.png)
Eating Wild
Hosted by three hunting and fishing buddies with a lifetime of culinary experience between them, Outdoor Journal Radio's Eating Wild podcast brings folks from all walks of life to the boat, tree stand, and kitchen to tell the stories and answer the questions around the pursuit and preparation of wild fish and game.
Eating Wild
Episode 74: Soups Waterfowl Cooking In Smash's Kitchen
Master the secrets of seasonal cooking and outdoor escapades in this episode of the Eating Wild podcast. I’m Antonio "Smash" Meleca, and I’ll take you through the art of soup-making, capturing the essence of autumn with ingredients like butternut squash and ginger. Learn the tricks to crafting the perfect broth and discover how to elevate your waterfowl dishes using techniques inspired by Asian-style cooking. From achieving optimal crispiness of duck skin to pairing game meat with the perfect side dishes, there’s plenty to feast your ears on.
Reflecting on a successful waterfowl hunting season, I recount the thrill of the chase and the camaraderie that defines our outdoor adventures. With ice fishing season just around the corner, get ready for chuckles from our past snowmobiling misadventures and anticipate joining us for more fishing fun. Whether you're a seasoned hunter or a foodie looking for fresh culinary inspiration, this episode promises to enrich your wild journey with stories and tips that are as hearty as your favourite autumn stew.
And it’s not just about the hunt; it’s about what happens in the kitchen afterward. Discover how Chef Craig and I turned venison tenderloins into a mouthwatering masterpiece, and hear about our exciting collaborations, from spices to special edition hunting knives. Tune in to this episode not just for the recipes but for the stories and passion that make every dish and adventure truly memorable.
Follow Eating Wild on Instagram! To reach out to the boys, drop us a line at eatingwild@odjradio.com
Hey, eating Wild listeners, Are you still searching for that perfect boat?
Speaker 2:Extreme Marine London has got you covered with new and used boat sales, service and professional installation of marine electronics and accessories. Visit their London or Kingsville, ontario locations today and get ready to make waves and catch that fish of a lifetime.
Speaker 1:Extreme Marine is your one-stop marine shop. Check them out at wwwextrememarinelondoncom and follow their journey on Instagram and Facebook. Be sure to tell them that the Eating Wild Boys sent you.
Speaker 2:Looking for the perfect knife. I'm Chef Antonio Malacca and I have been using Cucushion knives throughout my whole career. Whether you're a chef, hunter or just need a reliable everyday carry, cucushion's knife shop has you covered, specializing in premium knives ranging from Japanese-made cooking knives, western knives, fishing and hunting knives to even blades for your day-to-day carry. They have something for every skill level, from hand forged to factory made, even custom assembled knives. Their experts will help you find the right blade. Plus, they offer knife engraving services to make it truly unique. Visit them at Cucushionca. They ship across Canada and the US. Follow them on social media for tutorials and more Cocuchin knives your trusted source for quality knives. Tell them Chef Antonio sent ya. Here we go, welcome. Welcome everybody to another episode of the Eating Well podcast. I am your host, antonio Smash Malecka. Solo. This is a solo trip, folks. A while back I told you we'd be doing a lot of these episodes Smash's kitchen. Well, today, folks, you're in luck. I hope you like soup season. I also hope you had a pleasant full waterfowl popping season, because we're going to talk about waterfowl Now. What I did, folks, is I literally I told everybody, especially with the boys Hookset, martins, top Dog, pereira, showtime Johnson that we got to start catching up on our emails with tons of questions. We'll be getting a lot of tons of food questions, fishing questions, hunting questions and keep pouring them in at theeatingwildpodcast at gmailcom. We're always checking them and if we haven't done this episode for a while we apologize. There's been so much happening with the Eating Wild podcast me and the boys, we've been on journeys from the musky brawl which I'm probably sure everyone heard about was a great success for us and our team Meeting tons and tons of new people, getting the meat out there from the butcher shop and making breakfast with some of the stuff from our sponsors, with Lou's products. It's been a crazy month, believe it or not, for myself and the boys, and we're looking to create more. We are, uh, we are signing up to do some, uh, really incredible stuff for the rest of this year.
