Wild Game Wednesday - Stewed Pheasant with Sage Dumpings

Here we are, Wild Game Wednesday's, presidential election edition.  I'm looking forward to us making this soon.  I reckon I need to get out pheasant hunting.  It's been a couple of years since I chased pheasants, but I love hunting them.

Stewed Pheasants With Sage Dumpings

Pheasants
2 large pheasants, cut up as for frying	1 1/2 tsp. salt
2 carrots, thinly sliced	1/2 tsp. pepper
2 medium onions, thinly sliced	1/2 tsp. mace
1 rib celery with leaves, chopped	2 tsp. mushroom catsup or Worchestershire sauce
1/2 tsp. savory	1/2 cup white wine
1/2 tsp. marjoram
Dumplings
2 cups flour	1 tsp. rubbed sage
3 tsp. baking powder	2 eggs
1 tsp. salt	2/3 cup milk

1. Place pheasant pieces and the remaining pheasant ingredients in a casserole and add just enough boiling water to cover. Bring to a boil, cover, and simmer for 1-1 1/2 hours.
2. When pheasant pieces are tender, remove them but keep warm in a pot with a little sauce. Make the dumplings while the broth continues to bubble. Thicken broth, if you have decided it needs thickening, with flour and cold water paste.
3. Stir the flour, baking powder, salt, then stir in the sage, being sure to distribute it evenly.
4. Beat the eggs with the milk and stir into the flour mixture. Drop spoonfuls of the dough into the boiling broth. Cover and cook gently for 15 minutes. Do not lift lid to peek.
5. Arrange pheasant pieces on a platter, surround with the dumplings, pour over some of the sauce, and serve remainder in a sauceboat.

Wild Game Wednesday - Fennel and Tarragon Stuffing

With Thanksgiving right around the corner, I thought I would share a stuffing recipe that we tried one year.  Despite the amount of fennel seed and tarragon, there is only light faintest aroma of licorice and no taste of licorice.  When we first tried this recipe at Thanksgiving, my mom and wife bought a box of Stove Top stuffing, just in case it didn't turn out.  To their surprise is was really good and started the trend of "never doubt the L.L. Bean Cookbook".  To stuff our Thanksgiving turkey, I quadrupled the recipe below to make 6 cups of stuffing.

This recipe comes from The L.L. Bean Game & Fish Cookbook by Angus Cameron and Judith Jones, printed in 1983.  We happened to find a copy at our local Barnes and Noble about 10 years ago and have used it extensively.

Fennel Seend and Tarragon Stuffing

A subtle stuffing with a faint licorice aroma that's particularly compatible with delicate birds like quail. Also good for fish.  Makes about 1 1/2 cups.

Ingredients
1/2 tsp fennel seed
2 Tb. chopped fresh tarragon or 1 tsp dried
6 Tb. butter, melted
about 1 1/2 cups roughly torn fresh bread crumbs
1 Tb. chopped parsley
salt and black pepper to taste

Mix all the ingredients together, tossing lightly.

Squirrel Pot Pie Recipe

The last post was about hunting, which I'm sure brings big game into most people's minds; visions of deer or elk hunting.  A lot of people started out hunting with small game, quickly moved on to big game, and maybe never went back to hunting small game.  Sure there are guys that love rabbit hunting or bird hunting, but I think they like working with their dogs more than the game. How many guys love to go squirrel hunting?  Probably a lot less. I think it comes from the idea that it takes so many squirrels to feed a family. Personally, I really enjoy squirrel hunting and absolutely love the meat.  The meat is sweet and nutty, given their diet, it's not a big surprise.

So here is a recipe that will feed a family of 4-6 with as little as 2 or 3 squirrels and have enough for leftovers.  We also make this with game birds.

