Salmon and Trout
Ya gotta love ice fishing in California. First of all that it exists, second that you can fish through 2 feet of ice wearing a T-shirt, third that you can catch gorgeous rainbow trout. And when you do, you should treat them simply - with brown butter, parsley and lemon.
Wild Game
Quite possibly the best thing to make with wild turkey drumsticks and wings, which can be uber tough and stringy. Braise them slowly until the meat falls off the bone, then pull the meat, crisp it and serve it in tacos or burritos.
Fish
Butterflying, also known as splitting or kiting a fish, is a basic skill you will want to know, especially when dealing with smaller fish. It keeps the fish whole but largely debones it. The technique is ideal for either quick pan frying or for stuffing the fish, in this case a trout.
Wild Game
When you make an Indian rabbit curry, you kinda just gotta call it "Hare Krishna," especially if you use actual hare, as I did. This is, more or less, a south Indian curry.
Venison
There is a cook's maxim that goes something like, "if it grows together it goes together." Well, this venison stew puts that into practice. Almost everything in this stew can be found in commercial deer "food plot" seed mixes. Shoot the deer, and serve it with the field you shot it in.
Recipe
This dish, inspired by Swedish chef Magnus Nilsson of Faviken, is nothing short of a revelation in its simplicity and in the technique of cooking the partridges. If you are an upland bird hunter, or like to eat Cornish hens or quail, you must read this.
Featured
Wild onions, ramps especially, make a great pesto. This is my version, which has a little oregano in it as well as almonds and pecorino cheese.
Foraging
On of my all-time favorite vegetables is broccoli rabe, also known as rapini or broccoli raab. Not actually a broccoli, it's actually the unopened flower buds of a kind of mustard. And guess what? Wild mustard works every bit as well as garden variety.
Recipe
Few sausages are as iconic as Polish kielbasa. There are as many variations as there are cooks -- even an official government-approved recipe, which I used as my inspiration. This one is pure smoky awesomeness.
Italian
This is about as classic Italian as it gets... except I'm using bear shanks instead of veal. Osso buco is one of the best uses of any large shank, be it elk, moose, a big deer or pig, and yes, black bear. Call it "orso buco."
Salmon and Trout
Chowder for me has always meant my mum's clam chowder -- to make it properly, you absolutely must follow an ironclad set of rules with an ironclad set of ingredients. But mum does not make salmon chowder. So when I began making it, I suddenly felt free to play. And play I did.
Greek
It's not often I remake a five-year-old recipe and change nothing. This Greek meatball recipe -- venison (or lamb), bulgur wheat, oregano and a Greek tomato sauce -- is one such dish. Nice to know some dishes hold up well over time.
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