Not just for the birds

Category: Recipes

  • Partridge Pot Pie with Herbed Biscuit Topping

    Partridge Pot Pie
    Partridge Pot Pie

    I found myself in the lucky situation of having a lot of birds to cook, and the not so lucky situation of having my first nasty head cold of the season. I craved something hearty, comforting, and good for me. Chicken soup never sounds good to me, so my wonderful wife suggested we make some pot pies out of the chukar, Huns, and pheasant cluttering up our counter. A veteran of the Internet recipe sites and a great cook, Leslie found a recipe, modified it a bit, and – voila! – it was fantastic and easy. The hardest part was cleaning the birds (not that I’m complaining). Enjoy!

    Partridge Pot Pie with Herbed Biscuit Topping

    Ingredients:

    • 1/2 cup butter, in all
    • 1 to 4 cups cooked wild game bird – chukar, Hun, grouse, or pheasant, cubed in bite-sized chunks (we used just one chukar breast for these four pies; one bird per pie is ideal)
    • 1 small onion, chopped
    • 3 celery ribs, chopped
    • 3 carrots, chopped
    • 2/3 cup frozen peas
    • 8 button mushrooms, sliced
    • 1 teaspoon dried parsley
    • 1/4 teaspoon dried thyme
    • 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
    • 2 cups chicken broth
    • 2/3 cup half-and-half cream
    • salt and ground black pepper to taste
    • 1 can of “jumbo-sized” refrigerated flaky biscuits
    • Dried thyme, for topping

    Makes four individual servings.

    Directions:

    1. Make sure your bird dog is nearby, preferably napping with his pet monkey
    2. Clean your birds, and make sure you have a good IPA to accompany this grisly chore
    3. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 C)
    4. Melt 1/4 C butter in skillet over high heat, and brown (sear) the cubed bird meat and put aside.
    5. Melt remaining 1/4 C butter in a skillet over medium-low heat, and cook the onion, celery, carrots, and mushrooms until the vegetables are tender, about 15 minutes, stirring occasionally. Stir in peas, parsley, thyme and flour, and cook, stirring constantly, until the flour coats the vegetables and begins to fry, about 5 minutes. Stir in chicken broth and half-and-half, and cook until the sauce is thick and bubbling. Season to taste with salt and black pepper, and mix in the bird meat.
    6. Cut biscuits in half, making two discs. Put one disc in the bottom of a baking dish.
    7. Transfer the meat, vegetables, and sauce into the baking dishes. Arrange top half of biscuits on top of the filling. Sprinkle with dried thyme.
    8. Bake in the preheated oven until the biscuits are golden brown and the pie filling is bubbling, 20 to 25 minutes. Let rest 10 minutes before serving.
    Brittany with stuffed monkey
    Angus napping with his monkey
    Pheasant, chukar, Hungarian partridge ready to clean
    Blessed with birds
    Cleaning game birds
    Clean your birds with a good craft beer

     

    Saute with mushrooms
    Saute with mushrooms
    Add the peas
    Add the peas
    Add the cream
    Add the cream
    Fill baking dishes
    Fill baking dishes
    Top with biscuit
    Top with biscuit
    Partridge Pot Pies
    Partridge Pot Pies
  • Wild Chukar Risotto with Peppered Bacon and Fresh Sage

    Wild Chukar Risotto with Peppered Bacon and Fresh Sage

    Chukar Risotto Ingredients
    Chukar Risotto Ingredients

    Now that most chukar seasons are over, one of the things we can do to bide the long months ahead before next season opens is to come up with some good dishes using the birds we have waiting for us in the freezer.

    I like making risotto but had never done it with birds before. It’s a fairly labor- and time-intensive dish but not too difficult in terms of culinary skill, and the end result is usually outstanding. So I came up with this recipe, which turned out to be very tasty, while I cleaned the last two fresh chukar I’d been aging last week. Enjoy!