Game Pot Pie

Ingredient List
Broth	Pie
2-3 squirrels (or 1 pheasant)	2 carrots, sliced
1/2 water, 1/2 white wine to cover	1 rib celery, sliced
1 small onion	4 Tb butter
1 rib of celery with leaves, sliced	3 Tb flour
8 peppercorns	3 cups broth
1 tsp salt	1/2 Tb Worcestershire sauce
1/2 tsp thyme	3 medium potatoes, cubed
1 bay leaf	1 medium onion diced
	cream
	pie crust or biscuit dough

1. Simmer the bird or squirrels in a kettle in wine-water to cover, along with onion, celery with leaves, peppercorns, salt, thyme, and bay leave until tender (1-2 hours). Remove the game to cool.
2. Cook the potatoes in the same stock until they are tender (you can put the potatoes in for the last 20 minutes of step 1 or you can cook them separately).
3. Retain 3 cups of the stock.
4. Bone and dice the squirrels or bird.
5. Prepare the dough for the crust
6. Saute onion, carrots, and celery in the butter until carrot is soft. Stir in the flour, cook a minute or so, and then off heat stir in the broth and sauce. Return to heat and simmer this gravy for 3-4 minutes, correcting for thickness with cream.
7. Put diced pheasant, potatoes, and other vegetables in the sauce in a casserole dish, cover with crust, and bake in a 500 degree over for about 15 minutes or until crust is brown.

I tweak this recipe every time I make this.  Sometimes putting in some sage, sometimes using a roll of croissants for the crust, maybe adding some peas.  Try it out and adjust it to make it your own.  This is a go to recipe for us and I look forward to it every time.

Enjoy!

Garlic Scapes Pesto

9-10 garlic scapes, knobby seed-pod removed
1/2 cup slivered almonds
3/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
Salt and Pepper to taste

Rinse scapes in cold water
Chop into 1/2 inch pieces
Pour scapes and slivered almonds into food processor
Blend 30 seconds, or until texture is smooth
Scrape sides of bowl.
With the processor running SLOWLY add olive oil and process until thoroughly mixed (about 15 seconds).
To chill place pesto in a glass bowl and cover tightly with plastic wrap


Yields about 2 cups

Soups ON!

As winter decided to come back here in Pa the other day I thought what a great day for soup! Now the last time I made a tomato base soup it really wasn't that good, it wasn't terrible but not good either. So I decided to listen to my husband and look in the LL Bean cookbook we have. (You can never go wrong with LL Bean.) So I found two recipes for a stew and adjusted it a little.

Ingredients:

1 lb of Elk Stew meat
 1/4 cup of flour
Salt and Pepper
2 cloves of garlic, minced
2 small onions, chopped
1/2 cup green peppers, chopped
1 can corn, drained
1 quart frozen green beans
1 bay leaf
1/4 tsp marjoram
1/4 tsp thyme
1 Tb. chopped  parsley
1/2 cup red wine
1 quart tomato Juice
1 pint of diced tomatoes
1/2 cup white beans
1/2 cup kidney beans
1 cup beef broth

Saute (in same pot your going to cook your soup in) the garlic and onions in Olive oil until soft then add the green peppers. Remove from heat and place in bowl

Roll the meat in the flour, salt, pepper. Brown meat in same pot add garlic, onions and green peppers. Add tomato juice, diced tomatoes, wine, beef broth, corn, green beans, beans and herbs. Cover and let simmer about 5 hours Checking liquid from time to time and stirring.

I must say that this soup was very yummy...in fact we ate it for three days! Cant wait to try again.

Superbowl Appetizer - Rabbit Nuggets

I wanted to make something that my wife and kid have never tasted, so during one hunting trip this winter, I saved the backstraps off of the 3 rabbits I got and put them in their own bag.  I had planned on making rabbit nuggets for the Superbowl for weeks.  I cut the strips into 1 inch nuggets, breaded them in pancake batter with pepper, rosemary and salt, then deep fried them in vegetable oil for approximately 5 minutes.  3 rabbits gave us 28 nuggets and both my son & wife thought they were amazing.  Needless to say, Debbie is totally on board with raising meat rabbits after two delicious rabbit meals.

Ingredients:
Rabbit backstraps
2 cups pancake batter
1 tsp pepper
1/2 tsp salt
2 tsp rosemary

1) Cut backstraps into 1 inch nuggets
2) Mix pancake batter
3) Add pepper, salt, and rosemary
4) Coat rabbit with pancake mixture
5) Fry in oil for 5 minutes or until dark golden brown