By Jeff Benda
Instagram: @wildgameandfish
Website: www.wildgameandfish.com
Prep time: 10 minutes
Cook time: 15 minutes
Serves: 8
This is one of my favorite appetizers to bring to a Super Bowl party. Creamy and full of spice, this easy spin on a classic gumbo is a great way to celebrate the Mardi Gras season while introducing your friends and family to wild game. I used a couple of duck breasts from some Blue-Winged Teal I got on an October hunt with my 8-year-old daughter here in North Dakota. Serve it with crackers, chips, or veggies and watch this delicious appetizer disappear.
I spent much of my youth reading old Paul Prudhomme cookbooks and dreaming about being a chef at my own restaurant in New Orleans. But real life happened, and now I live in the Upper Midwest – 1,500 miles away from Cajun country. I haven’t lost my love of Louisiana cooking, rich in French and Spanish traditions, mixed with Southern and West African influences. So I created this dish to celebrate how my youthful ambitions of cooking with classical techniques has transformed into a love of using my intuition to improvise with the wild game I hunt right her in my backyard.
Gumbo is the quintessential Louisiana dish. Everyone makes it and has their own strong opinion on why their recipe is the best. I feed this Duck & Andouille Gumbo dish to friends and family every Mardi Gras. This year, Superbowl Sunday is on February 11 and Mardi Gras lands on Tuesday, February 13. I hope you’ll use this recipe to celebrate during that week of festivities. It takes the traditional flavors of a gumbo to a whole new level in less than 30 minutes.
If you are looking for another wild game recipe to serve at your Super Bowl or Mardi Gras party, you should also check out my Buffalo Pheasant Dip.
Ingredients
Instructions
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By Jeff Benda
Instagram: @wildgameandfish
Website: www.wildgameandfish.com
Prep time: 10 minutes
Cook time: 25 minutes
This Duck and Jalapeno Lime Soup is my wild game twist on a classic Mexican tortilla soup. It’s also one of the simplest and most crowd-pleasing delicious dishes I’ve ever made.
I love hunting ducks here in North Dakota. I often wake up in the middle of the night to drive the two hours from Fargo to my favorite Waterfowl Production Area. I drag a couple of dozen decoys down to the bank, toss them into the water, and then stare up into the pre-dawn sky at the constellation Orion seeking some wisdom from the supernaturally strong hunter of Greek mythology. How would a demigod set up a decoy spread?
It was a cool October morning and the sun had just begun to rise when a flock of gadwalls approached and swirled above me like multicolored flakes in a snow globe before they began to land in the gaping hole I left in the middle of the decoys. Inside my merino gloves, my fingers clenched the shotgun as I swung the muzzle in the direction of the birds. My eyes looked down the barrel and rested on the heads of two fluttering gadwalls that hung tightly together like a pair of twins. I pulled the trigger to release a shower of steel shot and dropped both into the glistening water. Another gadwall soared in behind them, and I got that one too.
Minutes later, a huge flock of blue-winged teal blew in like a storm and I knocked down a few of them to fill my mixed-bag limit of six ducks. It was only 8:00 a.m. and my North Dakota duck hunt was complete.
A great hearty soup and duck hunting are both great things to look forward to in the fall. But using some delicious duck meat from a hunt makes this recipe a NEXT LEVEL dish. It adds an amazing flavor and a comfort food vibe to this family-friendly meal.
For this recipe I used the breasts from three gadwalls which weighed a total of 8 ounces. If you are using mallards, you should only need two ducks. However, if you are going with a smaller duck like a teal, you’ll probably need four ducks.
Ingredients
Instructions
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Once you get beyond the fact that stuffing meat into a tiny tube is just plain tedious, even with the help of specialized equipment, you realize that homemade sausage has a lot going for it. Don't like marjoram? Leave it out. Like a lot of garlic? Then add a few more cloves. And there's no doubt about the ingredients when you make the sausage yourself - you have complete control.
I make venison kielbasa for Easter to go along with ham, horseradish, boiled eggs, pickles, and potato salad. It's also delicious served as a main dish, with a side of sauerkraut and applesauce. It's terrific sautéed with peppers and onions, slathered with mustard, and served on a crusty roll. And it's equally at home on the breakfast table with fried eggs, rye toast, and strong coffee.
While the spices in this recipe can be modified, the pork must have some fat to it. Otherwise, the sausage will be too dry. Bear inn mind that this sausage must "cure" for 24 hours in the refrigerator before it's cooked, so plan accordingly. Casing is available at some butcher shops and online at sausagemaker.com.
Freeze meat cubes for 1/2 hour, then grind coarse with food processor or meat grinder. Mix meat together; add spices. Stuff mixture into sausage casing using a funnel, a sausage stuffer, or your fingers. Do not overstuff. Prick a few small holes into each length of sausage to help keep casing from breaking. Tie off into convenient lengths (12-16 inches works well) by knotting casing.
Refrigerate for 24 hours. Smoke sausage for 2 hours at about 200 degrees. Check to make sure sausage reaches 160 degrees internal temperature. Plunge smoked sausage into pan of ice water for 1/2 hour. This helps it set.
Enjoy cold, as you would summer sausage, or browned in a skillet.
]]>My grandma and mom would often take me out to lunch to eat as a child. Every once in a while, they took me to Chili’s.
Chili’s is underrated. I would get the “Triple Dipper” sampler appetizer as my meal and, of course, one of the three options I would pick was the southwestern egg rolls. Those bad boys are freaking delicious. They are a little spicy and have a whole lotta flavor. The avocado sauce you dip them in is cool and cancels out any overwhelming tang. With quail in the freezer, and a constant hunger for egg rolls, there was only one recipe that I truly needed to recreate over the weekend, and it was these: Quail Southwestern Egg Rolls.
Prep Time: 30 mins
Cook Time: 15 mins
Total Time: 45 mins
Servings: 10 Egg Rolls
8 oz skinless boneless quail breasts
Vegetable oil enough for frying and cooking meat
2.5 tbsp red bell pepper finely chopped
1 stalk green onion finely chopped
1/3 cup canned corn drained
1/3 cup blacked beans rinsed
2 tbsp frozen spinach thawed and drained
1/2 jalapeño, deseeded and finely chopped
1/2 tbsp fresh parsley finely chopped
1/2 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp chili powder
1/8 tsp cayenne pepper
Salt and pepper for seasoning throughout
1 cup Monterey jack and mild cheddar with jalapeños (I find this at the grocery store. If you can't, pepper jack works)
10 tortillas ~6 inches in diameter
1.5 tbsp Hidden Valley buttermilk ranch seasoning
1/2 cup buttermilk
1/2 cup mayo
1 tomatillo peeled
1 clove garlic minced
1/4 cup cilantro
1/2 jalapeno deseeded
1/4 tsp lime juice
1/3 cup sour cream
For the dipping sauce, put all ingredients into a food processor or blender and blend until well mixed. Then, chill in the refrigerator while putting together egg rolls. This sauce is only good for ~1-2 days because the buttermilk will start to curdle.
To start making the egg rolls, season your quail meat with ~1/8 tsp salt and ~1/8 tsp pepper.
In a sauté pan, heat ~2 tbsp of oil on high heat. When oil is hot, add the quail and cook until no longer pink in the middle; ~2 minutes. Then set aside to cool.
