Woodcock recipe

Ran across this recipe in the Upland Journal forums, everyone there raves about it--thought I'd pass it along.  Haven't tried it yet. 

The cant lose woodcock/venison/waterfowl/gamebird recipe

6-8 Woodcock -feeds 3 or 4 people
Fillet off breasts of the woodcock w/no skin
Cut off legs w/thigh, w/no skin.

Mix a marinade w/this:
Minced fresh ginger- about 3 quarter size pieces
Minced 2 large cloves of garlic
3-4 tablespoons of Soy sauce
1 tbs+- of brown sugar
Several drops + of Asian Sesame oil
Black pepper
1 oz+- hard liquor. (I used rum but whiskey etc would work)

(cut up some green onion-put aside)

Marinade WC meat for an hour or so.

Heat a pan w/1 tbs veg oil til smoking hot. Add meat and stir cook til meat turns color--keep heat high. Just a few minutes. Check to make sure it is rare! Dont overcook.

Just at end add a small handful of green onion.

Place meat on top of white rice or to side and add a little more fresh green onion on top.

Thanks to Ben Hong for providing me this recipe. This recipe will work well w/venison/duck and geese. And is good w/any gamebird.

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."

Venison taco recipe

there's a rumor of a Vicarious posting in the works, so I thought I'd post this recipe now to avoid posting over Rico's contribution-to-be.

Here's what they've been eating in the Tantarlow household lately. Great kid recipe, especially if you've got some finicky eaters. The spice mix is for a flavorful but not overly "spicy" kid palate; add some cayenne and some chipotle powder if you want to soup it up for adults. Enjoy.

Venison Tacos

Ingredients for Mild spice mix:
2 tsp chili powder
2 tsp paprika
2 tsp cumin
2 tsp onion powder
2 tsp garlic powder
2 tsp parsley flakes
1 tsp dried cilantro
1/2 tsp black pepper
1/2 tsp salt

Ingredients for taco meat:
1 largish yellow onion
2 tbs olive oil
1 to 1.5 pounds venison ground
2 tbs mild spice mix (above)
2 tbs brown sugar
1 tsp cider vinegar (or less—my kids don't like it but I still add it)
1 15 oz can tomato sauce
1 cup chicken stock

Dice/mince one largish yellow onion (my kids say, "chop it small, chop small!!"). Heat 1 tbs olive oil in wok, add onion and sautee until softened, 3-4 minutes or so.

Add 2 tbs spice mix and stir into onions. Allow to cook "until you can start smelling the spices cooking with the onions" (stole that off the web), 1 minute or so.

Add 1 tbs olive oil for cooking the venison, add the venison and mix with onions and allow to cook thoroughly, 5 minutes or so.

When venison is browned, add tomato sauce, chicken stock, brown sugar, and cider vinegar. Allow to boil down until the meat "is just barely wet" (again, advice off the web), stirring occasionally, approximately 30 minutes.

serve on soft tortillas with guac, peppers, cheese, beans etc etc etc--you know the drill for tacos.

Bacon Explosion Sweeps Internet

recipe is at http://www.bbqaddicts.com/blog/recipes/bacon-explosion/

who's going to try this first?

Rouille - it's not just for fish soup

picture stolen from Food Vagabond

Last night the missus made the most delicious bouillabaisse, which was much simpler to make than it's fancy name belies. She made the stew with bird, not fish, and it soared! Part of what completed the dish was a condiment of spicy french mayonnaise, Rouille, which we dolloped into the soup just as you would sour cream. For the many of us who participate in this blog and who are addicted to garlic and spice, this stuff brings it all together. Today we heated up a beef stew and I threw a dollop of leftover Rouille into my bowl. My first taste of stew and Rouille resulted in a string of french superlatives that I cannot repeat lest I am banned from this manliest, most freedom fry of blogs. I promise you Cagey, spread some Rouille on toast and you'll be exclaiming: "sacre bleu, I just might join the french foreign legion!" Ok, maybe not. But, do me a favor and give this a try with your venison or duck stews.

Rouille recipe from Kelly's favorite cookbook author (makes one cup)
4 large cloves garlic
1.5 tsp salt
1 super large egg yolk, room temp
1.5 TBSP lemon juice
0.5 tsp saffron threads
0.25 tsp crushed red pepper flakes
1 cup good olive oil

Place garlic and salt on cutting board and mince together
Throw salty garlic into food processor with steel blade
Add egg yolk, lemon juice, saffron and pepper flakes
Chop till smooth
With machine running, drizzle (very, very, very slowly) olive oil.
You should have a yellow mayonnaise with red flakes that you can store in the fridge.

Introducing....!!!

Check it out. Click on the image, and be sure to let Mo know what you think...

Home for the Holiday

The in-laws came Downeast for the extended Thanksgiving weekend. The past couple years my father-in-law, Ken, and I have hunted deer together at Thanksgiving, sort of continuing the tradition my dad and I began when I was a pup. My dad gave up hunting a few years ago, so our tradition now is for me to call him after I get in from deer hunting.


