Wild Bites #67: a 5-minute read that makes you smarter about wild food and tells you what's to come on the website,
YouTube, or To The Bone. ~ Hank I grew up with these Italian American style meatballs. Here's what's trending on Hunter Angler Gardener Cook: - Guess I'm not the only one making sausage: My tutorial on how to make sausage at home is trending right now! A good recipe to start with is Polish kielbasa.
- Salmon season is almost here, and people are making my Japanese salmon rice, a light, flavorful one-pot dish. Works great with trout, too.
- Remember it's not a Wild Bites without
meatballs! This week here are some classic, Italian American-style venison meatballs -- you know, the big ones you eat with spaghetti. You can use this recipe with any meat.
- Morel mushrooms are popping (see
below), and if you have some, make this morel sauce and serve it with steak, venison, or really whatever makes you happy.
- Deviled crab is one of my favorite appetizers, Give it a go if you get crabs...
- Wild mustards are all over right now, as are wild radishes. Both can be used to make pickled mustard greens, which are amazing, long-keeping, and versatile. Store-bought mustard greens work, too.
- Love seeing my rendition of Cajun catfish courtboullion doing well! This works with any fillets, from walleye to snapper, seabass to rockfish.
Moving up the list: Nice to see some chile heads out there. My recipe for salsa de chile arbol is trending. It's a hot one, so beware... Love these or any of my recipes? Please rate them while you're there so people searching for recipes know they're worth clicking on! Smoked BBQ turkey wings are my favorite wild turkey recipe. Turkey seasons are still going in many places, so here's the second installment of my favorite wild turkey recipes here on Wild Bites. Last time it was just breast recipes. This week it's recipes for the rest of the bird. You can find all my turkey recipes here. - Let's start with turkey carnitas, which works best with thighs, legs and wings. Slow and low, these parts get tender, so you can shred them. Excellent in tacos or a burrito.
- I have a couple turkey stew recipes, one that's a little like a Southern take on French cassoulet, the other has a Southwestern flair. Both are great!
- I also have a great recipe for a Guatemalan turkey soup that is very traditional -- don't be scared by the red color: It's from annatto, not chiles.
- Don't toss the wings!
Braised turkey wings are phenomenal, as are smoked turkey
wings, which, honestly? Might be my favorite wild turkey recipe. Not a joke.
- Slow barbecued wild turkey thighs are fantastic, too. Just the thighs here, not
the drumsticks.
- Finally, make wild turkey broth with the carcass. You can freeze or pressure can it for later. You'll thank me later.
Morels are here in Minnesota, and the season is coming on hot and fast! If I get a lot of these mushrooms, I dehydrate them around 100F until brittle; they'll keep for years this way. But the Midwest is not like California, where you can easily pick 20 pounds a day in a good burn. So enjoy your morels fresh if you live here. Here's a primer on how to hunt morels in the West, where they are just starting, too. And below are some of my go-to morel recipes: - I call this a mushroom spinach frittata, which it can be, but to me it's really a morel and nettles or lambsquarters frittata. It's a
fantastic spring potluck dish because it's wonderful served at room temperature.
- Speaking of potlucks, can't go wrong with a mushroom casserole, ope! I mean hotdish... And while we're speaking Minnesotan,
you will love my recipe for wild rice with mushrooms, which is perfect for morels.
- Another Midwestern classic is good ole' fried morels. Just make sure you fry them really well because undercooked morels can make you sick.
- Morels with regular rice is a classic, too. Here's a recipe for Spanish rice with mushrooms that's a bit like a paella, and here's a Chinese mushroom fried rice.
- Finally, if you want a date night or weekend project, morel mushroom tortellini is swanky, beautiful and damn impressive.
4. Foraging and Garden Update A young desert parsley plant grows in my garden. I am all about the green these days. Spring has sprung here, and It's pretty much non-stop foraging and gardening
here. I even skipped turkey season because I am enjoying the gathering side of my life so much. My neighbor called my edible yard a "museum" the other day, but maybe "botanical garden" is a better fit? I've planted so many edible, native and useful plants that Nature has noticed: A lone jake wild turkey wandered through our urban neighborhood, stopping only in my yard. And yes, I thought about
rushing out the door to grab him, but "tackling," alas, is not a legal method of take here in Minnesota... My fellow foraging friends have continued to be a source of joy
for me, and it's been challenging and wonderful to learn all these new plants. I was, and in a way still am, one of the more knowledgable people around when it comes to California and Western edible plants, but here I am only decent. I like this. It has helped me grow. I wrote about this over at To the Bone, which is where I have shifted much of my energies lately. Why? The algorithms on Facebook, Pinterest, Google and even Instagram have all throttled independent creators like me. Substack works differently. You subscribe -- free, or, if you can support my work, paid -- and so everyone who sees my stuff there actually wants to.
If even half you who read Wild Bites went over to Substack to subscribe, To the Bone would become one of the biggest Substacks out there. There are lots of benefits special to
paid subscribers, such as exclusive recipes like this one that features All the Spring Things. If you're just thinking about subscribing, free or paid, pop over there and take a look. Thanks in
advance! 5. Book News, Fishing Trip! A big ole' black drum I caught in Florida back in 2019. Everyone has been telling me that the hard part is over now that the book is done. But everyone is wrong. The true hard part of publishing a book is getting people to know about it, and to buy it. Pre-orders have been good, but they represent just a small fraction of the thousands of you reading this newsletter. I'd love to get an idea of what I can do better. The hesitation could be all sorts of reasons: The general economic uncertainty of these times we live in. Maybe you aren't interested in the cuisines of Mexico, Texas, or the Southwest? Perhaps you're waiting for the book to actually drop, so you can get it faster. Maybe you think there's not enough fish, game, and edible wild plants in it? I can assure you that 80 percent of the
recipes in Borderlands work with wild foods. One reason I am hearing often is that some of you simply prefer to buy through Amazon, and that's OK. You can pre-order a copy on Amazon here. If you are hesitating or a "hard no," can you do me a favor? Can you drop me a note in the comments form below? I am basically flying solo on this book launch, and knowing your pain points
really helps. Because if even half of you reading this email ordered a copy, this would be one of the biggest cookbooks of my career. I can't wait to hear from you, so I can do a better job of "selling" the book not only to you, but to all those folks who've never even heard of Hunter Angler Gardener Cook. In related news, the book tour is shaping up! It all starts at Fulton Brewing in Minneapolis on June 19. Head over to my Book Tour Page to get the details. I now have confirmed events in: Minneapolis, Sacramento, Sonoma, San Francisco, Washington DC, southern
Maryland, Boston, Portsmouth, NH, and Santa Fe. I'm working on firming up dates in Wisconsin, Chicago and possibly Michigan and Indiana this August. I also have a Portland stop set, we just need to work out timing. After Labor Day, look
for me in Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona and Southern California. If you think you can set up an event where I can sell 50 or more books, send me a message and let's see if we can make it happen! Finally, I'm taking one last fun trip before the tour starts, to the Gulf for a few days of fishing with
my friend Joe Baya of Great Days Outdoors. It's been a couple years since I've fished there, so I'm really looking forward to it, I'll definitely give you a full report when I get back. Until then, thank you for reading this. Forward it to someone who might like it, and make sure you do something fun
outside or in the kitchen -- preferably both! ~ Hank Comments?Let us know what you think about Wild Bites by using our anonymous comment form - we love to hear from you, and we read every single comment. If you have a question, fire away and be sure to share your email address so we can respond. |
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