When the quail is room temp or cool enough to handle, finely chop.
In the same pan over medium heat, add ~1 tbsp of oil. Then add the bell pepper and green onions and cook until tender (not browned). Add the quail, corn, beans, jalapeño, spinach, parsley, cumin, chili powder, cayenne powder, and salt and pepper to taste.
Combine and cook for ~4 minutes. Add cheese and then stir until completely melted and then remove from heat.
Place tortillas on a plate, cover with a damp towel, and microwave for ~30 seconds. This will make it easier to roll the egg rolls without the tortillas breaking.
Then place the filling in the egg rolls and roll them like a mini burrito. Folding the ends in first and then rolling it tightly. I kept them sealed by poking a toothpick through the side of the egg roll.
Heat the frying oil to 375 °F and deep fry the egg rolls for 3-4 minutes or until desired golden brown.
Pair with dipping sauce and enjoy!
]]>Scrambled eggs that have absorbed the juices of sautéed morel mushrooms are a real treat. If you don't have your own laying hens, track down fresh local eggs. Their deep color and flavor do the mushrooms justice.
Soak morels in cold salt water and then drain well. Melt butter in large skillet and sauté mushrooms for five minutes. Salt and pepper to taste. Add eggs and cook lightly, turning often, until set but still soft. Serve with fresh fruit and toast for a hearty breakfast or light dinner.
]]>By Sophie May
Dumplings are the best! They’re not only my go-to appetizer, but my favorite snack at the supermarket. The flavor profile of a dumpling, with the soft sticky exterior and the warm flavorful filling accompanied with a tangy equally flavorful sauce, is what makes them so great. With some wild pork still left in the freezer I had to make my own version.
We have been working through a wild boar we got a couple of months ago and decided to grind up some of the meat. It was a fat boar and the “smelliness” or “off-taste” that is normally associated with a big boar hasn’t been in any of the meat. Even if it had been a little smelly, I think this recipe has enough aromatics to cover any off scent and still taste great! I have a couple more wild pork recipes in mind and look forward to experimenting with it.
In a bowl, combine pork, green cabbage, garlic, green onions, hoisin sauce, sesame oil, ginger, soy sauce, mushrooms, and white pepper until fully combined.
Place mixture in a Ziplock and refrigerate overnight. This is not necessary if you are in a time crunch, but it will enhance the flavors.
Fill wonton/dumpling wrappers with a heaping tsp to fill.
Wet finger and trace outside edge of wrapper. This will make the wrapper sticky and allow you to close it.
Make your dumpling shape. I brought all the edges to the middle to create the shape I did. However, a simple YouTube will show you all the possibilities you can create. Just make sure your dumpling is good and sealed.
Place several T (enough to cover the bottom just barely) of oil in a frying pan and heat over medium.
When oil becomes hot, place dumplings, bottom down, on the pan and brown the bottoms (~2 minutes).
Caution: Please read the warning below prior to doing this step. Place 1/4 cups of water in the pan. Cover immediately.
Turn heat to medium-low and steam until pork is fully cooked (~6 minutes).
While dumplings are cooking, mix dipping sauce ingredients together in a small bowl. Set aside. Enjoy!
Caution: This step requires adding water to an oiled pan. This will send oil popping everywhere and can burn you if you are not careful. It sounds way scarier than it actually is, but please use caution when doing this. I use the frying pan lid (which you will need to steam the dumplings) as a barrier, plus it helps with clean up if you do it quickly!
]]>I love fish! If my bank account and/or my family allowed it, I would eat it every day. When my husband brought home a couple of bags of redfish filets a couple of months ago, I knew I had chosen the right man! We slowly worked our way through the fish, making tacos and straight up grilling them, but then I decided I wanted to make my own recipes.
Since Lent had been going on, fast food restaurants have been laying on the fish options. One of my favorites was the fried fish sandwich at Popeye's. So, I decided I wanted to try my own spin on a fried fish sandwich…and what came out was delicious! You don’t need redfish filets to make this work, any white fish will do. Being a Texas girl, I do particularly love redfish, so if you have them I would highly recommend them.
If your fish is still “on the half shell” (skin still on), filet the meat. Cut the filets into square, sandwich-sized portions to be fried.
Heat a deep fryer, or frying pan filled with oil, to 375 degrees.
Mix the buttermilk, hot sauce, eggs, and brine in a shallow dish, such as a pie dish. In a separate shallow dish, mix together flour and Cajun seasoning.
Pat fish fillets dry with a paper towel.
Dredge the fish through the egg mixture and then coat in flour mixture. Repeat this to get a good thick breading on your fish.
Cook fish for 3 minutes or until completely cooked and golden brown.
In a bowl, combine all tartar sauce ingredients. Toast buns if desired. Then, assemble your sandwich. Enjoy!
]]>Sharp, pesto-like chimichurri works well with bold flavors. It's a nice change from the more familiar ways of cooking salmon. A friendly word of warning: chimichurri is highly addictive. You'll soon be spreading it on steak, chicken, French bread, fresh vegetables, and just bout anything else that's edible. This recipe is featured in my cookbook, "Wild Rice Goose and Other Dishes of the Upper Midwest."
Place all ingredients for chimichurri in food processor and chop until a smooth paste is formed; let this stand for 30 minutes in the refrigerator. Preheat a gas grill or have coals ashed-over and ready to cook. Lightly coat each side of salmon pieces with olive oil, then cover with chimichurri. Cook 5 minutes on each side. Serve with roasted potatoes, fruit or green salad, and a chilled rosé wine.
]]>The coming of spring calls for a walk, and when green shoots or mushrooms emerge, I start feeling inspired to forage.
It starts with halved radishes and spring mushrooms, roast cut-side down in butter & miso. They’re savory, but slightly-sweet and balance the peppery bitterness of freshly foraged spring greens dressed in a tangy yogurt-tahini sauce. Just add a perfectly seared loin of venison and you’ve got a spring meal fit for royalty, but available to all.
At least 30 minutes and up to 2 hours before cooking, take a whole venison loin out of the refrigerator and salt liberally.
Heat a well-oiled cast-iron skillet to smoking. Pat your loin dry, pepper and place in your pan until well-browned on all sides. When internal temp reaches 120, remove, tent with foil and allow to rest.
Toss halved radishes with melted butter; miso, honey; and a pinch of salt. Arrange radishes cut-side-down on a sheet-pan and roast in a 500 degree oven ‘till tender and and caramelized, about 15 minutes.
Whisk yogurt, tahini, lemon zest and 1 tablespoon juice, garlic, salt and pepper to taste.
Reserve 3/4 of this mixture for plating, with the remaining, add 2 tbsp Olive Oil and 2 tbsp lemon juice and 2 tbsp water & whisk.
To plate: Schmear the yogurt-tahini sauce across your plate. Dress greens, cover with radishes & mushrooms. Slice venison loin in 1/2 inch medallions and arrange across the salad. Enjoy!
]]>Teddy Roosevelt is known for many things: creating our public lands system, removing Indigenous peoples from their homelands, and refusing to kill a black bear after killing thousands of other animals across the world, thereby giving us our first movement towards recording what we would later come to know as the concept of “fair chase.”
What Teddy is least known for may just be his 1903 venison chili recipe.
