16ga.com ~ View topic - Holiday Dishes

Joined: 04 Aug 2007 Posts: 54 Location: Minnesota

As I am preparing for tomorrows feast, I started wondering who else might be incorporating in some wild game sides with their traditional Thanksgiving meal?

I just finished making a smoked pheasant cracker spread, or as my dad calls it... pheasant balls.

soak 4 breasts of pheasants for 12 hours in brine
Brine:
-1 cup Apple Vinegar
-½ cup water
-1/3 cup canning salt
-1 tbl spoon onion power
-1 tbl spoon garlic power
smoke for 2.5-3hours with apple chips

4 smoked pheasant breasts
½ onion
1 garlic clove
1 package of cream cheese
chopped nuts (almonds)

Find grandma’s hand crank grinder and grind the pheasant/garlic/onion.
In a bowl, take a mixer and mix the ground pheasant/garlic/onion together with the cream cheese until all ingredients are blended together and then roll into balls and rolls the balls in the chopped nuts.
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So what are others doing, please share your recipes and ideas

Joined: 03 Jul 2005 Posts: 370 Location: Amarillo, Texas

If you are fan of chicken and dumplings take your favorite recipe, delete the chicken and substitue quail. The quail and dumpling dish is my family's Christmas morning tradition.

I am a fan of both chicken and dumpling and quail and dumplings. May be a Southern thing though. In the 60s my Dad would take me back to Arkansas to see his parents (I was a kid). We would go squirrel hunting and Grandma would make squirrel and dumplings, mmmm-mmmm good as Andy Griffith used to say.

Best,

Mike

Member Joined: 15 Jul 2007 Posts: 230 Location: SW Idaho

Mediterranean Pheasant: (you can also used any type of bird. I use it with quail and chukar mixed for something different!)

This is a Basque variation of Coq du Vin that my Grandfather used to make for us in the sheepcamp while we worked using white wine instead of red as white wine was for cooking and red for drinking! If he didn't have game birds (and we usually did during season) he would use chicken - an old rooster or hen.

Piece pheasant. Salt and pepper, cover lightly in flour and lightly brown in olive oil in large "dutch oven" or other pot that can be covered. Remove from heat and leave pheasant in pot with drippings

Chop 1 shallot, 1 yellow onion, 4 mashed (take flat of knife and hit unpeel clove) cloves garlic, bunch of green onions, peel and slice 4 carrots. Fry in olive oil until onions start to turn clear.

Pour onions, carrots and juices over pheasant in pot. Sprinkle over top 1 heaping tablespoon each of fresh chopped thyme, and rosemary; 1/2 tablespoon fresh oregano. Sprinkle 2 heaping tablespoons chopped Italian parsley over top.

Scatter 3/4 cup black olives (he used his homemade, now kalamata olives work best) over top. Pour in 1 bottle white wine (sauterne, a cooking wine is best, but any cheap white wine or even champagne that has gone flat will work).

Cover and bake at 350 degrees for 2 hours. Uncover and continue cooking until sauce is reduced to almost nothing.

Serve! Be careful serving as meat falls off of bone.

As a side dish: quarter unpeeled red potatoes. cover liberally in olive oil. Spread on cooking sheet, shake over top liberally with coarse salt and with chopped fresh rosemary. Roast in hot (425 degrees) oven until brown.

Salud!

I just saw this thread, or I would have responded sooner. On Thanksgiving, I smoked a duck. Everyone there had either never had duck, or disliked it because of bad preparation.

We had turkey and duck, and all the duck was eaten.

I got this recipe from the book "Smoke and Spice."

I steam the bird, and marinade for at least 2 hours, maybe 4 hours.

Steam bird for 30 minutes to get off excess fat.

Marinade for 2-4 hours:

1/2 cup soy sauce
1/2 cup dry sherry
1/2 cup strong brewed tea
2 tablespoons honey
2 tablespoons peanut oil
1 teaspoon fresh ground black pepper
1/2 teaspoon ground anise
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
1-2 minced garlic cloves

Place in smoker at 200-220 degrees. Place breast up. I cook it until 170 degrees in the breast.

I use a water smoker so I trim the skin off after cooking, but a dry smoker might make the skin crisp.

If you need to mop your bird, just boil the marinade over hight heat until reduced by 1/3.

Member Joined: 15 Jul 2007 Posts: 230 Location: SW Idaho

I just made the Pheasant balls (I made it into a spread and didn't make the balls)

It is nothing short of fantastic.

Great recipe, thanks!