Speaker 2:Obviously, ice fishing season's around the corner and you know me and the boys, we like to go out there and try to ice fish. I mean, we don't really, I'm gonna be honest, we don't really put that much effort other than going up to my place in Port Perry putting out the hut. We always say we're going to move and you know we get lazy and it's always Hooksack, hooksack's like look man, we got to move, we got to find these fish. We're like, nah, I think we just stay where we are and I'm okay with catching perch the size of my pinky finger on one inch of ice. That's cracking all the time and, uh, you know it's pretty, it's pretty funny. But listen, they're, they're fun memories.
Speaker 2:Hopefully we get some ice this year. Hopefully we get some snow, because we got the beachy klutz sitting inside the garage, the three beautiful, uh, snowmobiles. I call them beachy klutz, but, um, we got to get them on the snow. Man, let's get some snow. Mother Nature, let's go. But listen, we are also planning Showtime.
Speaker 2:Was talking to me last night while we were playing Call of Duty. We popped, by the way, 900 score. That's me personally. And speaking of Call of Duty, andrew Walker man got to meet him at the Muskie Brawl and if anybody hasn't seen this guy's YouTube page, okay, this guy plays Call of Duty on his phone while he's popping Walters on the Bay of Quinte. Now, I got to do that Like Andrew. If you're listening, you just text me the calendar, buddy, I'm bringing my phone so we can pop and hopefully we get into some of those gigantic Walters that you get out there and it's incredible.
Speaker 2:So hopefully we get to do some some trips together, me and the boys this winter. It is around the corner, in fact, looking at my phone from like 10 years ago, there's been trips that I went on with the boys where it's been like snowing already, like I'm talking like October snow and we're in November now and let's, I mean it was 22 degrees a few days ago. Water temps are still pretty warm out there. Actually, speaking to Cousin Glenn who's out on Lake St Clair with the boys right now as we speak doing the trip with the boys and water temps are still high, mid-50s, I think he said to me in a text yesterday. So I mean, yeah, times are changing, weather is changing, patterns are changing. Hopefully we could get Coke man, coke Machine, on again this winter to give us some live updates of the ice on Lake Nipissing getting ready for the hard water up there. If you haven't heard that episode last year around, I'd say probably around early December, we had Coke Machine on Great episode Donated some stuff for his cool giveaway that he does Check out his YouTube page. We're going to try to get the Coke man on again before season's up.
Speaker 2:But fast forwarding to today's episode, smash's Kitchen. Welcome to my kitchen. Basically it's a perspective of food stuff that you know again, the best to my knowledge, the best experience I have with these products, and hopefully I can help you along the way with your questions. Again, guys, I'm not saying I'm the best, I'm not saying that this is the way you should be doing it. This is just an opinion from a chef who's obviously worked with a lot of these things and a lot of these menus and products in the kitchen many, many years of experience doing this. So we're going to get to it. And again, I apologize for not getting to all the questions, but I sort of went through it all and I tried to get these questions and group them together. So the subject's kind of the same.
Speaker 2:So I kind of broke it down to soups and seasonal dishes and that's going to be the first segment of Smash's Kitchen today and the second one is going to be about waterfowl after the break. We're going to talk about waterfowl after the break. We're going to talk about waterfowl because tons and tons of emails and recipe requests and people asking me questions about waterfowl, so I figured I'd kind of start off with the soups and the reason why I like soups. This is the time of year soups is probably the most hearty and the most I don't know, I guess satisfying thing when it's cold outside. You know stews and soups and broths. This time of year is probably my favorite time to share recipes and also create new ones. Like I met a lot of chefs over my years, I worked with a lot of different chefs and whenever it's soup season everyone gets pumped up and everyone always makes the best broths, everyone always makes the best bone broths and it's funny watching different cultures and how they do their soups and their broths.
Speaker 2:So I got some tips I can give you guys based on some of the questions, and let's get to it. The first one comes from Robert Brown. Robert Brown is in Kenora, ontario. That's pretty cool, kenora. I think this is one of the first ones, and his first question was how do you achieve the perfect texture in a creamed base soup?
