Fresh. Local. Sustainable. Hunting.

This is a great video and a great story by "Salt Fresh and Field," documenting the process whereby an acclaimed "fresh & local" chef in Canada kills and cooks his first deer. This is something i identify with, and like to call my own brand of "non-commercial organic" lifestyle when I go into EarthFare. And ultimately a perspective that I appreciate more and more alongside the thought of one day teaching my children how to nourish their own connection with nature and to provide for their own families.

Roasted Pheasant with Wild Rice

Put the first brace of South Dakota birds through the crucible also known as "Cooking With Steve."

The plan: Two birds, cleaned and stuffed with celery, onion, and carrots, wrapped in bacon and garnished with fresh-squeexed orange and rosemary.

Roast for 15 minutes at 500, remove bacon, and continue for 20-30 minutes or until juices run clear.

Remove from oven, split birds into equal halves (remove backbone if not already done) and serve over wild rice with a side of asparagus and a nice mellow cab.

Pretty good recipe - meat was tender and not dry or overdone. The gamey flavor of the pheasant was noticeable but still tasty, but the cab was a little much. Doc says: "it looks like chicken but tastes like pork - weird." I give it about a B- overall - it didn't come out quite as well as the quail from last winter.

Maybe next time I will call up the Undercurrent and see if they will cook it up for us, if we bring a large enough party along.

Wild Game Cooking

I am proud to introduce yet another facet to my man-blog: Dean's adventures in the world of Wild Game Cooking.

Tonight's meal was a product of our recent upland bird hunt at Riverbend, and boy was it delicious. Bacon-wrapped Fingerville Quail on Mushroom Rice Pilaf, with Soy-sauteed Sugar Snap Peas. Served Family style with a Fat Tire Ale. Mmmm..

We started out with a little food prep - only had to take three spent shot out of the birds. Once I got them all cleaned up, they looked pretty good!

The plan was to wrap the birds in bacon..

roast until cooked throughout and nicely browned..

\

and serve over a mushroom rice pilaf with sauteed sugar snap peas on the side, family style.

Damn, that turned out well!