strong the addition of  yuzukoshō also helps as it is strong with spicy, salty and tangy flavors. 

One thing I must mention is cooking the bird rare to medium rare helps keeping the duck (or any duck for that matter) from becoming too gamey.  One note I did notice was that texturally this goldeneye was softer than other ducks.  It was more filet mignon (texturally that is) than it was New York strip which I find more common with other ducks.  So are goldeneyes edible?  This duck was.

Simple Spoonie

On our last hunt Ed and I shot at the same shoveler at the exact same time.  Since spoonies aren't exactly known for their table fare, I had no problem offering it to him.  He refused and let me have it.  I'm sure if we shot a pintail we'd have a harder time deciding who was going to keep it.  Having never taken a "Hollywood mallard" I was skeptical on how it was going to taste.

So I decided to marinate it in Japanese barbecue sauce, Ohgon No Aji-medium hot, since it is sweet and mildly spiced so it should at least mask any fishiness present if this puddle duck has been feeding on anything other than plant life.  I cut a piece of fat near it's rear and heated it in the fry pan to see if there was any fishy smell.  There was not.  So far so good.  Had it been smelly I would have removed any fat or skin and cooked just the meat.

After marinating in the barbecue sauce for the afternoon, I cooked the breasts on medium low heat to a medium rare temperature.  I then topped it with yuzukoshō, which is a Japanese condiment made from the yuzu citrus and chilli peppers.  I figured if there were anything off tasting these two seasonings should at least cover it up.  In this case it was not needed the duck was excellent.

I examined the gizzard as I cleaned it and it was full of seed along with grit of course.  This and the fact that this bird seemed very young was the likely reason that this bird came out so tasty.

Pheasant With Tarragon and Juniper Sauce

After a week of aging in the fridge, I finally cooked the pheasant I took before Christmas.  I spent the last week debating how I should prepare it.  Initially I thought of roasting it whole in a simple Italian style but when I plucked him, I noticed his thigh was too bloodied up to keep whole. 

I butchered him cleaning and removing the meat of the shot up area.  Since this was an old bird I figured I needed to braise it to keep it somewhat tender and moist.  I hoped the aging process would have helped with that as well.

Ingredients:
Pheasant
Fresh Tarragon
Juniper Berries
Heavy Cream
White Wine
Butter
Shallots
Garlic
Oil

I don't like wasting usable ingredients like the bones and any meat attached to them.  Since one pheasant carcass is really not enough to make a broth, I cheated making a pheasant broth.  I use the left over bones and put them in a pot with chicken stock with onions and carrots.  Bring to a boil and then simmer.

In a separate fry pan on high heat place some oil and butter, add crushed juniper berries and brown the legs on each side.   Once browned add the wings and brown each side.  By this time the stock should be ready.  Strain the contents and add the broth back to the pot and put back on the heat.  Once eth wings and legs are browned add it to the broth and let simmer. 

With the same fry pan, add more butter and place the breasts skin side down.  Once browned flip over.  When the other side has browned, lower the heat and add chopped garlic and shallots.   Deglaze with white wine scraping the bottom clean.  Remove the legs and wings from the broth and place back to the fry pan.  Pour the reduced broth into the fry pan and add cream.  Once the legs and breast are fully cooked, remove and set aside for now.  Turn up the heat, add the tarragon and reduce the sauce by half.

Once reduced put meat back into the sauce just to rewarm it.  When warm it is ready to be served.

Mentaiko Pasta

Mentaiko is marinated pollock (or cod) roe from Japan.  It can be eaten plain with rice which is quite good but it can also be eaten with pasta.

Ingredients:
Mentaiko
Spaghetti
Extra Virgin Olive Oil
Soy Sauce
Chives
Nori
*Optional* Heavy Cream

Remove the roe from the packaging and place in a bowl.  The thousands individual eggs are connected by a membrane.  Open the membrane with a spoon.