Speaker 2:I've always wanted to make a really rich and creamy soup using the bones from my chicken. Is there any way or any advice you can help me achieve the perfect texture? Great question, robert, and cream-based soups, cream-based soups, using chicken broth, using bone broth, beef, any kind of broth. Really, I think the most important thing you need to think about is when you're making these broths is how rich, how creamy do you want it? And there's two different ways of doing it. When you're making your roux so roux again celery, carrots, onion butter, and you're going to need a little bit of flour all purpose you want to start your roux kind of sweat it off, cook that flour out, and then you add your broth and naturally that will thicken in time. To add richness. To add richness, robert, I think what you would want to do is add heavy cream, and the reason why I'm saying this is because one the heavy cream, when you're adding it to like, say, 10 liters of liquid or even roux that you've created with your stock, what that's gonna do is it's not gonna thicken your soup any. All it's gonna do is enhance the color. It's obviously gonna be a little bit more white, but it will definitely add more richness to your broth. Another way of doing it and listen, I have nothing against this whatsoever and people will laugh and probably say what kind of chef uses this technique? And I'm going to tell you right now, you're nuts.
Speaker 2:If you don't think that it's a smart way of doing your making your soups richer is adding a cream-based tinned soup. Give you an example adding a cream-based tinned soup. Give you an example Cream of mushroom by Campbell's Thick, really, really rich. It's got so much bloody sodium in it that you don't have to add any salt to it. Now listen, I'm a chef man and people listening out there, whether you're a chef or whether you're just a home cook, you're going to need salt, you're going to need sodium. I don't give a shit what you're doing. If you're going to make a soup and you're not going to add the salt or you're not going to add some sort of sodium, it's going to taste like water, it's going to taste like dishwater. Add a little bit of salt, don't be afraid.
Speaker 2:If you are going to add cream of mushroom, cream of chicken, cream of celery, I'm telling you right now you adding that is there's nothing wrong with it. And again, it's loaded with salt. I wouldn't add too much salt. If you're planning on adding that to your soup and it's going to add texture, it's going to add richness and flavor and there's nothing wrong with it. So you know, john, if you are going to be making a you know soup based on your chicken bones that you mentioned in the question, add a little bit of cream of chicken soup. Add a bit of cream of mushroom soup. Add a little bit of cream of celery nothing wrong with it. Add a little bit of 35% cream and I'll tell you right now, it's going to be richer. You're going to get lots of flavor out of it. It's going to be beautiful.
Speaker 2:And here's another thing I like to touch on with, now that we're talking about cream-based soups use it as a sauce. Use it as a sauce, man. Thicken the shit out of it, make it nice and thick. And if you're making chicken, if you have rice, if you have your vegetables, you know, use it as a base to pour like a gravy on top of your meal. Because I'll tell you right now, there's nothing wrong with that, you know. I think the first thing that comes to mind chicken stuffed with Havarti and, you know, asparagus, beautiful, sewer up pan, sear, roast it in the oven. Cheese is oozing everywhere, compliment it. Cover it with a nice, really thick, rich, creamy chicken stock. Oh, beautiful Mushrooms, why not? It's beautiful. So be creative when you're making these creamy base soups and I think there's nothing wrong with it. And you know, adding some crackers. Have some bread Beautiful, that's a great lunch. Have a sandwich with a soup sandwich You're rocking.
Speaker 2:Next question comes from Charles Miller. Didn't say where he's from, but Charles Miller has another question Can you share any tips for balancing flavors in a soup? I have a lot of bones from my harvest this past year and would like to get some rich soups. Balancing flavors Wow, I'm trying to read this far away and I think I need glasses, like Marty boy. So, basically what he's asking me is there any tips in balancing flavors in soup using the bones from his harvest this past year? So I don't know if that was a moose, if it was a deer, if it was waterfowl, doesn't matter. Same techniques, okay, balancing flavor that's a very good question.
Speaker 2:Here's the thing. There's the Holy Trinity and I call it a Holy Trinity. The Holy Trinity is your base, it's your celery, it's your carrots, it's your onions oil, there's butter. People like to start and sweat their vegetables off however way they like. Balancing flavor is very simple. There's different flavors in bones in itself, the more fat you get and I find this when people are having traditional dishes like ramen or you know Asian style soups, and you know fat is a really, really big thing when you're making these types of soups and it's the richness that you know. People leave these broths on for like two or three days sometimes and some people skim the fat and some people leave the fat because, you know, depending on what kind of soup you're making, the fat is an important element to it. So I would say that balancing the flavors is going to depend on what bones, what stock you're using.
