I am a huge fan of the movie The Matrix, and there's a great little line in the second film when Neo fights several agents. They give him a bit of a tussle before he beats them soundly. As he does this, he muses: "Hmmm... upgrades." Well, I am happy to announce several upgrades to Hunter Angler Gardener Cook. The first is that I have entered into a partnership with Traeger Grills. Let me tell you why and what that means to you. I've used almost every sort of grill or smoker made. Lots of them are good in their own way, but there is no substitute for cooking over wood. Real wood. Wood smoke equals flavor, and beats charcoal and certainly gas. I used to use a little hibachi for wood cooking, but it was very limited in what it could
cook. One big advantage of the Traeger is that it uses wood pellets, and that you can simply press a button to get it going. I needed to be convinced, though. Traeger approached me a while back about this, and I said I couldn't in good conscience enter into any sort of agreement until I beat on one of their grills. So they sent me one and I put it through its
paces over several months. I slow smoked a venison ham. Grilled quail (which is what you see above). Barbecued turkey wings (stay tuned for that one). Smoked salmon. Barbecued any number of snipe and doves. Used it on a warm day. Used it on a cool one. Every time I got good results, and got that extra bit of smoke from the wood. Real wood. So I said yes to Traeger. So why should you care? First off, I expect to be able to offer you, HAGC newsletter
readers, special discounts off Traeger stuff very soon. But perhaps more importantly, the partnership with Traeger has allowed me to restart my podcast Hunt Gather Talk!!! Many of you know I stopped recording Hunt Gather Talk in August 2016 after 18 episodes. I loved doing it, but it took a ton of time, and there was no way for it to pay for itself. I am not rich by any means, so I needed to use that time to help pay the mortgage. I wanted any sponsor or sponsors of the podcast to be a good fit. Some of you will remember that when the great Joe Rogan podcast began, he took ads from a sex toy to help pay the bills. Um... not my thing. So I waited. And searched. Until finally I found a good partner. So expect Hunt Gather Talk to restart either late this month or early in March. It'll be roughly once a month -- book tour will keep me super busy -- but I'll do more as I have time for. Meanwhile, give a listen to the first 18
episodes. The other upgrade I am happy to announce is that newsletter readers will finally be getting a little excerpt email whenever I post new recipes or essays to Hunter Angler Gardener Cook. You may have noticed the acorn muffins email yesterday. If I had a dime for every time I'd been asked to do this upgrade, I could eat at the French Laundry. Inertia is a powerful thing, though, so I am just getting to this now. Hope you enjoy it -- so many people interact
with me through methods other than the main website I thought it was time for this.
Some of you know that I am working with the non-profit habitat groups Quail Forever and Pheasants Forever with my new book; part of the proceeds of every copy sold will go back to support habitat work by these
organizations.
You can choose from men's or women's shirts, or a unisex hoodie, choose your color, and choose your critter. All are drawn by my sister Elizabeth, and the shirts are designed by my friend Gregory Berger at Pomegranate Design in
Sacramento.
What critters? Part of the proceeds of every garment sold will go for habitat. But that's not
all.
Here's a challenge to you: Anyone who shows up to a book tour event wearing one of these shirts (or hoodies) will get $5 off the price of Pheasant, Quail, Cottontail! Loyalty has its privileges, right? Here we go! In less than two weeks I'll begin the longest book tour of my career. This will be the fourth, and will cover 39 states and five Canadian provinces from this month, all the way to Christmas. You can find confirmed events here. You might want to bookmark it, as I will add new events once they are confirmed. Note that I have a lot of events still in the works that you can see on this map. Pheasant, Quail, Cottontail, debuts at Pheasant Fest in Sioux Falls, South Dakota February 16-18. If you're not there the book won't be available nationwide until early March. All you Amazon
pre-orderers can expect your books to ship in the very last days of February. I'll start March with a stop in Bozeman, Montana,
on March 2, and then I'll spend a week or so in Missouri, with events in Columbia, Kansas City and Cape Girardeau. (By the way, the dinner in Cape Girardeau only has 10 seats left!!!) I expect to hit Oklahoma in late March, then back home for a bit. Those of you who live near me in Sacramento should mark on your calendars March 29, when I'll be cooking small game tacos at Nixtaco Taqueria, and April 6, which is our beer bash at the appropriately named Jackrabbit Brewing in West Sacramento. Details are still TBD, but the dates are firm. I'll be at the Backcountry Hunters and Anglers annual Rendezvous in Boise, Idaho in April. Each month after that will be more events. I expect to hit
the Pacific Northwest in May, the South in June and Canada and New England in July. I will fill you in more about events later in the year as we get closer, but the map is always the key.
Book tours are always a combination of exhilaration and exhaustion. Looking forward
to seeing old friends again, and to meeting new ones. Onward!
I've been busily working on my book tour, but I have had some time for hunting, mostly quail, rabbits and ducks. Winter mushrooming has also been good here, too. Let me share some of the cool-weather dishes I've been making lately: - Crab Curry. Unlike many parts of the country, crab season here in the West is winter. But you can make this any time of year. It's a curry from western India, in Goa, that's bright and tart and not overly spicy. Works well with shrimp or lobster, too.
- Crispy Fried Duck Tongues. Wha? Yeah, I went there. I do this every year at the end of duck season. Tongues from ducks and geese, braise until tender, dried a little bit, then deer fried and served with a zippy sauce. Best. Bar snack.
Ever.
- Acorn Grits. Winter is a good time to process all those acorns you gathered last fall. These are little pieces of acorn, leached of their bitter tannins. Great in a whole separate category of dishes from acorn flour.
- Smoked Mussels. Winter is also mussel season here, so I always try to put up a big batch of smoked mussels for the rest of the year. Great on their own or in pasta or rice.
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I am on the road a lot, often in wild places in search of fish, game or wild edible plants and mushrooms. If you want to keep up with what I am chasing at the moment -- and this will give you a good,
real-time indicator of what's in season where I happen to be -- follow me on Instagram. My handle there is @huntgathercook Instagram is
often the only social media account I update when I am out and about. I am of course also on Twitter as @hank_shaw and Facebook as/huntgathercook as well. Day in and day out, however, most of my online interaction is in a Facebook forum I run called Hunt Gather Cook. It's a closed site, so I have to let you in, but just let me know you are a newsletter subscriber when you answer the entry questions and yer in. Hope to see you there! |
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This is the ultimate wild game stew. Meat - any kind - lots of roasted red bell peppers, paprika, sweet and smoked and hot, rosemary, mushrooms, you name it. Chilindron is a Spanish dish you want to get to know. |
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Salmon, steelhead, trout, char -- whatever you use, this is my go-to chowder for these fish when it gets cold. This is a Pacific Northwest-style chowder, so it has more than just potatoes and onions in it. |
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Pheasant, Quail, Cottontail is the most comprehensive, lushly photographed and illustrated cookbook covering upland birds and small game ever produced. At 336 pages, with more than 100 color photos and 125 recipes for everything from pheasants, quail, rabbits and grouse to woodcock, hares, squirrels, partridges - you name
it! What's more, every purchase helps habitat: I am donating a portion of the proceeds of every book sold to Pheasants Forever and Quail Forever to restore, maintain and expand habitat for all upland birds. |
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