Hank Shaw's Blog, page 77

The Inches in Our Lives are All Around Us

It is Super Bowl Sunday. Every year before the Big Game, I watch the movie "Any Given Sunday," which happens to contain the greatest motivational speech I have ever heard. It's about the inches between success and failure, between being great and failing. Those inches matter in all things, not just football.

Fish Cakes with Wild Rice

This is my homage to the North Country, where wild rice and pike, walleye and perch are king. These fish cakes are made with pike from Manitoba, but you could use any white fish. Mixed with mustard, herbs and wild rice, they are easy to make and wonderful to eat.

Slow Roasted Duck

This is the OG method of roasting a duck, the Old School way that will give you crispy skin, but a fully cooked breast meat. I only roast ducks this way when they're a) really fat, and b) I feel like making a kick-ass sauce. Got a fat duck? Roast it this way.

Texas Hog Hunt and Charcuterie School

Come to Texas, hunt wild pigs, and learn butchery skills, sausage-making and how to cure meats with me! We're doing another cooking school this spring.

Snow in Winter

Winter is a dark time, short days, cold weather. So I thought I'd make a dish that revels in this, something dark and brooding... and delicious. I present to you, Snow in Winter. It's snow goose, black trumpet mushrooms, and so much more.

Pheasant Pozole Verde

Pozole is a classic Mexican soup, and like many Mexican dishes, it comes in red and green. I like both, but this is the green version I make with pheasant or wild pig, hominy, tomatillos, green chiles and avocado. Damn good use for pheasant legs, if I say so myself.

Albondigas, Mexican Venison Meatballs

If you've read this space for very long, you know how much I love meatballs. One reason is because pretty much every nation makes them. This is a Mexican classic, albondigas al chipotle. Yep. chipotle venison meatballs, baby!

Corned Venison

If you hunt deer, you need to know this recipe. It's a staple here at the house, making a fantastic, lean version of corned beef that's great for sandwiches, with cabbage or in hash. You will find yourself making it all the time...

Fat. Glorious, Precious Fat

Fat is not the enemy. We treat it as so because as humans, we so crave it that we've spent millennia making it more and more accessible to us. In so doing we've lost sight on just how precious and wondrous fat is in the wild world. Only with a diet hinging on game and fish does this come into focus

Braised Pheasant with Mushrooms

If you've never braised pheasant thighs, you're missing out. Unlike the drumsticks, which can be fiddly, the thighs on pheasants (and wild turkeys) are sublime when slow cooked. This recipe is based on a French one and uses lots of mushrooms.