My Middle Eastern Take On The Midwest

Getting ready!

Eating venison is one of the best, but not the only, reasons to spend countless hours in a blind or up in a tree stand like an overgrown and overweight squirrels that is afraid of heights in all kind of weathers, mostly bad.

After getting my deer on Opening Day for the first time in years, and for only the second time ever, I took the carcass of my deer to be processed by a butcher - in this case Gabe's in Maple City.

One of the key "side effects" of having your deer processed is that we end up with quite a bit of venison "burger", neatly packed in one pound bags, but the problem is that there are too many ways to perfectly ruin good venison in the ground former.

So in order to both put my venison "burger" to good use and pursue a culinary prowess for some years now I've been doing VENISON KAFTA.

Kafta is a type of meatloaf that is very popular throughout Northern Africa, the Middle East, Central Asia and India that is generally pressed around a wooden skewer so it is more easily managed on a grill.

As any regional and popular dish recipes vary according to country, city, restaurant or household, so the one I will present below is mine, or more precisely my middle eastern take on the greatest of the midwestern foods, whitetail deer venison.

Ingredients:

• 2 lbs ground venison
• 1 large sweet yellow onion, finally chopped
• 5 cloves of garlic, finally chopped
• A large handful of fresh parsley, chopped
• Fresh dill, chopped - as much as you like
• 1 large cup of shelled salted pistachios, chopped
• 2 table spoons of kosher salt

Preparation:

• Mix all ingredients in a bow using your hands (please, wash them)
• Wrap mixture around wooden skewers (I like my kafta "fat", so it doesn't dry while cooking)
• Grill on a real grill using lump charcoal so you get all the flavor from the smoke that will caress the meat
• Savor it with family and friends

This delicious dish can be either be served as an appetizer or as a main course and I have not yet met anyone that did not like it. Even my wife that does not like venison that much loves venison kafta.

Eating Wild in a Very Civilized Place

Game Mixed Grill

On Sunday, February 1st, my wife and I walked out of Heathrow's baggage claim past customs to be greated by our dear friends Lidia and Daniel Freitas. We were almost neighbours when we lived in the Netherlands, and we had not seem each other for several years, since their visit to our home, at the time in Mattawan, Michigan.

After leaving the airport we drove to Windsor to meet their daughter Jessica, then stopped by their home at Maidenhead to drop our luggage, and very soon we were on our way to a proper pub lunch.

The Chef & Brewer has the looks of a real pub, including the low ceiling with plenty of old dark wooden beams supporting it, and multiple beer taps behind the counter.

Each one selected what I would call a "normal" dish of beef, pork, chicken or turkey, but not me. We happened to stumble in the first day of a month long "Game Festival", and hunter that I am, I just could not pass the opportunity to taste a bit of the British wilderness, even if it is rather civilized by certain standards (at another opportunity we may discuss wildlife and wilderness conservation versus land management and animal husbandry, but not now.)

Among a multitude of options I selected the the Game Mixed Grill, not because it was the largest as some of my detractors would point out, but because it afforded the greatest opportunity to taste different game preparations and their flavours.

The menu stated that the Game Mixed Grill presented "whole roasted red leg partridge wrapped in bacon and filled with stuffing, Scottish pheasant, pork and fennel patties, Gressingham duck sausages and wild Scottish venison medallions." The french fries were fresh and to die for, and the red wild berry sauce complemented the game very well.

My only complain is that the venison and partridge were slightly over cooked, and overall the duck sausage was the winner.

I believe I forgot to mention that this great meal was washed down by a great pint of Guiness. It looks like Ireland own the beer war!

Wild Behaviors

My son Daniel and me

Yesterday we left Traverse City in the early morning and drove a couple hours to Morley, MI, to hunt pheasants at Haymarsh Hunt Club (www.haymarsh.com). Before anyone asks, there is fantastic hunting all around Traverse City, but woodcock season is already finished for the year and grouse are at the bottom of their cycle, and probably the main reason was that we were taking my son, Daniel, on his first hunt over dogs, and common sense told us it would probably be easier and more gratifying for him to hunt pheasants in more open cover than breaking bush all day long in the hope of a couple flushes from almost invisible birds.

My friend Randy Halseth arrived on Friday afternoon and we had dinner before Daniel arrived past 11:00 PM. We started the Saturday (yesterday) morning driving to Meijer's so Daniel could buy a Resident Small Game hunting license, and then we drove south on Garfield Road to meet the other members of the expedition, Del Whitman with German Shorthairs Zap and Gina, David Reed with Vizsla Oliver and Gus Newbury with English Setter Pepper.

