Yes, while I've been sitting in my office shuffling papers, Ironman has been traversing Idaho's wild hillsides with a rifle in one hand and eyes peeled for game birds.
Last week, he managed to bag not one, not two, but four sage grouse. These large-chicken-sized birds live on sagebrush leaves and insects, and Ironman's fellow hunters warned him that they make lousy eating. Not one to waste a kill, Ironman decided to try it anyway.
After putting the grouse meat through two, long brine soaks (he changd the saltwater out halfway through), Ironman dusted the meat with seasoned flour and panfried it in butter with plenty of garlic and capers. It was incredible! Not gamey at all, the grouse featured beautifully in a meal that also included herb-sauteed vegetables, spinach salad, and an appetizer of fresh, grilled trout.
Yes, we were pretty happy with ourselves. Can you tell?
A few days later, he brought in a chukar. Native to Eurasia and first introduced to North America in the late 1800's, these wily little gamebirds yield small but tasty breasts. Here's one:
We fried him up in butter -- the chukar, not Ironman! -- along with fresh sage leaves (culinary sage, that is, not sagebrush), which turn delightfully crisp when removed from the pan. He was delicious.
1 comment:
Do yall read Hunter Angler Gardener Cook? It's a fantastic blog, even more so if you hunt. I will hunt one day, but not yet, so it's just dreaming for me right now.
You make the primal diet look very tasty, Tamara!
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