Only recently discovered, Teddy’s venison chili recipe was carefully penned in one of his hunting journals. “If it’s brown, it’s going down the hatch,” he wrote about the list of ingredients. Teddy was known for his grit and fortitude, so it should be no surprise that this ethos extended to his formidable palate. This is where Teddy and Hunt to Eat have something in common: we believe that one should use all of the parts of the animals that you harvest, including the hide, bones, and poop.
Most hunters are accustomed to using scat signs as a way to scout and track deer. Scat lore abounds, with some hunters swearing they can tell the difference between a 12-point buck and a doe just by the size, shape, and glisten of its poop. Deer have a very efficient digestive system, absorbing most of the available nutrients from its food; however, as Teddy and other hunters knew, meals in the wild are anything but assured. Therefore, Teddy was a strong advocate of consuming all edible portions of an animal, including the nutrients left available in its poop.
Poop is what makes Teddy’s recipe so special. Roosevelt goes above and beyond the average sportsperson by deciding to consume every part of his harvests. Adding the semi-digested grasses and forbs woven in animal droppings into your chili will enhance its depth and flavor, whether you’ve got deer, elk, or rabbit scat on hand. Moreover, the partial digestive processes it has already passed through will make the fiber and other nutrients more readily available. In his recipe, Teddy adds in the scat in place of beans and was above the kind of squeamishness that might prevent many of us from putting the droppings straight into the pot, but you could also add the poop to your grind pile and include it in the ground venison in your chili.
Add the olive oil to a large soup pot and place it over medium-high heat for two minutes. Add the onion. Cook for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally.
Add the ground venison to the pot. Break it apart with a wooden spoon. Cook for 6-7 minutes, until the venison is browned, stirring occasionally.
Add the chili powder, cumin, sugar, tomato paste, garlic powder, salt, pepper, cocoa powder, and cayenne. Stir until well combined.
Add the broth, diced tomatoes in their juice, and tomato sauce. Stir well.
Bring the liquid to a low boil. Then, reduce the heat (low to medium-low) to gently simmer the chili, uncovered, for 20-25 minutes, stirring occasionally.
Remove the pot from the heat. Add in the poop and mix well, leaving a little bit left to use as a garnish. Let the chili rest for 5-10 minutes before serving. Top each bowl with a few leftover chunks of poop, a dollop of sour cream, and grated cheddar cheese. Enjoy!
When it comes to the tough cuts, I have a real hard time not reaching for this recipe. Easy to prep and plate, this is the perfect meal for special gatherings or warming meal for a cold winter night at home.
Ingredients
Directions:
30 minutes to an hour before cooking, season your shanks generously with salt and pepper.
In a dutch oven or cast iron skillet, heat oil on high to smoking hot and sear the shanks on all sides until dark brown, about 3 minutes per side.
In a crock pot (or the same dutch oven) combine wine, tomato paste, canned and fresh tomatoes, grapes, garlic, and herbs. Cover and cook for 3-5 hours (medium-high in a crock pot or 285 in the oven)
Once finished, remove meat, blend the braising liquid and run through a fine sieve.
Pour your strained braising liquid into a saucepan and bring to a simmer. Once sufficiently reduced (half to 3/4 of starting volume) whisk in cubed, cold butter until sauce shimmers.
Serve over mashed potatoes or risotto with sauce enjoy & roast vegetables.
]]>By Mikayla Jorgenson
When you're from Minnesota, you fish all year round. We bake, fry, grill, and boil our fish; my husband’s grandfather’s fish ball recipe is the most unique way we serve fish. It's one of our favorite things to make when our family and friends come over for dinner around a bonfire or for when the Vikings are playing.
Get 6-8 cups of water simmering. Rinse off your fillets in cold water and then pat them dry with paper towel or dish towel. This is very important; if you don't dry them, they'll end up mushy.
Put the fillets in the blender. Add a dash of cream; just a dash! Then add one egg, a few shakes of salt and pepper, and blend it all together.
I like to use a cookie dough or ice cream scoop to remove the fish from the blender. Scoop the fish into balls and drop them in the simmering water. Let them simmer for around 7-10 minutes. They should be floating nicely by then. Take one ball out and cut in half. It should be nice and white with no grayish color.
Pour melted butter and some salt on your fish balls while they’re hot. Serve with corn on the cob and mashed potatoes. I also like to serve them in a romaine salad with melted butter and fresh squeezed lemon.
Growing up and attending college in the South, Nashville Hot Sandwiches are a staple. Please enjoy my wild game take on this Southern dish.
Spice Mixture
Marinade
Egg Mixture
Flour Mixture
Sauce
Toppings
If coleslaw* is desired, make prior to pheasant breasts so it can be marinating in the fridge.
Pat dry pheasant breasts and remove any remaining feathers. Place in a gallon Ziplock bag or bowl. Add marinade mixture to bag and toss breasts mixing evenly. Cover with Saran Wrap if using a bowl or tightly seal the bag and place in fridge to marinate 2-4 hours.
After breasts are done marinating, remove from refrigerator and place them in a bowl saving the marinade. Using a shallow bowl (like a pie dish), combine egg mixture carefully adding any excess marinade to the dish. Stir well. In another shallow bowl, combine flour mixture.
Heat oil to 300 degrees (I use a deep fryer, but if you have a frying thermometer, a cast iron or any heavy duty deep enough pan will work).
Take a pheasant breast, letting excess marinade drip back into bowl, toss in flour mixture until thoroughly coated. Next, carefully toss breast in egg mixture again allowing excess mixture to drip back into dish. Return back to flour mixture and coat evenly and place on rack/plate. Repeat process with each breast. Allow to rest for 5-10 minutes to allow coating to dry a bit and set.
While resting, make the sauce. Place butter in a saucepan and heat until melted over medium-high heat. Whisk in remaining seasoning. Once thoroughly mixed remove from heat, but keep sauce warm as to not let it coagulate.
Fry each piece until golden, crispy, and fully cooked. This is approximately 3 minutes each side. Depending on size of fryer/pan, this may need to be done in rounds. When you flip the breasts, be careful to keep breading attached.
While breasts are cooking, spread butter on the insides of the Hawaiian buns. Toast Hawaiian buns in a pan over high heat until golden brown (1-2 minutes).
Mix mayo and hot sauce.
Once pheasant breasts are cooked, place on a plate or rack. Brush/toss with seasoned butter sauce mixture thoroughly. This is what gives the breasts the Nashville kick.
Assemble your sandwich with buns, breasts, coleslaw/iceberg lettuce, pickles, and Mayo mixture. Enjoy!
* This coleslaw recipe can be made in advance. This is the best coleslaw recipe I have found. It is creamy and balances the heat in the sandwich. I half it when making this sandwich recipe.
]]>By Chad Waligura
As far as I'm concerned, doves are one of the most under-appreciated delicacies when it comes to wild game fare. I grew up in Texas, but my mom is from Louisiana; as soon as I was old enough to start dove hunting, I was instructed to pick and clean all my birds and save the hearts and gizzards. I would've been punished if I didn't! It's a Cajun law to never waste any meat and cook almost everything in brown gravy. Well, it was in our family.
