Love to fish and hunt? Once you take your bounty home, here's the cookbook you'll need to prepare it. Cherie Sicard offers a review.
The Fish & Game Cookbook
By Sylvia Bashline (ISBN 1-15857-011-X)
This book is a must for hunters, fishermen or anyone who enjoys the bounty of the earth. Award winning outdoor writer Sylvia Bashline has compiled over 200 classic recipes, many of which have been neglected by standard cookbooks. The Fish and Game cookbook is the most complete guide available for preparing elegant and healthy meals using meat you can catch or shoot yourself.
Readers will also find tips and recipes for clay pot and Dutch
oven cooking, making jerky and pemmican and cooking and baking
with berries, fruit, wild greens, mushrooms and wild nuts.
Bashline also offers menu planning and serving suggestions along
with wine pairing guidelines complimentary to fish and game
dinners.
Each recipe has been well tested in kitchens across North America by Sylvia and include her recipe notes. Chapter topics include: Pheasant, Quail, Woodcock, Ruffled Grouse, Mourning Dove, Wild Turkey, Game Farm Birds, Rabbit, Gray Squirrel, Ducks, Geese, Deer, other Big Game, Tout (Brook, Brown and Rainbow), Lake trout, Black bass, northern Pike, Walleye, Salmon, Shad, Panfish, Other Freshwater Species, Bluefish, Weakfish, Striped Bass, Flounder, Other Saltwater Species, Smoking, Clay Pot Cooking, Dutch Oven Cookery, Venison Sausage and Salami, Jerky and Pemmican, Turtle, Berries and Fruit, Wild Greens, Wild Mushrooms, Wild Nuts, and Dishes to Serve with Fish and Game.
Below are three sample recipes from this terrific book.
Hassenpfeffer (Rabbit)
Ingredients:
2 rabbits cut into serving pieces
3 T butter
1/2 tsp. Salt
1 med. Onion
4 whole cloves
12 whole black peppercorns
1 tsp. chopped parsley
1/2 tsp. Thyme
1 bay leaf
1/4 C lemon juice
1 C port
2 1/2 C beef stock or bouillion
Serves 5
Stud the peeled onion with the whole cloves. Make a small bouquet garni by tying the peppercorns, parsley, thyme and bay leaf in a small cheesecloth pouch. Preheat oven to 350 F.
Sprinkle rabbit pieces with salt and pepper and saute in the butter until brown on all sides. Place in a 3 quart casserole. Add salt and bouquet garni and studded onion followed by the lemon juice, port and stock or boullion. Cover and bake for 1 1/2 hours. Ten minutes before it's done, remove the cheesecloth bag. The pan juices can be thickened to make a gravy.
Braised Goose
Ingredients:
1 large goose
1/2 tsp. Sage
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 C dry white wine
5 C beef broth
salt pepper to taste
Serves 6-8
Rinse and dry goose inside and out. Rub the cavity with salt and pepper. Put the bird in a roasting pan and in the oven so the meat is about 4 inches from the broiler. Brown on all sides, turning frequently - total broiling time will be about 15 to 20 minutes.
Add sage, garlic, wine and stock or boullion to the pan. Bring the liquid to a simmer cover and place in a 350 F. oven for 2 1/2 hours. Turn the goose twice during cooking. Goose is done when the leg moves easily at the joint.
Dutch Oven Venison Chili
Ingredients:
1 lb. venison burger
1 T cooking oil
1 onion, chopped
1/2 green pepper, chopped
1/2 tsp. chili powder (more or less to taste)
salt and pepper
1 T sugar
3 C chopped tomatoes (or a 12 oz. can)
1/2 C sliced mushrooms (or a 4 oz. can)
1 can (1 lb.) kidney beans
Serves 4
Set the Dutch oven over hot coals and heat for 10 minutes. Add oil when the Dutch Oven is hot and saute the onion and green pepper. Add burger and brown. Add salt, pepper and chili powder to taste. Mix in sugar and tomatoes.
Cover the Dutch oven and regulate the heat so the mixture simmers. Cook slowly for 45
minutes. Add kidney beans and mushrooms, simmer another 15 minutes and serve.
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About the author: Cheri Sicard is the editor of Fabulous Foods, a site offering recipes, online cooking school, celebrity chefs, travel, holidays, and more!