 Scoop the eggs off the membrane with a spoon.  Remove the membrane and eat it as is or discard

Mix soy sauce and olive oil with eggs.  If you like a creamy pasta you could add a little heavy cream here as well but not too much as you do not want to lose the roe flavor.   I prefer it without it but you can try it either way. 

Add Chopped chives.  Set aside and cook your pasta in salted water.  Any pasta will do but it is usually served with spaghetti which I believe is best.

Once pasta is cooked al dente, drain and reserve some pasta water.  Then toss the pasta with the roe.  Make sure to coat the pasta completely.  Drizzle more olive oil and if the pasta is a bit dry add a little pasta water. Top with nori and garnish with more chopped chives.

If mentaiko is unavailable in your area this sauce is available in Asian markets in premade form and it is quite good but it is likely loaded with preservatives and it is always best to make it fresh.  I usually only use the premade stuff when I'm too lazy to really do any cooking or if I can't make it to the store to pick up fresh mentaiko.

Simply Done Venison Steak

Thanks to Dave who gave me a few Venison steaks from the buck he took earlier this year in Idaho, I enjoyed a nice meal tonight.  I prepared the steaks simply, seasoning it only with salt, pepper and ground star anise, topped with herb butter.  Cooked to medium with the herb butter and olive oil.  Served with fries, roasted Brussels sprouts, and tomato Provençal.

I normally make my own herb butter (which I recommend) but due to laziness this time I used Kerrygold's Garlic & Herb butter which is a very good product.

Herb Butter:

• Leave a stick of butter at room temperature.
• Once soften, finely chop fresh rosemary, thyme, and a small clove of garlic.
• In a bowl squeeze a half a lemon and mix the garlic.  This will cook the garlic and make it less harsh.  Add soften butter and mix then mix the chopped herbs. 
• Take a spatula and remove all the butter mixture and place on parchment paper.  Form the butter in a straight line using the spatula to get all of it.  Roll the parchment paper and mold the it to look like a sausage and then refrigerate.
• Once molded and cold use on any red meat, seafood, poultry, game or bread.

Wildflower Honey Mallard Breast

Ingredients

• Duck Breast
• Wildflower Honey
• Celery
• Onion
• Carrots
• Thyme
• Bay Leaf
• Rosemary
• White Wine
• Butter
• Chives

Butcher the duck by breasting it and save the legs for something else.  With the remaining carcass take the head off and then quarter it.  on high heat in a sauce pan add oil and roast the bones.  Once browned add the onions, celery and carrots.  Cook until onions are translucent deglaze with white wine.  Be sure to scrape all the brown bits from the bottom of the pan.  Add about a cup of water and bring to a boil then lower the heat and shimmer for about an hour.  Add herbs for the last few minutes.

Preheat the oven at 375 degrees.  Brush the skin side of the breast with honey.  On medium low heat cook the breast skin side down in a cast iron skillet until fat is rendered and skin is golden brown.  Once that is done remove from the pan and place in the oven for 5 minutes then let rest.  Any juices that have been released, pour it in the stock.

Strain the veggies and bones from the stock.  Now on high heat boil the stock reducing it by three fourths or more.  Begin cubing butter.  Once reduced slowly add each cube of batter by whisking.  Add until the desired thickness has been achieved.

Slice the breast and top with the sauce.  Sprinkle with chopped chives.  I served it with braised tomatoes and sautéed oyster mushrooms.  Serve with crusty French bread.

Jackrabbit (Hare) Ragu

Jackrabbits are considered trash by most American hunters I know.  They don't even bother with them. I've always found this odd as all a jackrabbit is, is an American hare.  Hares are eaten all over particularly Europe.  I seen recipes from England, France, Germany, and Italy among others.  Hares are so popular that D'Artagnan sells Scottish hares to American gourmands for $60 a piece.  So I've wanted to try to see if I could make this meat palatable to my fellow hunters.  I believe I have.  I found an Italian hare recipe from my Culinaria Italy cookbook that I have modified somewhat that is tasty and makes the jackrabbit less gamey and taste more like stewed beef.