Thursday morning was crispy, upper 20s firming up the rain of the preceding day. I dropped Ken off in the dark to walk to his tree stand, then continued on to my parking spot. I had a quick half mile walk to where I'd left my climber attached to an oak looking over a fairly open side hill. The deer and bears had been feeding on acorns.


The bark of the tree was slick with an icy film, causing me to be extra careful and deliberate ascending to my perch. An hour into my sit, I was wondering when I'd be able to get out for a duck hunt... a flicker of white off to the left got my attention. Within a minute I saw it again. Through the developing fog I could make out the form of a deer facing me, head down nibbling acorns about 100 yards away, the tail occasionally twitching a flash of white. Cranked the scope to 7 power; when the head came up I could see antlers. Small antlers. This time of year, yearling head gear is first choice for choice eating... if you even have a choice. In my 8-10 hours of hunting this year, this was the first deer I'd seen, buck or doe. Around here, with a deer density well below 10 deer per square mile, it's always bucks-only hunting.


The buck was slowly heading in my direction, munching acorns. He drifted a little downslope, but still advancing in my general direction. Then he drifted into a beech thicket, and soon I lost sight of him. Then I couldn't hear foot steps. After 10 minutes of not seeing or hearing "my" buck, I started to worry he'd simply walked away. Or bedded down? I pulled out my trusty Primos "canned heat" doe bleat can. Baaa baaa. Immediately I heard foot steps, but my eyes straining through the fog failed to locate the source. Then I saw him.... walking away. Another bleat, and he's no longer walking away, now he's running away!

A year ago I used the same call to bring in (*almost* for a shot) a mature buck not 200 yards from this location. This year's buck most certainly was not high in the pecking order in these parts. A deer trotted through an opening 80 yards downslope, but I could not see antlers. Through another opening at 85 yards... I saw antlers. I was ready when the buck stopped in an opening at 90 yards. It disappeared at the shot. I kept the scope trained on the spot; 30 seconds later I saw a brief flicker of white, and began descending the tree. The buck lay dead where I shot him, the bullet entering the chest high behind the shoulder, breaking the spine. Not the preferred neck shot, but the carcasse damage wasn't too bad. And the tag was filled, duck/bird hunting opportunities awaited, no longer constrained by the concern to put deer meat in the freezer.

Propped up for draining.

Slid easily on oak leaves.

Yearling 3-point, field dressed 103. I gave dad a call, told him the story.



We arrived home for lunch to an enthusiastic reception.

Ken watched a large cow moose Thursday morning, and a doe the next. Angela hunted deer for the first time Friday morning. In 5 hours she saw no deer but plenty of sign. Seems eager to try again.

Saturday night we had a meal that needs mentioning. The whole holiday weekend was more or less a game feed, with woodcock and fresh deer tenderloin on the menu Saturday. I prepared the woodcock according to Pete's blog entry of October 08. Rave reviews from all -- the legs were especially liked by the women and boys, the breasts being craved by the men and the boys. So far I'm on the good side of the dog spirits.

The deer was delectible as well.

Spider/Black Lake Woodcock

My sister lives around the corner from the restaurant March. I haven't been there for years, as our last bill for four was around $500 and my brother-in-law graciously offered to bail me out. Embarrassment aside, Wayne Nish, the chef/owner, knows how to cook wild game (as opposed to farm raised). He published the following recipe for woodcock, memorable in that it not only uses those tiny legs, but it elevates them to the level of culinary centerpiece.

Four woodcock - legs in skin, breasts w/or w/o skin
2 cups upland bird stock
1 shallot, chopped
3 garlic cloves, crushed
1 TBSP coriander seed
2 bay leaves
1 TBSP fresh thyme
1 tsp peppercorns
1 tsp sea salt

The legs (prepare these first - roughly 1-2 hrs)
Put legs in saucepan with 1.5 cups stock, shallot, garlic, coriander seeds, bay leavs, thyme, peppercorns and salt. Bring to boil, then back down heat, simmer for 1 to 2 hrs (check occasionally to see if more stock is needed).

The breasts (cook when legs are essentially done)
This is the straight forward Tantillo/Weik method (let's call it the Kate method): season breasts with pepper and salt, light dusting of flour for texture, sautee in hot olive oil (smoking) to sear exterior, leaving interior bright enough to scare away those with PETA inclinations. I like to add a bit o' chopped garlic so that the breasts stand up to the legs (I think that is in keeping with the Kate method too). Cook breasts primarily on one side, so that a good crisp skin develops, to contrast with the succulent interior. Do not flip them too early. If you overcook them, the ghost of every good woodcock dog will haunt you until the next time you prepare this recipe, when you will undoubtedly cook them properly.

The plate (serves 4)
Symmetry is nice, keeping legs and breasts separate. These morsels are worth more than their weight in gold, so serving only one leg/breast per plate offers a warranted tease/lesson. A toast point can be used to soak the delicious braising liquid from the legs.