Wild Bites #68: 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 Maple-glazed wild turkey meatballs... Here's what's trending on Hunter Angler Gardener Cook: - Curly dock is a weed all over the country, but did you know it's edible? It has a sour green flavor like sorrel, and it's everywhere, so eat up! Here's how to identify and and cook dock.
- It's never a bad time to make enchiladas. Here's my recipe for red enchiladas, which you can fill with any meat, shrimp, cheese, or mushrooms. Prefer green? OK, I have a green enchiladas recipe,
too.
- Remember it's not a Wild Bites without meatballs! This week it's a hat tip to everyone who hunted wild turkey this season: Maple-glazed turkey meatballs. No turkey? Use whatever you
got...
- It's time to make dishes with nopales, the paddles of the prickly pear cactus. They're delicious, like a tart green bean -- if you remove the slime. Here's how to do that.
- Nettles are still around in many places, and a classic nettle soup really hits the spot.
- A great spring salsa to make would be my avocado-tomatillo salsa, which pairs well with poultry, pork, fish and seafood. Sneak peak: It's in my new cookbook!
- If you still have some duck breasts around, my recipe for chicken fried duck is a winner!
Moving up the list: Oooh, my recipe for tangerine venison is trending! This is a fantastic Chinese stir-fry that isn't nearly as sweet as the kind you get at cheapy Chinese places. 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! Grilled duck breast is so, so good... It is the official start to grilling season this weekend, so I thought I'd give you some fun wild food ideas. These are my favorite hot-and-fast grilling recipes: - Grilled duck breast is unreal. But there are a few tricks to grilling it without starting a duck fat fire! They're in the link. You'll thank me later...
- A whole, scaled and gutted fish is a perfect thing to grill. But like the duck breast, there are some tips you'll want to follow to keep it from sticking. Here's the tutorial.
- You absolutely can't go wrong with venison kebabs! It's a recipe I've done many times over the years. Obviously, elk, antelope, moose, beef, bison, etc. all work.
- Got tuna? Grilled tuna
steaks Sicilian style are a show-stopper at parties. You can even grill in advance and serve it all as a sort of salad for potlucks.
- If you're going with red meat like steak or venison, you'll want to give my
red chimichurri a go. It's the "other chimichurri" in Argentina, and I like it better than the green one...
- If you're grilling poultry, like chicken, turkey or pheasant, give this classic
Alabama white sauce a try. It's crazy good, not overly spicy, and perfect for white meats.
I just got back from a fishing trip in Florida (see below), and so fish is on my mind these days... aw, who am I kidding? Fish and seafood is always on my mind! I wrote a whole cookbook of fish and seafood recipes, after all... Here are some great how-tos that will make you a better fish cook: - Here's how to split, or butterfly, a fish for cooking on the grill or pan-frying. This method keeps the fish flat so it cooks more
evenly.
- If you've never had a whole, fried fish, it's fantastic! Crispy skin, juicy meat, and the fins taste like potato chips -- no lie! Here's how to fry a whole fish.
- For those of you catching fluke, flounder or Pacific halibut, here's how to fillet a flat fish.
- Walleye wings are a Midwest classic, but you can do this with many species of fish. Don't waste those wings! On large fish, here's how to cook fish
collars.
- Finally, if you've always wanted that perfect seared fish with crispy skin, here's how to sear a piece of fish. And if you want to get a little cheffy,
and I know you do, here's how I make ultra crispy fish skin chips. They're addictive, so watch out!
4. Epic Florida Fishing Trip My first king mackerel in almost 30 years!!! I got a much-needed chance to fish saltwater last weekend, and boy did I need it. Saltwater runs in my veins -- I was
literally weaned on the ocean -- so even just getting out there calmed my soul. I wrote about it all over at To the Bone. It's a good ole' fishing story, if you're interested... But catching fish on the ocean is even more satisfying. My friend Joe from Great Days Outdoors and I booked a charter out of Panama City, Florida, and boy did we hook up! Bottom fishing is one of the greatest ways to revive the simple, childlike joy of fishing because it's basically fish bingo: You never know what is going to bite your hook. We caught maybe 10 different species that day, and each one helped fill my tank... so to speak. Stay tuned for recipes, and guess what? I am going to head out catfishing
soon, and have plans to fish throughout my book tour -- so there will be plenty of fishing content this summer. 5. The Book Tour Grind is About to Start It'll start here, in Minneapolis, on June 19... We are quite possibly only a week away from the release of Borderlands: Recipes and Stories from the Rio Grande to the Pacific, my new cookbook celebrating the cuisines of both sides of the US-Mexican border -- I got word that the book will be ready a little early! Woo hoo! That means everyone who pre-ordered will start getting their copies the first week of June. I get a quick moment to catch my breath, maybe catch a catfish or two, then it's on! We start the party at Fulton
Brewing in Minneapolis on June 19, then I'll dash up to Fargo on June 25 for a book dinner at the James Beard Award-nominated restaurant Luna, where my old friend Ryan Nitschke is plotting a cool fusion of Mexican and German food -- not crazy, when you consider the extensive influence of Germans in both Texas and Northern Mexico. Back to Minneapolis for another book dinner June 30 at Chilango. We just opened reservations for that dinner here, and it may sell out, so get yours soon! July takes me to Northern California, Washington DC, Maryland, Boston and New Hampshire. August is a work in progress, but I know I'll be in Wisconsin then, and probably Portland, Oregon and possibly the Seattle area. Oklahoma City, Kansas
City and Santa Fe will be after Labor Day -- which is when I plan to spend a lot of time in Texas, New Mexico, Arizona and Southern California. We also have a Chicago event brewing, too, and it's gonna be a good one! I am actively looking for places to host events all over the country. If you
think we can sell at least 50 cookbooks, hit me up in the comments! Hoping to see many of you out on the trail. Since this is my sixth tour (!), it'll feel like meeting old friends again -- and some of you are, in fact, old friends! Many others I've not yet met, but I can't wait to: Book tour is equal
parts old and new, exhilarating and exhausting. Until then, thank you for your support, and 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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