It's still a special occasion anytime we kill enough doves for a big meal across the Sabine River. Besides boiled crabs and crawfish, doves are the one thing they get excited about over there when I tell them I'm bringing some to cook. The average is 2-3 doves per person.
Season cleaned doves generously with Tony Chachere’s Original Seasoning (including hearts & gizzards) overnight in fridge. Be sure you remove the grit sacks from the gizzards before cooking.
Chop four stalks celery, two big onions, and two green bell peppers.
Brown doves in vegetable oil in a large pot. Remove browned hearts & gizzards first, then remove browned doves and add celery, onion & bell pepper to pot.
When veggies are cooked, add half a box of chicken broth and equal amount of water. Stir and let come to a boil. Add Tony’s Gravy Mix to 1 cup of water and add it in. Stir and sprinkle in a little more gravy mix to taste and color.
Add doves & hearts & gizzards and then add 1-2 cans of Campbell’s golden mushroom soup. Make sure the doves are below the gravy level. Add gravy and water as needed.
Cover and turn flame down to simmer. Cook for two hours, stirring every 30 minutes. Try the dove to see if it’s tender after the two hours have gone by. If not, cook longer and until the dove meat is tender.
Serve over white rice.
Growing up in Thailand had a big influence on my tastebuds. Hunting in Alberta impacted my hobbies as an adult. Experimenting with combining the two is how I mix my past and present.
Suea rong hai, also known as crying tiger, is originally from northeastern Thailand. This fiery dish is prepared with grilled meat, usually water buffalo or sometimes beef brisket or ribeye, served with sticky rice and crisp green vegetables on the side, completed with a dipping sauce called nam jim jaew.
Nam jim is Thai for dipping sauce; jaew is a particularly magical type of sweet, sour and spicy sauce of dried chili, fish sauce, lime or tamarind juice, shallots, palm sugar, cilantro and toasted, ground glutinous rice. The variations are endless, don’t be afraid to make it your own.The most important part is it is prepared fresh to allow the ingredients to shine.
My version of seua rong hai is mule deer or whitetail backstrap grilled rare, with jaew that is moderate in heat. Most ingredients are relatively easy to find, but you are likely to have to toast and grind your own rice powder or khao khua, convenient if you are serving it with sticky rice.
Sticky rice is different from other varieties and has a slightly sweet, fragrant flavor with a sticky glutinous texture when cooked. If you can’t find this kind of rice, replace with steamed jasmine rice. (Did you know sticky rice is dead simple to make in an Instant Pot? It's true!)
Dried red Thai bird chiles with ground glutinous rice powder and toasted glutinous rice grains. Toasted sticky rice powder or khao khua adds a nutty element to the dipping sauce and is not easily substituted, but simple to make yourself and worth the effort.
Marinade
Sauce/Jaew
Additional Ingredients
Suea rong hai is best at rare temperatures with a strong seared crust on the outside. It’s juicy, it’s spicy, and it’s perfect for game.
Prepare the marinade and put the trimmed backstrap in it for at least 2 hours but up 8 hours in the fridge.
Prepare the dipping sauce, or nam jim jaew. Toast 2 tablespoons of uncooked sticky rice grains in a pan over low heat while stirring frequently about 20 minutes until a sandy brown color. Watch it closely near the end, it can turn and burn fast. Transfer to a bowl to let cool slightly then grind to a fine powder in a spice grinder or mortar and pestle.
Combine the rest of the sauce ingredients in a small non-reactive bowl or container. If preparing ahead of time, it is recommended to add the onion, cilantro and toasted rice powder right when you’re ready to serve. Some rice powder will settle on the bottom.
Prepare cabbage/lettuce by separating into single leaves and slice cucumber.
Grill the meat until it’s done to your liking, but this is best with rarer meats, especially if it’s a lean cut. My preference is 125 degrees F, or blue rare with a nice sear on the outside.
Slice venison thinly, dip in sauce and wrap with a few spoons of sticky rice in raw cabbage or lettuce leaves, eating with cucumber slices as needed to cool your mouth.
]]>To elevate your upland bounty, all you have to do is give a pluck.
The itinerant uplander knows just how much effort goes into the procurement of a partridge, particularly on public land, so why not make sure that your time and passion for these birds is reflected in the produce? I like to take special care of cleanly-killed birds, that is to say the ones that aren’t too shot up, by preparing them whole and letting their subtile wildness shine through.
Pluck and Brine your birds (basic brine recipe available here).
Remove from brine, drain thoroughly & pat dry - for real crispy skin, you can go one step further here and dry the birds in your refrigerator, or outside, if it’s cold enough.
Once dried, thoroughly season the cavity of each bird with salt and pepper. Add a sprig of rosemary, a smashed clove of garlic and a lemon wedge.
Set your birds in a ceramic dish, brush generously with 1 tbsp melted butter and add a sprinkle of salt.
Place dish in a 515*F Oven on a middle rack for 20 minutes.
Remove, tent with foil, and let rest 5 minutes before serving.
Combine drippings, 2 tbsp GDV, flour, and a splash of white wine to a saucepan, reduce by half & whisk in remaining cold butter.
Serve over wild rice or barley & Jus.
]]>Stir fry always seemed so intimidating to me. I'm not sure if it was just because I'm unfamiliar with cooking Asian cuisine, or if I was nervous that the meat would come out chewy and overdone like it had in past attempts; either way, stir fry isn't something I make very often. Thankfully, a copy of Buck, Buck, Moose by Hank Shaw lives above my microwave, so last week when I had a defrosted piece of elk that would be perfect for stir fry, I decided to crack open its index. Low and behold, Hank had me covered!
This recipe features delicious flavors from my Colorado elk, fresh veggies, and PS Seasoning's Red Rooster sweet red chili sauce. Combined with Hank's foolproof directions, this stir fry turned out absolutely perfect.
The venison will soak in a marinade while you prepare the other ingredients, so it's key to do this step first. Thinly slice (1/4 inch or less) your venison into pieces 1-3 inches long. Mix 3 tbsp of soy sauce, 1/2 tsp salt, the sherry, and the starch mixture and add the venison to it. I added a few shakes of Black Gold here, too. Let sit while you chop veggies and heat the oil.
Heat your cooking oil to 275-300 degrees. Add one third of the venison to the oil and let them cook for 45 seconds. Remove from the oil and set the venison on a plate with paper towels to drain. Cook the next two thirds of the meat in the same manner.
Remove all of the oil except for about 3 tbsp. Don't toss that oil! Keep it in the fridge for the next time you're frying up some grub. Heat the oil on your hottest burner. When the oil starts to smoke, add the vegetables and stir fry for 90 seconds. Add the garlic and cook for another 30 seconds. Add the venison back in and cook it for another 90 seconds. Add the cilantro (and some Open Sesame if you've got it) and cook for 30 seconds or until it wilts.
Remove from heat and add in the sesame oil. This is where I tossed the whole stir fry in a generous helping of PS Seasoning's Red Rooster sauce. Serve over rice. Enjoy!
]]>Before we were hunting buddies, H2E ambassador Mo Seck and I served in the Army together. Upon our retirement, our friendship continued in the form of hunting partners. We traveled to Hawaii together to chase axis deer and mouflon sheep and were fortunate enough to come home with full coolers. This recipe for roast sheep has been one of my favorites.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a roasting pan with aluminum foil.