We arrived at Haymarsh around 10:00 AM, were guided to our fields and even before parking saw three roosters walking across the road. We backed up, parked, got dressed, released the dogs and went after the colorful roosters.

As we started down the road a rooster flushed wildly and Del got it with a crossing shot while the dogs pointed another one. Every body motioned Daniel forward as it was his first pheasant hunt. Daniel walked behind the dogs and when the gaudy pheasant flew his gun did not fire and I took it with the right barrel from my BSS 20 gauge.

It was a great start, but anyone that taught that we would have an easy hunt was deeply wrong. The cover was dense and in a lot of places it looked a lot more like grouse and woodcock coverts than pheasant country. We went south against the wind to give an edge to the dogs and crossed some wet ground from where besides bagging some more pheasants we flushed several whitetail deers.

After a couple hours we came back to the vehicles for refreshments, both for dogs and hunters, drop a heavy load of birds, rest some tired legs, lie about great shots and the normal things we all do when hunting with friends.

We went back to the north field and very soon we had a double point along the tree line and within seconds of each other two hens flushed, David got one and Daniel and Gus hit the other. Along that edge, all the way to the end of the field the dogs pointed and we eventually flushed several woodcock. Too bad the season was already closed or we could have supplemented our bag with several gorgeous timber doodle.

At the end of the north field Pepper, Gina and Zap came to a beautiful point, and as Del, Randy, Gus and Daniel approached a large dark feathered rooster flushed into the trees. Gus hit the bird twice, but it continued to fly and Del dropped it with a shot from his twenty-eight in a relative open spot. We all marked the spot, but three dogs and five men were unable to locate it. After almost a quarter hour we gave up, all of us with broken hearts.

We started again walking the big field with the wind on our faces and flushed several other woodcocks. At one point Pepper and Gina got very birdie near a ditch and after relocating several times a hen flushed very near me and I got it with a single shot.

We were all getting tired, especially the dogs that were running a hundred yards for every couple yards we walked, but before we got to the cars the dogs took us again to the heavy cover in the south field, and again after relocating multiple times Pepper, Gina and Zap cornered a rooster that took off wildly. I hit it with my first barrel and missed with the second and saw where the bird landed. Soon after Del was there with Gina, Zap and me, and after a couple minutes the rooster flushed a second time and came down hard after I fired the right barrel.

We got back to the cars around 2:00 PM and counted fourteen birds, equally divided between roosters and hens. After the photo session and splitting the birds Del was the first to leave as it was his birthday and he had to take his wife for dinner.

We stopped at the Moe-Z-Inn tavern for something to eat, and after the two hour drive we all, minus Del, arrived at my home in the Old Mission Peninsula for an improvised wild game dinner. The Big Green Egg was going in no time and I quickly had some venison kaftas (venison, garlic, onion and pistachios) and black bear back straps going while I cleaned some spruce and ruffed grouses that I brought from Canada. I seasoned the grouse with garlic, kosher salt and olive oil, and while we waited for the meat to be ready my wife served some mashed potatoes and beef pie.

To help the meal we had a bottle each of Stags Leap Cabernet, Dona Paula Malbec and Renwood Zinfandel, and to close the night just the right amount of Sandeman's Founders Reserve Porto.

Overnight I smoked a large piece of bear and Randy, my wife and me had some of it for breakfast this morning. It is wonderful the magic that salt crust and hardwood smoke can perform on a good piece of wild game.

Even if Daniel was absolutely safe during the day and got his first pheasant I guess that he was not prepared for the hunt. He went to bed at 8:30 PM last night and only woke-up around 11:00 today!

Of Wild Flushes and Wild Meals

Woodcocks on the way...

Yesterday Del and I went out bird hunting again. It was a fresh and moist morning and the fall colors were glowing in a particularly beautiful way. I love the burnt reds and coppers.

In the early part of the hunt we had a lot of walking, which should please Dr. March as he insists that I exercise daily, some false points and many wild flushes, mostly woodcock, but also one young and illegal whitetail buck with short spikes over its head. The buck was illegal because we had shotguns for the birds we were after and it is now bow season for deer, and because of the new antler restriction regulations based on Quality Deer Management principles that protect bucks until they have at least three points in one side.

