Category: Duck + Game

I think it probably went into the freezer maybe a day after it died, said Carly when she gave me some venison meat her father and brother hunted in Pennsylvania. I’m never going to pass on fresh meat so I was quite glad to take some from Carly’s hands when she came back from visiting her parents.

Ever since I did spring cleaning using the KonMari method of Marie Kondo, I’ve been trying to use up all the food I found in my pantry before I buy anything new. I found this bag of manti, or mini Turkish dumplings, and was told by my Turkish friend, Elle, that I cook them like tortellini and serve with a garlic yogurt sauce with butter and sumac. I don’t have any of those ingredients so I decided to use them with this venison stew in lieu of egg noodles or pasta. I also had leftover kale, parsley, and 1 lonely scallion in the fridge so I used them all up too. The kale made the stew a bit bitter here so I tried to repair it with some lime juice–also leftover–before serving.

The venison meat is definitely not fatty; I can taste the gaminess and can tell how muscular the animal was since it’s been running around the woods. I thought a stout beer was perfect here, sort of like a carbonnade, or a traditional Belgian stew made with beef. (The Storm King Imperial stout beer was also leftover from a beer tasting, but you can use Guinness if that’s all you can get.) It was a hearty supper considering the temperature dropped back down to 20 over the weekend.

Ingredients:
venison stew meat, cut into 2-inch cubes
salt, pepper
a knob of butter
4 slices bacon, chopped
1 medium yellow onion, chopped
1 tbsp brown sugar
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 bunch of kale, center ribs and stems removed, torn into smaller pieces
1 bottle stout beer
chicken stock
3 bay leaves
3 sprigs fresh thyme
juice from 1 lime
a handful of parsley, roughly chopped
1 scallion, chopped

1. Dry the venison with paper towels, then salt and pepper generously. Heat a large Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Add the butter and bacon and cook until crispy. Remove the bacon with a slotted spoon and chop, reserving for later. Add the meat to the pot, in batches to avoid overcrowding, and raise the heat to high. Sear the meat well on all sides, then remove to a plate.
2. Add the onions and brown sugar to the pot and reduce the heat to medium-low. Cook, stirring occasionally, for about 20 minutes, or until the onions are soft and caramelized. Sauté in the garlic and the kale and cook until the leaves are wilted.
3. Raise the heat to medium-high. Pour in the beer and scrape the bottom of the pot with a wooden spoon to loosen any brown bits. Bring to a boil, then add the crispy bacon and the venison along with its juices. Add enough chicken stock to cover the meat, then the bay leaves and thyme. Reduce the heat, cover, and simmer until the meat is very tender, about 2 hours.
4. Uncover the pot and raise the heat to medium to reduce the liquid to a sauce-like consistency. Before serving, adjust the taste by adding salt and pepper and lime juice. Serve with pasta, rice, or noodles, and sprinkle with parsley and scallions.

Recommendations:
Amazon sells venison stew meat, you know, if you don’t have good friends who come from hunting families. The Marie Kondo book, The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing will change your life.

Seventeen miles later, I had everything I needed to replicate this recipe from Gabrielle Hamilton of Prune, one of my favorite restaurants here in New York City: one whole rabbit from Ottomanelli and a pint of cornichons from Fairway. I had woken up very late that Saturday, so after I decided that rabbit was going to be the night’s dinner, I biked to the butcher in the upper east side after a loop around Central Park to make up for my non-day. Ottomanelli’s unfortunately did not have cornichons, so I had to nervously cross town and go to Fairway where I knew a tub of cornichons is always available. I almost got doored on York Avenue and a turning cab cut me off on First that by the time I reached the west side, I was just glad to be alive. The adventure continued as my bike bag flew off its clipping on 125th Street and a guy in a Zip car had to tell me about it. Biking back to where my bag landed, a man helped me put it back on my bike rack. It was heavy and he just had to ask, What’s in there? I laughed and said, A rabbit.

Rabbit legs pre-ordered from a reputable butcher works best for this recipe, but if you can only get a whole rabbit, make sure it’s already been cleaned. The skin under the belly was a little gnarly even for me, so I sliced it off and cleaned off the innards that were kept intact. Chopping the whole rabbit into large pieces was easy with my new Santoku knife sent to me by Wusthof. Not only was it very sharp and made slicing through the rabbit’s tiny bones easy, its new blue handle is lighter yet still hefty for fast cutting. A row of beveled ovals on the edge of the blade prevented the meat from adhering to it and minimized the drag that most cleavers have; butterflying the front part of the body was so easy and so was separating the hind legs from the rest.