Pat lamb dry with paper towels. Using a sharp knife, score the top side of the lamb by making shallow cuts all over.
In a small bowl, combine garlic, olive oil, rosemary, thyme, Dijon, salt and pepper.
Place lamb, fat side up, on a rack in the prepared roasting pan. Spread garlic mixture evenly over the lamb, rubbing in thoroughly into the scored cuts.
Place into oven and roast until it reaches an internal temperature of 135 degrees F for medium, about 1 hour 30 minutes to 1 hour 45 minutes, or until desired doneness. Let rest 15 minutes before slicing.
Serve immediately with mini red potatoes.
]]>When the February chill keeps you from venturing outdoors over the weekend, sometimes, the best thing to do is just stay home. When I find myself having a lazy Sunday, my favorite thing to do is make biscuits and gravy. Warm, comforting, and guaranteed to keep you full until dinner time, you'll be hard-pressed to find a better breakfast for an icy day.
This recipe features 80/20 ground elk from my successful elk hunt this past fall. The fatty grind keeps the meat moist and crisps up the edges, making the perfect uncased sausage to add to a thick, peppered gravy. Ladled on top of fresh biscuits, eggs, and bacon, you're in for a rib-sticking brunch!
Add your ground wild game meat (venison, elk, pronghorn, moose; it all works well here) to a hot pan and cook thoroughly. In this case, I didn't add any oil or grease to the pan; I ground the elk meat with 20% pork fat, so I let the meat cook in its own fat as it melted down. Season the meat with salt, pepper, and the Lumberjack spice blend to taste. Once it's cooked, set the meat aside.
To make the gravy, it's important that you stir this mixture constantly. You don't want to burn the butter, let the milk come to a boil, or let the milk form a rind on the top.
Melt 1 tbsp of butter in a medium-hot pan. Once melted, add the flour to form a paste. Once your paste is mixed adequately, reduce the temperature, and add in a little bit of the milk, completely mixing in the flour/butter paste. Add in the rest of the milk. Don't stop stirring!
Reduce the gravy down until it's quite thick and the right texture you're looking for; it usually takes me about 20 minutes to get it to that point. I try to get it to an alfredo-like thickness. Remember to keep stirring! Add the Black Gold, salt, and black pepper to taste; I always go heavy on the pepper because I love a peppery gravy. Once it's the right texture, remove from heat, add in the meat, and serve over a bed of hot biscuits, eggs, bacon, toast, or whatever else you've whipped up for breakfast. Enjoy! A food coma is in your near future.
]]>I have a new obsession with Preserved Lemon. It’s basically a raw lemon that’s been picked with salt and manages to be more intense and somehow more mild than a regular lemon. I find it to be such an amazing pairing with wild elk and venison, especially with bold Moroccan spices. I buy mine from a Middle Eastern market down the street from my house, but you can likely find them in the grocery store, too. They are also pretty easy to make, which makes them a great way to preserve an ambitiously fruitful lemon tree in the dead of winter.
this recipe is adapted from an Alison Roman recipe from her cookbook, Dining In.
Season the elk with salt and black pepper at least 30 minutes prior to cooking. In a large pot or Dutch oven, heat the oil over medium-high heat and brown the elk cubes. Be sure all sides are nicely browned. This probably needs to be done in batches (8-10 minutes each) and be careful not to overcrowd the meat! Transfer the elk to a bowl or plate while you sear the rest of it.
Return all the elk to the pot and add the potato, garlic, Worcestershire Sauce, shallots, fennel, fennel seed, and cumin. Cook, stirring and scraping up any bits on the bottom, until the fennel has softened and is starting to brown, about 4 minutes. Add the tomato paste and cook for about 2 minutes, stirring, until it’s a dark brick-red color. Add the wine and (once again) scrape up any lingering browned bits on the bottom.
Add the tomatoes, bay leaves, and 5 cups water. Season with salt and black pepper. Crush the tomatoes with the back of your spoon to get it all saucy in the pot. Bring to a simmer and reduce the heat to medium-low. Cook, uncovered, until the elk is completely tender and the stew has thickened nicely, 2 to 2½ hours. Check the stew as it cooks, adding salt and pepper as needed (it’s always better to season as it cooks instead of trying to add a bunch of salt at the end).
When ready to serve, heat a large skillet over medium heat. Toss the torn bread with the olive oil until the bread has soaked up a good amount of the oil. Season with salt and black pepper, and cook, tossing occasionally in the pan, until the bread is golden brown and crispy on all sides, 5 to 8 minutes. Remove from the heat, add the red pepper flakes, parsley, and toss to coat.
Top the stew with the preserved/picked lemon, and herby fried bread.
]]>Growing up, beef tips made in the crockpot was a staple dinner in our home. My mom would wake up a little earlier for work, prep the meat and spices, and set the crockpot on "low" before she took us to school and then went to work. She always paired it with rice and steamed broccoli; affordable sides that went far when it came to feeding three hungry kids.
When I pulled this black bear shank out of the crockpot, not only was it falling off the bones, but the flavor of those beef tips shot back into my memories. It tasted exactly like that meal I ate so many times as a kid. This time, though, was extra special because of the critter featured as the main course: my first bear. I decided to pair it with mashed potatoes, acorn squash with brown sugar and cinnamon, and a thick gravy to pour on top of the pulled meat (and the potatoes, too, of course).
This goes to show how similar bear can taste to beef when it's cooked well. It's rapidly become my favorite wild game and I love that I found a way to combine elements of my childhood into the bear-y meals I cook today. It's nothing fancy, but it is delicious; enjoy my recipe for pulled bear shank below!
Bring your shank up to room temperature. Pat dry.
Bring your oil up to a medium-high temperature in a nonstick or cast iron pan. I like to use olive oil. Generously season the shank with PS Seasoning's Chop Shop, Good Fella, garlic powder, salt, and pepper on all sides. Then, sear the shank in the hot oil on all sides until crisp on the outside.
Put your browned shank into your crockpot and cover with your stock of choice or water. I used water this time around because I wanted the shank to make its own stock while it cooked so I could use it in the gravy later. Add in your rosemary, thyme, garlic, and the scrapings and oil from the bottom of your searing pan. Add salt and pepper to taste.
Set your crockpot on high and cook the shank for 6 hours or until it's falling off the bone. When it's done, I like to pull it off the bone and season it with a little bit more Chop Shop. Top with gravy, serve with a side of mashed potatoes, and enjoy!
]]>By Annie Weisz
Curry is one of those foods that can take on so many meanings. There are many different types of curries, mostly originating from Thailand and India. Curry isn’t technically a dish in India, but rather a term invented by the British to encompass a wide variety of Indian dishes. It comes from the Indian word “kari,” which means sauce. Since this recipe is my own concoction, I’m not really sure what other category this dish falls under. Thus, it will be named a “curry.”
This recipe starts with a relatively “tough” cut of meat – a sirloin roast. Sirloin comes from a very highly used muscle – the quadricep. On an animal like pronghorn, this muscle gets used a lot. Highly used muscles benefit from low and slow cooking to break down those tough muscle fibers and connective tissues. This recipe cooks for about 6 hours in a dutch oven and turns those tough chunks of meat into tender, flavorful morsels. Tip: cut meat while still mostly frozen and let thaw the rest of the way on a paper towel-lined plate in the fridge. This helps remove any off flavors and helps the meat brown.