After coming back to the car we drove around to another area and let out both Gina and Zap, and we went out in another long walk. Finally when we were no more than one hundred yards from the car the dogs started pointing woodcock one after another. We would have had a limit between the two of us if Del's auto-loading shotgun had not misfired twice and if we had found one of the birds I shot.

I think that Del knew all along where the birds were, but he is under orders of Dr. March to make me exercise and walk every inch of the Michigan north woods, or at least every inch of Grand Traverse, Benzie and Leelanau counties, before we can collect a couple three birds for dinner.

For a change we did not go out for lunch in respect of our respective diets.

For dinner I prepared the woodcock (beccaccine) skinned (poultry skin is bad for triglycerides) and cut in half, lightly browned over just a bid of lard, and then cooked with shallots and cipollini on a white wine and rosemary sauce. As contorni I had grilled eggplants (melanzana) white beans (fagionlini) salad. The wonderful dinner was washed down by a glass of I Tre Vescovi, and excellent Barbera d'Asti.

There may be more pleasurable things in life, but few can surpass good friends, hunting and a wild game dinner.

to become a meal!

A Healthy Sunday Lunch

Lunch is almost ready!

Yesterday I arrived in Detroit at 8:30 AM from a week long trip to Brazil, and by early afternoon my wife and I arrived at our home at Old Mission Peninsula. Our goal was to open all the boxes that were crowding the first and second floors, "organize" as possible, and then get all the cardboard to the nearby recycling center.

Well, WE DID IT, and to recover from the brutal work we decided that we needed to have a good lunch.

A couple weeks ago I got a Big Green Egg and it is just natural that I should use it every opportunity I have, and today was a perfect one, even if I have to push snow out of our deck.

Healthy eating is very important, so we decided to do it in style. We had some venison ribs from a dear that I shot with bow in October 2011 (I know it because I could see the triangular shaped broad head mark between two ribs), a small venison tenderloin from a doe that I shot just before Christmas 2010 (so far the only deer I had processed, so I also could identify it), very lean (and terribly well done) beef for my wife, bratwursts and Portobello mushrooms.

To complete this feast my wife cooked some fresh white rice, the Brazilian way. You start by sautéing onion and garlic, and then you add the rice, pour the water and add the salt.

The lunch was washed down by part of the content of a bottle of Grignolino red wine, a 2009 Duchessa Lia, from Asti. Although a much lighter wine than my favorite Piemontese wines, Nebbiolo and Barolo, it went vey well with the venison loin and portobellos.

Dessert was good Belgian dark chocolate and off course a couple hours of sleep. Nobody can say that I don't have a hard life!

Young at Heart in the Old South

Gentleman Bob

Back in January friends Bruce and Steve took me quail hunting for the first time at Pine Wing Preserve (www.pinewingpreserve.org), in Wetumpka, Alabama. That was a great experience and my introduction to hunting "partridge" in the Old South.

At the end of the hunt, after good food and beer and better conversation, George Long, the soft spoken gentleman that runs Pine Wing, gave a beautiful quail picture that is now decorating my office wall.

Following such a great experience I had to come back, and that I did on March 8th & 9th, this time with my great friends Bill Berghuis and Jim Weber, from the Kalamazoo, MI, area. We go back a long time, and have hunted perdiz (Nothura maculosa) in Uruguay several times together.

While I took advantage of being in Alabama, Bill and Jim flew down from Michigan especially or the hunt, and according to them it was absolutely worth it, starting with the great Southern BBQ at Jim-n-Nicks in Prattville, then continuing with he great dog work and good flying birds, and finishing with another fantastic, and now famous, quail and pasta dinner.

But if there was a star in those couple days it was our guide Melvin. And we almost had no problem to keep on pace with the 84 years young Melvin! And what a class act was Melvin.

He grew up during the "Hoover Days", and from a very young and tender age he had to use a flip, which is a type of slingshot without a handle, to bring home food, especially in the form of squirrels and rabbits. And I have no doubt that he must have been very effective at that since I saw him smack clay targets floating in the air and from almost thirty yards on the ground. Since he repeated the feat I can't say that it was beginners luck. One of these days when I am not traveling and I can get my hands on a good piece of discarded inner tube I will try to make myself a flip, and maybe, just maybe in about forty years I could be half as good as Melvin is.

Late in WWII Melvin served in the US Navy. I don't know what he did specifically, but I would take him to be an anti-aircraft gunner any day of the week and twice on Sundays.