Ingredients:
1 whole rabbit, cleaned, thawed if previously frozen, chopped in large pieces
salt
pepper
olive oil
4 large shallots, thinly sliced
1 pint of cornichons including brining juice
1/4 cup white vinegar
3 cups chicken stock, or as needed
4 tablespoons butter, cut into pieces
a handful of parsley, finely chopped

1. Pat the rabbit pieces dry and season with salt and pepper. Heat some oil in a large Dutch oven over high heat. Brown the rabbit pieces on both sides. Transfer to a plate.
2. Reduce the heat to medium-low and add the shallots to the pot. Sauté until tender, but not browned, while gently scraping off the browned bits from the bottom of the pot.
3. In the meantime, heat oven to 350º. When onions are tender, add the cornichons, brine and vinegar and let simmer. Return the rabbit with the accumulated juices. Add enough chicken stock so that it’s within 1/2-inch of covering the meat. Bring to a boil and then turn off the heat.
4. Cover the pot and braise in the oven until the rabbit meat is tender and the leg joints bend easily, about 30 minutes. Transfer legs to a plate and keep warm. Skim cornichons and shallots from the sauce and set aside.
5. Return pot to medium-high heat, and boil until sauce is reduced by about half. Whisk in butter a piece at a time and adjust salt and pepper to taste. Return rabbit, cornichons and shallots to the pan until just reheated. Stir in parsley.

Related post/s:
Buy Gabrielle Hamilton’s book

The duck legs were $10 cheaper in Chinatown than at Whole Foods, but Chinatown doesn’t even sell rhubarb and five long stalks were on sale for $2 at Whole Foods. My wish is to just have one store to go to when I need to buy ingredients for cooking; a place with fresh and hard-to-find, yet affordable, produce. Until then, I’ll have to make long and separate trips all over the city.

This recipe from last week’s New York Times caught my eye because I haven’t cooked with duck in a long time and I’ve really only baked with rhubarb. Not to mention my recent kick with Indian flavors, I just wanted something I can reheat for next week’s lunches. I revised the recipe a little bit to avoid using a food processor for the spices–I was just too lazy to wash another gadget. The end result was duck meat that easily fell off the bone in thick sauce that was a balance of tart and sweet: perfect over warm basmati rice and some sautéed bok choy.

Ingredients:
4 duck legs
5 stalks rhubarb, chopped
1 small can coconut milk
1 tbsp brown sugar
1 small knob of ginger, peeled, sliced
1 red onion, chopped
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 tbsp garam masala
1 tbsp red wine vinegar
1 tsp hot paprika
1/2 tsp turmeric
oil, salt, pepper

1. Toss salt with duck legs before cooking. Heat oil in a large Dutch oven over high heat. Brown duck legs, about 7 minutes per side. Turn and brown other side. Transfer to a bowl.
2. While duck browns, mash half of the onion with the ginger and garlic using a mortar and pestle. Transfer to a bowl and combine with all the spices. Season with salt.
3. When duck is done, spoon out all but about 2 tbsps of fat from skillet. Add remaining onions and a large pinch of salt. Sauté until soft, 5 minutes. Add seasoned ginger-garlic paste and cook until most of the liquid evaporates, about 2 minutes.
4. Add coconut milk and 2 cups water, and bring to a simmer. Add rhubarb, brown sugar and duck legs. Bring to a boil. Cover and turn heat to low, and simmer gently for 1 hour, turning duck pieces halfway through. Uncover pan, turn duck again, and let simmer uncovered for 10 minutes.

Related post/s:
Rhubarb in one of my favorite desserts

How to get rid of one of the most awful wines I’ve received as a gift? Okay, to be fair, it was from one of those exchange gift things last Christmas when no one really knew who’s getting which. But two bottles of wine seemed like a good deal to me, so I picked them up and never let go until everyone had claimed one of their own. Unfortunately, it was like drinking liquid jam. One sip later, I knew the rest was going to be used for cooking.

At Fairway, I found a large turkey leg for $3.50. I never really deal with turkey unless it’s November, but I couldn’t really spend any more than what the bad wine was worth. I picked up one package and had the butcher chop it in three smaller pieces. I threw in a pound of green beans, also on sale for $1.99, and the remaining bacon from the fridge. Talk about cooking for less, but good. Top this with a fried egg and you’re good to go.

Ingredients:
1 turkey leg, chopped in thirds
1 pound green beans, stringed, chopped in half
2 cups of wine
2 slices of bacon, chopped
3 cloves of garlic, minced
1 red onion, chopped
2 tbsps hot paprika
half a bunch of parsley, roughly chopped
oil, salt, pepper

1. In a large Dutch oven, cook bacon to render some fat. Remove browned bacon and set aside. Using the rendered fat, brown turkey legs, about 5 minutes each side. Remove from pot and set aside.
2. In the same pot, add some extra oil. Sauté garlic until light brown and onions until soft. Add green beans with paprika and toss to cook for about 5 minutes. Add back bacon and turkey leg pieces. Season with salt and pepper. Add wine and simmer, uncovered, for 5 minutes.
3. Add 2 cups of water to the pot and continue to simmer, covered, for 45 minutes. Toss in parsley, mix to combine well, and turn off the heat and serve.

Related post/s:
I cook more duck than turkey
I really do