For the spices I chose cumin, smoked paprika, turmeric, coriander, aleppo pepper, and cinnamon along with salt, pepper, and other aromatics like garlic and onion. It was pure torture smelling it cook all day. I also added dried cherries and a bit of honey for some sweetness to complement the rich flavors. The cherries kind of melt into the sauce and you don’t really know they’re there unless you’re looking for them.
There’s something I love about a good yogurt sauce. They’re so simple to make but they instantly elevate dishes like this with a bright tanginess. This dish is so full of rich flavor that it needs something a little different. Yogurt sauce with lemon and parsley certainly fits the bill here. Don’t skip it!
I don’t think it’s possible to eat curry without rice. Jasmine rice is one of my favorites. It’s full of flavor and makes the perfect bed to ladle the curry sauce over. Served with fresh naan, this recipe makes the perfect meal for a cozy winter day.
Preheat oven to 275°F.
Heat lard in dutch oven over medium high heat. Add in cubed meat. Tip: cut meat while still mostly frozen and let thaw the rest of the way on a paper towel-lined plate in the fridge. This helps remove any off flavors and helps the meat brown.
Cook meat, stirring occasionally until meat is browned on all sides. Add in all spices except cinnamon stick. Stir to combine and continue cooking 5 minutes. Remove meat to plate and set aside.
Add oil to dutch oven. Add in carrots, onion, and garlic. Stir frequently until softened and any spices stuck to the pan are released and mixed in with the vegetables, about 5 minutes. Add in tomato paste and flour. Stir to combine and cook an additional 2 minutes, stirring frequently.
Add meat back to dutch oven. Add in stock, vinegar, honey, cinnamon stick, and cherries. Bring to boil. Cover and put in oven. Cook for 5-6 hours, stirring occasionally, until meat is tender and sauce is thickened. Add cooked garbanzo beans in the last 30 minutes of cooking.
While meat is cooking, prepare yogurt sauce. Add all ingredients to mini food processor or blender and blend until smooth. Refrigerate until ready to use.
To each bowl, add rice and curry. Top with yogurt sauce and parsley. Serve with warm naan.
I hope you are reading this recipe because you were a successful bear hunter! This particular bear in the photo that I’m using for the recipe lived its life mightily on the shores of Lake Superior in the old growth forest of the Porcupine Mountains Wilderness State park in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula.
I rendered down his fat and made some delicious cracklings, too. Rendering fat is something that should be taken slowly. Make sure you have the dedicated time to tend the fat frequently.
Cook time: 1-2 hours for a small batch or pot.
Crack, pour, or open your favorite beverage and take a moment to reflect on your successful harvest. Go back to the experience of the hunt, the trials and tribulations that ultimately presented you with this gift. Toast to that animal that gave its life so you can continue your's to the fullest.
Start with a clean, partially frozen chunk of bear fat. When it's frozen, it's much easier and less messy to cut. Trim the fat of any kind of meat or blood particles to avoid any kind of bad flavors added to the oil.
Cut the cleaned fat into around 1 inch cubes. They don't need to be perfect; this is just the general size we want each chunk to be prior to them melting down.
Take another sip of your preferred beverage and admire your dicing skills.
Fill your preferred cooking pot with the cubed fat. I like to use a big cast iron pot. Make sure your pot isn't preheated prior to putting the fat in it.
Start on a low to moderate temperature and begin to heat your fat. Imagine that the pot is full of ice cubes and you’re just trying to get the ice to drip and last long without boiling it away. This is a low and slow kind of endeavor. If it starts smoking, it’s way too hot! Remove from heat and stir repeatedly until it cools back down.
The fat will slowly start to render out and this is where you really want to stir frequently and take your time. Eventually the rendered oil will start to build up in the pot and fat cubes will start to float. Do not let the oil get hot enough to deep fry the chunks of floating fat. Remove from heat and stir if you feel the oil is getting too hot before returning to the heat.
When you have a good amount of oil and have rendered most of the fat out (at least 1-2 hours depending how much fat you use), you’ll be left with the cracklings, or the unmelted fat. They will just get crispier as time goes on and no longer emit oil. Remove these cracklings into a dish for a tasty snack (smash em’ if cooked thoroughly, you owe it to yourself, and they taste like crispy chicken skin), or crush them down to use in another recipe of your choosing.
Ladle the oil out of the pot and strain through a fine strainer or use cheesecloth to get the finer pieces of cracklings out of the oil. I usually strain the oil twice.
Pour the strained oil into your favorite storage container. Ball mason jars work great, and come in a variety of different sizes. I like to use 8oz jars to have a few on hand for gifts or for throwing quick in my pack to take along on a trip into the backcountry. You can also strain the oil through your favorite flavors; browned garlic is one of mine. I have yet to try straining it through something floral like lavender.
Let cool to room temp and then store in your fridge or freezer. Rendered bear fat has a pretty long shelf life when stored and used properly. It will last for several months in the fridge or indefinitely in the freezer.
Let the cooking begin! Savory pie crusts, biscuits, bear fried in bear, soaps, salves; the uses are endless. Enjoy your harvest to the max and be sure to share with others.
]]>If you're anything like me, you don't exactly feel excited to cook after staring into a computer screen abyss for eight hours. In an attempt to find a delicious, healthy, all-in-one dinner that doesn't take long to throw together, I created this satisfying solution: baking cheese, breadcrumbs, and venison in a hollowed-out spaghetti squash. The dish was brought to life thanks to my favorite flavors, PS Seasoning's Black Gold and Good Fella Italian herbs.
Preheat the oven to 375. Slice your squash in two and scoop out the seeds (pro tip: dry them on a paper towel and attempt to grown your own squash this year). Grease each inside half of the squash with olive oil and add salt, Black Gold, Good Fella, and black pepper to taste. Place the squash halves right side up on a baking sheet and cook them for about 40 minutes or until it begins to get fork tender.
While your squash is cooking, prep your fillings. Dice your garlic. Fully cook the ground venison, browning it with olive oil, and add in your Black Gold, Good Fella, salt, pepper, and any other seasonings you enjoy. When the meat has about 2 minutes left, add your chopped garlic. Once it's fully cooked and the garlic is browned, set it aside.
Shred/slice your mozzarella and parmesan. If you have pre-shredded cheese, you're all set on this front.
Melt your butter and add in the Italian breadcrumbs. You're looking to get a crumbly, damp mix; don't let the breadcrumbs just swim around in the butter. Stir until completely mixed.
Mix your ground venison with some marinara sauce to your own personal preference. Generally, I go pretty light on the sauce.
Once your squash is ready, take it out of the oven. Check to make sure you can stick a fork into it and gently begin to tear it the flesh apart. Having it just-baked means it will be perfectly baked by the time it comes out of the oven again.
Add in a heaping scoop of the ground venison and sauce mix. Next, because I like melty cheese and crispy breadcrumbs, add a layer of mozzarella. Top it off with a generous layer of breadcrumbs. Put it back in the oven and cook until the cheese is melty and the breadcrumbs are brown; about 10 minutes. When done, let it cool for about 5 minutes. Top with parmesan, fresh basil, and red pepper flakes (and maybe a little bit more Good Fella), and enjoy this all-in-one meal!
