Ducks and Geese
This is a classic Chinese stir fry with easy-to-find ingredients that I make with wild duck or goose -- specifically snow geese, sea ducks or divers. Yes, you can eat them and in this recipe you'd never know they're not "good ducks."
Foraging
Paw paws, the Hoosier banana, custard apple or Indiana banana. America's largest native fruit, is indeed a little bit like a banana -- and it makes a great ice cream.
Recipe
Pairing venison with fruit is an age-old thing, and blueberry or huckleberries are a particularly good match. This recipe is an Icelandic version that is not sweet at all. The blueberries are balanced with mushrooms and wine to make a really classy yet easy dish.
Recipe
Belgian carbonnade flamande is one of that nation's great gifts to world cuisine. It's a dark, rich stew or braise that has a hint of sweet-sour-salty-spicy going on -- and it's fantastic with deer, elk or moose.
Venison
Stroganoff is a great example of what the Italians call brutti ma buoni, "ugly but good." It ain't the prettiest dish out there, but it's pure comfort food joy. I make mine with venison backstrap, and it's damn good.
Recipe
It's nut season all over the country, and one of my favorites is the butternut, a relative of the black walnut. These cookies are by far my favorite way to eat them -- and yes, they are wonderful with black walnuts, too.
Recipe
A Southern classic, buttermilk fried rabbit. Still my favorite way to cook cottontail rabbits, this recipe will of course work with store-bought bunnies, too.
Venison
Deer fat, venison tallow, whatever you call it, this is the stuff of controversy. A great many sources, including some trusted ones, say it's inedible. Others, including me, have long said it can be damn tasty. Here's some science behind both claims.
Recipe
Bangers and mash. Homely as it may be, I love this British classic -- especially when the sausages are homemade. I made these from venison, but you can use pork, beef, or really whatever. Here's how to make them.
Featured
There's a saying in fly fishing that catching a fish is the goal, but not the point of that particular obsession. Deer hunting in the West is the same thing. It's been a tough season so far, but it ain't over yet.
Foraging
It's fennel seed time here in NorCal. We have wild fennel everywhere here, and now is the time -- before the first real rains -- to gather the seeds, which have dried nicely.
Featured
Kelp pasta. Not pasta made from slivered kelp fronds, but real pasta with homemade kelp powder added. It makes a briny, emerald noodle that I served with the Pacific rockfish that swam among the kelp, along with summer vegetables. It's a culinary experiment worth repeating.
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