 

Ingredients

• Jackrabbit
• A Bold Red Wine
• Carrots
• Celery
• Onions
• Garlic
• Bay Leaf
• Thyme
• Sage
• Rosemary
• Juniper Berry
• Dried Porcini Mushrooms
• Canned Tomatoes
• Tomato Paste
• Grated Parmesan
• Extra Virgin Olive Oil
• Italian Parsley
• Pappardelle

Dice carrots, celery and onion into same size pieces.  In a pot sauté the vegetables for a few minutes, do not cook all the way.  Crush the juniper berries and add with the fresh thyme and bay leaves.  Add half the bottle of red wine and boil until alcohol is cooked away.  Remove from heat and let cool.  While the marinade is cooling, butcher the jackrabbit into bite sized pieces.  Once the wine is cool add to the butchered jack and place in the fridge overnight.

The next day remove all the meat from the marinade and pat dry.  Strain the vegetables and discard the red wine marinade liquid.  In a cast iron pot brown the meat with olive oil.  Do this in batches.  Remove from the pan and place the partially cooked meat aside.  Now in the same pan add oil if necessary and cook the vegetables from the marinade fro a few minutes.  Deglaze with the red wine and once boiled add the can tomatoes and tomato paste.  Once it begins to boil add the mushrooms and lower the heat.  Place the meat back into the pot and simmer on low heat for three hours.  The longer it cooks the less gamey the meat.  For the last 10 minutes add the fresh rosemary, thyme and sage.

Cook the pappardelle.  Once cooked strain the pasta and add olive oil and chopped parsley and toss.  Ladle a scope of the ragu atop the pasta and drizzle more extra virgin olive oil, grated parmesan and chopped parsley. 

Tomorrow's menu is the mallard since its done hanging and aging.  I'll figure out how I want to prepare it tomorrow morning.

Rabbit "Oyakodon"

Oyakodon literally means parent and child and is a Japanese comfort food made with chicken and eggs.  Since rabbit does not freeze well I wanted to use my rabbit ASAP.  With Kaiser lame, I haven't been able to go to store and had to figure out what I could make with what I have at home.  Oyakodon is a simple recipe that only requires a few ingredients so I decided to see how it would taste with rabbit.

 

Ingredients:

Rabbit (or Chicken)

Sliced Onions

Eggs

Rice

Dashi

Sake

Soy Sauce (but I like to I use Ninben Tsuyu No Moto)

Mirin

Sugar

Nori



Begin to cook your rice and while waiting for it to cook, butcher and then chop the rabbit (or chicken) into bite size pieces.

Add all the wet ingredients and sugar in a pan and heat on medium.  Once the liquids begins to simmer add the sliced onions.

Once the onions begin to turn color, about a few minutes, add the chopped pieces of meat and cook for a few more minutes until it is three quarters cooked.

Beat the eggs and distribute evenly the egg all around the pan.  Now do not touch or mix the ingredients any more at this point.

 Cover and let cook until the eggs are completely cooked and some of the liquids have evaporated.

Place your rice in a bowl.

Once fully cooked scoop the egg mixture and place on top of the rice then spread the remaining liquid over top and garnish with nori.

Today's Appetizer

Beef Carpaccio.

Recipe:
USDA Prime New York Strip (other cuts work as well) or Venison
Baby Arugula
Capers
Shaved Parmesan
Extra Virgin Olive Oil
Lemon
Salt
Pepper

Hunter's Required Reading

With the hunting season over, the following months until the next season will be days on the vice tying flies or the water fly fishing.  But to get my hunting fix, days will be filled reading hunting/gun books or watching hunting DVDs.  I've order several books to hold me over for the next seven months until September.  Here are some of the gems: The first is A Hunter's Cookbook by Robert Cuttbert and Jake Eastham.  This is a fantastic book.  Photographs are excellent and mouthwatering.  The book is filled not only with great recipes and how to cook game but also how to properly pluck, dress, draw, gut, butcher, trim and hang game as well.  Preparing each species from small birds (teal, pigeons, woodcock, snipe, grouse, quail and guinea fowl), large feathered game (partridge, ducks, pheasant, goose, turkey) venison, wild boar, goat, rabbit, hare, and squirrel are fully illustrated showing each step.  Recipes range from rustic to gourmet.  One of the best books on game cooking I have found.