    Ingredients

    • 1/4 C extra virgin olive oil
    • 4 slices (thick) peppered bacon, chopped
    • Medium yellow onion, chopped
    • 6 cloves garlic, chopped (not minced)
    • 6 fresh mushrooms, chopped
    • 1/4 C fresh sage leaves, chopped
    • Salt and pepper
    • 1 lb. chukar breast and leg meat, boned (two adult birds), chopped
    • 1/2 C cheap white wine
    • 2 C arborio rice (risotto)
    • 1.5 quarts chicken stock
    • 1/2 C fresh Parmesan cheese, grated finely

    In a large stock pot, heat the olive oil over high heat. Add the peppered bacon, onion and garlic. Saute until garlic starts turning golden. Add the mushrooms, half of the chopped sage, salt & pepper, and chukar meat. Stir thoroughly and cook for one minute. Add white wine and continue cooking over high heat for a couple more minutes, making sure the chukar meat is no longer pink.

    In a 2 quart stock pot heat the chicken stock on high until boiling, then reduce to and maintain it at a simmer. (You will add ladle-fulls of this boiling stock to the risotto.)

    The risotto pot
    Constant stirring is the key

    Reduce flame on large pot to medium high and add the arborio rice. Stir it in thoroughly, and then add one ladle-full of the simmering stock, stirring the risotto constantly. When all of the liquid has evaporated, add another ladle of stock, continuing the constant stirring. Repeat this process until the rice is just cooked enough. Depending on your ingredients, your pot and heat source, it should take about 30-40 minutes. If you run out of stock, have a reserve of boiling water ready to add, or use more stock, but make sure when you add it that it is boiling or you’ll mess up the rice.

    Chukar Risotto with Peppered Bacon and Fresh Sage
    Yum

    When done, spoon into shallow soup bowls and garnish with the remaining fresh sage and grated Parmesan.

  • Eating Road Kill

    At the risk of alienating half of my three readers, I have a confession to make: last night I ate my first road kill.

    It might or might not be what you’re thinking. Our neighborhood is lousy with California valley quail, which – in Idaho for obvious reasons – they refer to as valley quail. This winter we’ve been lucky enough to be entertained by coveys numbering in the several dozens. They sweep across our yard like a dusty gray wave and scurry through the beds picking up grit and seeds. Angus stays rapt at the big window in the front, taking it all in while wishing he were out there with them. Then a car will come up the street and the quail will demonstrate their instinct for panic and bust across the street in front of the looming vehicle, half of them flying and the other, probably younger half, running.

    Aging game birds
    Aging game birds

    One day I went out to get the mail and saw one of the younger quail get hit by a passing car. After colliding with the bumper it bounced to the gutter, quivered for a moment, and then lay still. I thought, “Why not?”

    Making sure none of my neighbors saw me, I picked it up and hanged it in the cold shed with the other birds I was aging. A few days later, I was pleased while cleaning the quail to see it was clean, and put it in the pot with the rest of the birds. While much smaller than the Huns and chukar I’m used to cooking, the meat was delicious. I’ll never look at road kill the same way again.

    Here’s the recipe (thanks to Dan Herrig for this, which I’ve modified slightly and renamed):

    Greek Game Bird Roadkill

    Ingredients:

    • 4 chukars cut in pieces or boned (any game bird will do, road-killed or not)
    • ¼ C olive oil
    • 1 C dry white wine
    • ½ C apple cider vinegar
    • ½ C brown sugar
    • 4 garlic cloves finely chopped
    • 4 scallions (or 8 green onions) finely chopped
    • 6 fresh basil leaves
    • 3 Tbsp finely chopped fresh parsley
    • 2 Tbsp cracked black pepper
    • ¾ C Kalamata olives halved
    • 1-1/2 C diced prunes

    Preheat oven to 350. Wash and dry game bird pieces.  Place them in the bottom of a clay cooker or Dutch oven. Add all ingredients except one cup of the prunes.  Stir, cover and place in the oven for about 1-½ hours. Check after an hour to make sure it’s not already done (cooking time will vary depending on how much meat you have in the pot).  About 15 minutes before completion, add the remaining cup of plums.  Stir and return to the oven.  Serve with brown rice and crusty bread!