Hank Shaw's Blog, page 77

This is the OG method of roasting a duck, the Old School way that will give you crispy skin, but a fully cooked breast meat. I only roast ducks this way when they're a) really fat, and b) I feel like making a kick-ass sauce. Got a fat duck? Roast it this way.

Come to Texas, hunt wild pigs, and learn butchery skills, sausage-making and how to cure meats with me! We're doing another cooking school this spring.

Winter is a dark time, short days, cold weather. So I thought I'd make a dish that revels in this, something dark and brooding... and delicious. I present to you, Snow in Winter. It's snow goose, black trumpet mushrooms, and so much more.

Pozole is a classic Mexican soup, and like many Mexican dishes, it comes in red and green. I like both, but this is the green version I make with pheasant or wild pig, hominy, tomatillos, green chiles and avocado. Damn good use for pheasant legs, if I say so myself.

If you've read this space for very long, you know how much I love meatballs. One reason is because pretty much every nation makes them. This is a Mexican classic, albondigas al chipotle. Yep. chipotle venison meatballs, baby!

If you hunt deer, you need to know this recipe. It's a staple here at the house, making a fantastic, lean version of corned beef that's great for sandwiches, with cabbage or in hash. You will find yourself making it all the time...

Fat is not the enemy. We treat it as so because as humans, we so crave it that we've spent millennia making it more and more accessible to us. In so doing we've lost sight on just how precious and wondrous fat is in the wild world. Only with a diet hinging on game and fish does this come into focus

If you've never braised pheasant thighs, you're missing out. Unlike the drumsticks, which can be fiddly, the thighs on pheasants (and wild turkeys) are sublime when slow cooked. This recipe is based on a French one and uses lots of mushrooms.

Merguez sausages are the signature link of North Africa, which, as you probably know, is a Muslim region -- so, no pork. That makes them a perfect fit for an all-venison sausage! This is a pretty traditional merguez recipe, full of flavor and spicy, but not overly hot.

The professional mushroom pickers call this time of year Winter Pick. It's a time of abundance here in Northern California, a time when you can conceivably come home with 20 different kinds of edible mushrooms. It's my favorite time of year.