If you want to get fancy, make some garlic bread to go with it on the side. We get an Italian loaf from the store, slice it lengthwise, and layer on the butter, diced garlic, salt, pepper, and Good Fella. We bake it at 375 for that last 10 minutes that the squash bake is in the oven. It's well worth the extra bit of work!
]]>This last week, my wife, a nurse who cares for COVID patients more days than not, came home from work feeling a little under the weather. I had plans to leave on an archery hunt with some out-of-state friends that very next morning. Not wanting to risk exposing my friends to this virus, we jumped in the car and drove to our nearest testing facility. Not only was the hunt I had been looking forward to at stake, but more importantly, so was the health of my family. Working in the healthcare profession, my wife has witnessed far too many deaths from this virus and therefore our family takes it very seriously.
In anticipation of the test results, sleep that night was fitful at best. Early the next morning, I was already awake when the news came and, with just a simple text message, our quarantine had begun. Admittedly, If I’m going to be locked in a small home for ten days, I am truly am grateful that I was locked in with the people I love: my family. Still, at the risk of sounding hyperbolic, my mental health relies on fresh air, sunshine, and remote places, so this was not easy for me. You see, I am a bit of a contradiction. I’m of the personality type that dreams of living in a remote cabin, miles away from the nearest neighbor. Yet, simultaneously, I also genuinely appreciate good friends and the camaraderie that comes with sharing a duck blind with buddies or accompanies the collective toil of packing heavy loads of meat out of the mountains.
The value of good friends is exemplified during hard times. While my family experienced many gestures of kindness during our quarantine period, one of these gestures in particular stands out to me. I’m not certain if it was the “feels” that accompanied the tamales that my buddy Clay went to the trouble of delivering to us during our quarantine or if they really were the best tamales I’ve ever eaten.
Here’s Clay's recipe so you can decide. It makes 50+ tamales, so please take full artistic control and reduce the ingredients as you see fit or charge full speed ahead and fill your freezer.
Tamales are an undertaking. It might be best to spread this endeavor out over a couple of days. First, let’s do the filling: duck chile Colorado. Here’s what you’ll need for the first step:
Place chilies in a small saucepan with 4 cups of water. Bring to a boil, remove from heat, and steep for 30 minutes. Place softened chilies and about 1 cup of fresh water or stock in a food processor or blender. Purée until smooth, adding more liquid if necessary. Pass mixture through a strainer to remove seeds and any bits of skin. Save a little of this chile sauce to the side to top your tamales when finished.
Heat lard in a Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Add meat and brown evenly.
Add onion, Anaheim peppers, and garlic and cook until onions are translucent.
Add tomatoes, oregano, cinnamon, stock, and processed chilies. Cover and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to low, cover, and simmer for 2 hours or until meat is tender. Shred meat with sauce and season to taste with salt and pepper.
For the next step, you’ll need:
Soak corn husks in room temperature water for at least an hour before using. Make sure to rinse well and wash off any dirt or husk fibers. Leave them in the water to keep them pliable until you’re ready to use them.
Mix lard with stand-up mixer, electric mixer, or by hand if you’re really tough. The lard should be fluffy after mixing (should look like whipped cream).
Add half the baking powder and half the salt to the lard and mix together.
Add the masa to the lard and mix. Next, along with half the tub of Baca’s red chile sauce, slowly add the broth a little at a time to the masa and mix until combined. Keep adding stock until the mixture is the consistency of peanut butter. You can test the masa by taking a marble sized ball and dropping it into warm water. It should float but if it doesn’t then you can add a little more lard, then beat for another minute. Test this until it floats.
Now it’s time to put the tamales together. Starting at the middle of the husk, spread two spoonfuls of the masa with the back of a spoon or rubber spatula in a rectangle or oval shape, using a downward motion towards the wide-bottom edge. Do not spread the masa all the way to the ends and leave about a 2-inch margin on the left and right sides of the husk.
Spoon 1½ tablespoons of the duck chile Colorado filling down the center of the masa. Fold both sides to the center and finish off by bringing the pointed end of the husk toward the filled end. Make sure it’s a snug closure so the tamale will not open during steaming. Secure by tying a thin strip of corn husk around the tamal.
Use any deep pot with a steamer basket or a tamale steamer. Place the tamales standing up next to each other so they won’t fall down. Cover the pot and cook on medium heat for 30-45 minutes. The tamales are done when the masa doesn’t stick to the corn husks.
Top with the set aside chile Colorado sauce and serve with a side of Mexican rice and refried beans. I can’t guarantee that they will be as good as they can be when delivered by a caring friend, but I will guarantee that you won’t be disappointed that you went to the trouble of making them.
]]>Let's be honest: 2020 sucked. In fact, some of the best things to come out of the last 12 months was spending time in the outdoors, taking a mental break from the stress of the news cycle, and filling our freezers full of deer, elk, black bear, perch, and so much more. With ample time at home to get creative in the kitchen, the Hunt to Eat community wrote some amazing wild game recipes. Here are our favorite wild game recipes of 2020:
Ambassador Michael Cravens loves to use his bones from his harvests to fill Mason jars full of rich, healthy bone stock. This stock is a perfect base for soups, marinates, crockpot recipes, and it’s even delicious all by itself.
This is a woodchuck, bean, carrot, and onion soup that ambassador Jonah Curtis put together with some simple fall ingredients. He likes using his family’s garden to fill in the soup with the critter that is always trying to steal them. Hunting and homesteading go hand in hand, and result in a warm and delicious soup! Plus, learn how Jonah butchers woodchucks here.
Never leave your venison ribs in the field again! Hunt to Eat ambassador Alyssa LeBlanc shares her go-to rib recipe in this video. Venison ribs can be tricky to make, but Alyssa makes fall-off-the-bone rib meat happen.
7. Hawaiian Black Bear Sliders
When you think of eating bear meat, you probably don’t think of comfort food, but you should get yourself out of that box. This is the ultimate comfort food. Hawaiian Bear Ham Sliders might just be the best party, tailgate, or movie night food there is.
If you love venison recipes with a kick, you need to try Hunt to Eat ambassador Alyssa LeBlanc’s recipe for spicy venison bulgogi. This versatile dish serves up great as a Korean-style burrito, on top of stir fry, or on a bed of rice.
Ambassador Michael Cravens has held onto a deep love of southern-style meals and takes advantage of frying up a mess of catfish every time his family is lucky enough to bring a stringer of them home.
Avid small game hunters know that squirrel quarters are the wild equivalent of chicken wings. Barbecued, fried, or braised, you really can't go wrong when it comes to squirrel meat. Next time you harvest a limit of squirrels, give H2E ambassador Michael Cravens' recipe for Hot Honey Squirrel legs a try.
3. Phez Nug
It took ambassador Josh Mills decades to discover that wild pheasant breasts, cubed, breaded, and fried, is one of the most delicious things nature has to offer. Personally, he feels cheated. Nevertheless, he’s thankful to have stumbled across this kid and adult-approved meal. Here’s his own bare-bones basic recipe for breaded and fried pheasant nuggets.
2. Fried Largemouth Bass
There is no reason in the whole wide world that you shouldn’t eat largemouth bass. Director of Education Cindy Stites loves crappie, bluegill, and walleye, but so often people give her a funny look when she tells them she eats largemouth. Her family’s favorite way to cook up bass is deep fried with some crinkle french fries.