Next is from one of the most prolific fine gun writers of our time.  A few years ago I read in an issue of Shooting Sportsman that Marco Nobili passed away which is a shame as he works are very enjoyable.  I picked up his Fine European Gunmakers from Safari Press.  Within its pages are beautifully photographed works of art from gunmakers throughout the Old World and even a section on American Gunmaker, Connecticut Shotgun Manufacturing Company which is odd for a book on Continental guns.  Some of the gunmakers include but not limited to Beretta, Bertuzzi, Fabbri, Garbi, Hartman & Weiss, Peter Hofer, Kreighoff, Piotti among others.  This is a coffee table book and its loaded with pictures from some of best artisans in the medium of metal and wood in the world.  My only complaint is that the few pages of text is rather superficial and offers not much insight in each of these fine gunmakers but despite that its worth a spot on the shelf of any admirer of fine guns.  Pages are printed on high quality glossy thick paper.  This is gun porn at its finest.


Very little information, at least in English, regarding European Hunting is available in the states.  Most of the written material relates to estate bird shooting rather than big game hunting.  This is especially true for the Teutonic states and the Scandinavian and Eastern European countries.  Information is hard to come by until Senior editor of Sporting Classics magazine, Dr. S. Lloyd Newberry wrote European Hunter.  Having hunted in 33 countries of the Old World, Newberry shares his experiences hunting everything from various driven bird hunts to the capercaillie to alpine ibex to boar to brown bears to the various deer, moose and goat species.  This book also serves as a guide to those looking to visit Europe to hunt various game giving valuable information regarding customs, dress, traditions, procedural and logistical tips to make a trip more enjoyable.  The book starts with hunting history in the Old World.  If you are a member of the German Gun Collectors Association or, like me, a bit of a Germanophile this is definitely needs to be in your library.  There is a brief section regarding the major gun centers of each country and its gunmakers.  As of right now this is the quintessential hunting book for European hunting.  I have yet to find any better if you have let me know I'll check it out.

Best "CookBooks" Ever-Culinaria Series

About a decade or so ago I purchased a few cookbooks that I consider the best books (of any type) I own.  Culinaria series of "cookbooks" are the best cookbooks ever.  I use quotations on cookbooks because I think they go beyond the definition of your typical cookbook.  They are a travel book, a history book, a cookbook, a culture book, among other things all wrapped into one.  These books are high quality in all aspects.  Superficially the books are made with quality thick paper and well laid out.   More importantly though the books are excellent not only in its recipes but also in its photography, and writing.   Some of these books are close to 500 pages.   Within those pages are interesting historical background on the culture's love of food or product.  One complaint I've read is that to fit all that information within the book, font size may be too small for some but I didn't have that issue.

These books aren't just for home cooks or gourmands but for anyone interested in European culture.  Hunters would like these books too.  There are several game recipes and sections regarding game in that particular country, with the Spain edition having the most game recipes.   In each book there are several recipes for quail, partridge (chukar is a good substitute), rabbit, hare, pheasant, duck, boar, venison and much more.  In addition to the recipes the books discuss hunting culture within that country with great pictures too.

Currently I have four of the books of the series-France, Italy, Germany, and Spain.  I intend on including the Hungary and Russia books in the near future.  The French book is where I actually learned about Laguiole knives.  Just that article made me want to buy one.  I loved the knife and its history so much I bought one for my father for his birthday. 

These books are originally from Germany and are translated into English.  Translation is good.  I wish an American publisher would copy this format and start making our cookbooks like this.  I don't think it would ever happen.   I've read that the German publisher is no long in existence, that's a shame as this series is the best cookbook ever produced.  Period.