Melvin told us how he got a ten point white-tail buck with his 82 last season. That off course was his 1982 Chevy pick-up, which had a very large dent on the side where that buck T-boned him.

Among his cars Melvin has a 1954 Mercedes-Benz sedan and another truck, a 1957 Ford that his dad bought for US$ 701. And he has the bill of sale to prove it.

I don't think it would be politically correct to describe Melvin's feelings on his one-time trip to California. Not to create much problem, let's just say that he repeats a lot that "that was not right."

But some of Melvin's most fascinating stories are about when he guided Bob-white quail hunting for President Jimmy Carter. His main remarks were that it was very hard and unnerving to do his work with all the Secret Service agents around and that these same agents would always say after the shot "this is your bird, Mr. President", even if Mr. President had not shot. I guess "it is good to be president!"  

Bob-white Quail & Pasta

This is not a pizza!

This is a very simple but delicious recipe that was prepared by my friend Daniel Rodrigues from Caxias do Sul - Brasil - on Sunday, January 27, after I brought a nice bunch of Bob-white quail following a hunt at Bruce, Steve and Mike at Pine Wing Preserve (www.pinewingpreserve.org) in Wetumpka, Alabama.

I will tell about the hunting at a later time, but I would like to share the recipe that feeds ten very hungry people right now!

Ingredients

20 Bob-white quail

2.5 packs of Barilla spaghetti (1 1/4 Kg)

300 grams Bacon

5 cloves of garlic

1large onion

12 sage leaves

1 sprig basil

Olive oil

Salt

Black pepper (if you like it, I don't)

Cabernet wine

Parmesan cheese

Preparation

Marinate the quail in the wine, salt, pepper and sage

Cut the bacon in small cubes, fry it and set aside

Fry the onion & garlic and set aside

Seal the quail by frying it in olive oil. After this add the marinade, bacon, onion & garlic and let cook until tender

After the quail is ready, cook the pasta as directed in the pack

Add the pasta to the quail and before serving add the basil and some of the cheese

Serve immediately

In the photo above, we served the quail & pasta in the crust of a RAR Gran Formaggio Parmesan wheel that we rescued after a very special celebration. It adds a lot to the presentation, taste and ambiance. We did not have any RAR wine left, and had to make do with other drinks.

Enjoy it!

Feasting on the Algoma Bear

(L to R) Denny, John (the "nefu"), Jim, author, Jeff and Bob

Sharing the bounties of the chase is one of the most rewarding aspects of hunting. So, just after Jeff finished dressing my bear (see “Algoma Bear Hunt”), he set aside a tenderloin that Gail and Steve, the owners, managers and staff of “Half Way Heaven”, prepared for the whole gang the following evening.

Since I had no reason to continue to hunt for bears I spent the day with Jeff replenishing bates, checking trail cameras, looking for bear signs, and just learning anything that I could about bears, guiding and the outdoors.

By the end of the day I was as hungry as anyone and eager to taste bear for the first time, as all the other hunters, that were not fortunate enough to live in the big North woods and have bear around on a regular basis.

Gail and Steve prepared a delicious Barbecued Bear, but I prefer to call it “Bear-BQ”, and we all got together to wolf it down along a bottle of Volver, a nice Spanish red wine.

The bear was delicious, and I took the liberty to present the receipt below.

Back home, we prepared and served “Bear-BQ” on several occasions, and almost every person that tried either loved or at least liked it. But now the bear meat is finished and it may be time to go collect some more.

Barbecued Bear (or Bear-BQ)

Parboil 2 pounds bear meat (thawed & boneless, I also remove all the fat) in water, for about 10 minutes.

Prepare BBQ Sauce while meat is cooking.

Place several slices of bacon in Dutch oven, or large cast iron pan, and sauté the parboiled meat on all sides.

Add the BBQ Sauce and simmer with meat over medium heat for at least half and hour or till tender.

BBQ Sauce

·       ½ Cup of Water

·       4 Oz. Tomato Sauce

·       2 Medium Onions, sliced

·       1/8 Tea Spoon Garlic Powder

·       2 Table Spoon Brown Sugar

·       ¼ Tea Spoon Dried Mustard

·       1/8 Cup Lemon Juice

·       1/8 Cup Vinegar

·       1/8 Cup Ketchup

·       1 Table Spoon Worcestershire Sauce

Mix all ingredients and simmer for at least 10 minutes.