1. Cast-Iron Seared Venison Backstraps
Unsurprisingly, our most popular recipe of 2020 was the classic seared venison backstrap. Brown the perfect medium-rare venison backstrap with ambassador Alyssa LeBlanc in her video recipe.
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By Gabby Zaldumbide
If you love the crispy burger patties regularly shlepped out of your favorite fast food joint, this wild game burger recipe is for you. The burger patties you end up with taste best when stacked 2-3 patties high. And the fattier your grind, the better. In this recipe, the meat cooks on a dry cast iron, so it relies on the fat content in the meat to cook. It won’t work well with a 90/10 blend or pure ground venison. Stacked up in between two toasted brioche buns, these burgers won’t disappoint!
Preheat a cast iron to a very hot temperature. These burgers should cook in seconds so that cast iron needs to be hot! If not, the burgers won’t fry in their own fat, they’ll steam.
While the cast iron is heating up, shape the meat into 1/4 lb balls. Be careful not to handle the meat too much; the warmth from your hands will begin to melt the fat.
I cooked the bacon while I was waiting for my cast iron to preheat, too. When it was done, I browned the onions in the bacon grease. I set both aside to use as toppings later.
Once the cast iron is preheated, set a ground elk ball onto the cast iron. Smash it with one spatula while pressing down on it from the top with the other one. The additional pressure helps them flatten out and cook evenly. If you only have spatulas with holes in them, some meat may come through the holes and cause them to lose shape (which I learned the hard way).
As each burger is cooked, hit it with the Lumberjack seasoning to taste. Stack as many as you want on a toasted brioche bun and layer on the toppings. Top them with your PS Seasonings Blue Ribbon barbecue sauce and serve with a side of tater tots (or baked mac n cheese, or good ol' french fries). Enjoy!
]]>I love a good pizza. I also love finding new wild game recipes that are simple to throw together after a long day. While the pizza dough portion of this recipe does not fall into the above-mentioned ‘quick’ category, you can easily grab your favorite pizza crust from the store and follow the pizza preparation portion. This recipe will no doubt be amazing either way.
This is not your traditional pizza. Think of it as a steak sandwich on a pizza crust. Spicy whole grain mustard and NY strip steak are the stars of the show. Trust me on the mustard, your taste buds will thank me!
Combine instant dry yeast, warm water, and honey. Let yeast activate for at least 15 minutes. When it has a good amount of bubbling, it is ready to go.
Add salt, olive oil, and flour. Note: The most important part of getting a good fluffy dough is to NOT add to much flour. It’s easier to add more flour than trying to add more water to gain the correct consistency. The dough should have a somewhat sticky consistency (more moist than you would expect). Remember, you will be adding more flour when you’re kneading, so if it’s a bit too sticky, you can correct that in the next step.
Let the dough sit for 15 minutes before kneading.
Knead the dough for about 5 minutes until the flour is incorporated and it starts to become smooth. Let rest for 15 minutes, then knead a couple more minutes.
First proof: Place the dough in a large bowl with a little flour and cover for 1.5 to 3 hours. You are looking for the dough to double in size.
Forming the pizza dough: Divide in 2 for larger pizzas or 4 for personal sized pizzas. Place the dough onto a floured surface and cut into desired size. Note: Do not knead the dough. You want to keep all that airy texture that you’ve created for a fluffy and crispy crust. Use the counter to create some friction and ‘pull’ the dough into balls (see video for technique).
You can either let rest on the counter for approximately 2-3 hours, or put in the refrigerator for 24-48 hours. By putting the dough in the refrigerator you slow down the fermentation process. The dough flavor becomes more developed and rich.
Once dough is ready, place on a floured surface and begin shaping your pizza dough. Do NOT roll it, but lightly shape it with your fingers and then pick it up and let gravity aid in stretching. You don’t want to compress all the air that has built up in the dough over the proofing process. This will keep the dough super light and fluffy.
Preheat oven to 525 degrees and start prepping the pizza toppings.
Thinly slice the elk/venison NY strip steak. Be generous with the steak to account for shrinkage. Sautee the cremini mushrooms. Dice the green onions. Mix the arugula with a splash of olive oil and some lemon juice to taste. If you haven’t done so already, mix up the garlic aioli.
Top pizza with mustard, sautéed cremini mushrooms, and steak.
Place pizza in oven for 5 minutes then turn broiler on high for 2 minutes.
Top with pickled onions, arugula, and garlic aioli.
Mix up 1 cup mayonnaise, 2 tbsp. lemon juice, and 3-4 gloves of garlic.
Thinly slice the red onions (I like to use a mandolin for consistency in size) Simmer the pickling mixture: combine apple cider vinegar, red wine vinegar, sugar and salt. Bring to a boil and reduce to a simmer until the sugar and salt have dissolved. Combine the onions and let the mixture cool completely at room temperature. Pour into a glass container and refrigerate.
]]>When I started butchering my own deer, I didn’t own a meat grinder. I had to get creative with all my scrap pieces of meat. I came up with this recipe around three years ago because it allowed me to use my packages of "grind" without actually needing a grinder. The unground meat works great for stews and anything in a crock pot, but this recipe is by far my favorite. It tastes great and it’s very simple for anyone to do.
Cut the the meat into small pieces and dust with salt and pepper.
Melt the butter in a pan over a medium high heat and add the meat, browning the meat all around for about 3 minutes.
Now add in the Worcestershire sauce, onion powder, onion flakes, onion salt, parsley, mushrooms and let it simmer for about 5-6 minutes.
Add 1 1/4 cup of water and the contents of the brown gravy packet (disregard the instructions on the back of the gravy packet, it usually calls for 1 cup of water) and let that simmer for at least 5 minutes, stirring every minute.
Lastly, stir in the sour cream and simmer for about 1-2 minutes. Serve over a bed of egg noodles. Enjoy!
]]>Around Eastern Washington, there are several select lakes that offer great shore fishing for hatchery trout that are as good fighters as they are table fare. Many of these lakes contain mysis shrimp and scuds, giving the trout an almost salmon or steelhead quality to their meat.
I often times smoke trout, but I found a new way to prepare them to make one hell of a lunch experience. Presenting: The Ultimate Trout Sandwich.
After cleaning the fish whole by removing the entrails and gills, brine it for 12 hours with super simple wet brine consisting of brown sugar, Kosher salt, lemon pepper, and black pepper.
Next, wash off the fish. If you have a smoker/Traeger, cold smoke the trout at 180 degrees for 1 hour. Then finish it off at 350-375 degrees until you feel the meat is done. Pull the fish off the heat, peel off the skin (give it to your bird dog, they’ll love it), and gently remove the bones as the meat falls off the skeleton. Be careful to inspect the flesh as trout have very, very small bones that can interrupt the enjoyment of this sandwich.
Grab the mayo, pecans, and grapes. Cut the grapes up into tiny pieces, and smash the pecans also into smaller chunks. Fork the trout meat and mix with your desired amount of mayo. Add in the grapes and pecans and a bit of salt to taste.
Add in additional sandwich extras like cheese, avocado, red onions, or lettuce, and you’ll have one elevated lunch experience!
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