More Game Taco Recipes

Following up on the venison taco recipe in the post below, here's a great way (I understand) to transform mudhens into morsels from a pretty neat blog, The Sporting Life. Bonus Sicilian coot recipe at the end for our resident Sicilian Coot, El Jefe.

"TACOOTOS FOR TWO FROM CHEF JEROME OF NILAND

Ingredients

4 skinless coot breasts
1 small yellow onion diced
1 small green bell pepper diced
3 tomatoes diced
2 avocados diced
iceberg lettuce sliced
1/4 pound Monterrey jack cheese shredded
1 package slivered almonds
1 small can chopped black olives
corn tortillas
1 tsp dried oregano
1 tsp dried thyme
La Victoria Salsa Ranchera (hot)
La Victoria Salsa Brava
garlic salt
black pepper
Canola oil

Boil coot breasts until cooked through. Rinse, cool, remove from bone and shred by hand. Chop in blender to a finely shredded consistency. Add a small amount of oil to heavy pan and saute onion until translucent. Add coot and stir in for a few minutes. Add bell pepper and half of the diced tomatoes and stir for several more minutes before adding 1/2 cup of Ranchera sauce, slivered almonds and continue to stir for several minutes more. Add 1 tsp each of oregano and thyme along with garlic powder and black pepper to taste. Set aside covered to keep warm.

Fry corn tortillas in oil and fold, providing both stiffos (crispy) and limpos (soft). Spoon meat filling into tortilla shells and garnish with remaining tomatoes, diced black olives, lettuce, shredded jack cheese and Salsa Brava.

Upon filling of our taco shells, it is our custom to reach across the table to touch our tacootos together, stomp our feet and yell "OOOOOOOOOOOOOOO" in a high pitched yodel as our toast and salute to the almighty coot.

I've yet to meet anyone, including the biggest of skeptics who did not proclaim that tacootos were not as good if not better than the best tacos they have ever had.

Again, credit for this recipe goes solely to our friend Jerome Lipetzky who we lost to pulmonary fibrosis in 2010 and is greatly missed, so our "Tacooto Salute" is to him as well.

While Tacootos were a creation inspired by the desperation of hunger, Sicilian Coot is an old established recipe shared by another departed and dearly missed friend, Sal DiMercurio of Pittsburg, California. Sal grew up on and around the San Francisco Bay and the Delta, fishing and hunting with great passion and success for over 50 years until succumbing to cancer in 2011. Here is Sal's favorite coot recipe:

SICILIAN COOT

Clean the coot by separating and saving only the breasts, thighs and legs with all skin and fat removed. Rinse, place in a bowl and cover with milk to which a shot of brandy and a shot glass full of fresh chopped garlic have been added. Cover and allow to soak overnight in the refrigerator. Remove from refrigerator, drain and allow to come to room temperature. Roll in seasoned flour and fry until lightly browned. Place pieces in baking dish and sprinkle with fresh chopped garlic and rosemary bake covered for 1.5 hours and serve.

These are just two of many great recipes for coot, thanks to the generosity of a couple of great friends. More can be found with a little research and experimentation."