Speaker 2:But you start with the Holy Trinity roast your bones. I think roasting your bones is an stock you're using. But you start with the Holy Trinity um, throw, roast your bones. I think roasting your bones is is an important thing. Now, a lot of people. Again, this is another technique that people use that you know. Chef Craig uses this technique all the time. Recently we just did pho um spelled P-H-O, so pho, pho, however you want to, you want to pronounce it Um. He rinsed, he actually boiled the bones first and we used beef bones and he boiled the bones, rinsed the bones, then roasted them and then started making the broth. So it was a technique that he heard was I don't know if it's traditional in the culture, but it was a cleaner way of making the broth and you maximize flavors, hence balancing flavors in the question. So again, I like to roast the bones. Again, he didn't mention what bones it was.
Speaker 2:If it was, you know, let's just say venison, roast those bones, get a nice color on it, add it to your water, to your liquid, with your Holy Trinity, and let it go. Let it go for I don't know, at least 45, at least 45 minutes. Obviously, the longer the better, unless we're getting into seafood. That's a whole different game. But skim the top, take the fat off. If you are making something like a ramen broth then yes, you might want to keep that fat on there. You're not going to get much fat from the venison. You'll probably get more fat, say, from pork or possibly some of the waterfowl, depending. You know, duck obviously has a traditionally has a bunch of fat on it. If you clean your duck and you want to do a nice duck broth, keep it whole skin on. You know, like I said, you probably want to roast that duck. Get it inside of a pot with the Holy Trinity, let it go, add a bay leaf and away you go. Now balancing the flavors. Again, it's all going to depend on the bones.
Speaker 2:But adding salt. Salt is probably the most important ingredient in stocks because basically, if there is no sort of sodium in that and again this goes back to the first question you're not getting any flavor. Salt peppercorns, you can add star anise, you can add so many different types of herbs to your broth. Parsley is another one fresh parsley, I wouldn't use dry parsley. Some people get cheesecloth. They know thyme and bay leaves and some people even add rosemary, believe it or not, which I think is nuts. But any kind of fresh herbs, wrap it up in a cheesecloth, fire it in there, so that way you can just pull that out and away. It goes in the garbage and you're not. You know you're not getting woody stems going down your throat. But don't be afraid.
Speaker 2:When you say balance your flavors, I mean everyone's palate is always going to be different. There's some people that can't have salt at all, they can't have sodium, whether it's their diet, their cholesterol is high, whatnot. So really, when it comes down to it, you are flavoring to taste it to what you and your family desire. Me again, I'm a salt guy. It's got to be loaded with kosher salt. I want to make sure there's bite richness as well. I would prefer not to keep the fat. There's other ways of making soups rich, like I said in the previous question. But great question. I hope I answered it properly. Next question coming in from Edward Taylor. Edward doesn't say where he's from. What are your favorite seasonal ingredients to incorporate in soups this time of year? Great question.
Speaker 2:So before we kick this one off, we were talking about time of year, favorite time of year to making soups, and one of the things that I get pumped up about is your fall vegetables. You got pumpkin, you got butternut squash, you got parsnips, you got rutabaga, onions, leeks. There's so many different root vegetables that come up this time of year that traditionally you don't see in the summertime because people always take advantage of seasonal vegetables. You're not seeing asparagus this time of year. You're not seeing leeks or I know I mentioned leeks, but you're not seeing. You know, traditionally, the stuff that comes up in the spring and then you know in the summertime.
Speaker 2:So this this to me, you know, speaks of hardiness and sweet potatoes. I'll add sweet potato to that too, even though you can get them all year round, but probably my favorite seasonal ingredients to use would be butternut squash, parsnips, adding something like nutmeg or cinnamon, or adding simple ingredients like coconut milk, if you're doing Thai flavors or you're doing curries, all these things. So butternut squash, let's say butternut squash, one of my favorite soups to make, adding a touch of nutmeg and a touch of cinnamon, kind of making it, giving it that festive sort of flavors, to me really puts it over the top. And it's very simple. And again, you can use whatever base you want, holy Trinity, if you want to use chicken stock, if you want to use vegetable stock I wouldn't do mushroom stock kind of weird, but any of those stocks, any of those bases will do and you simply just chop up your butternut squash, fire it into that stock, let it roast, let it simmer down for at least 45 to an hour and a half and you'll notice like once that butternut squash sort of floats. And this goes for carrots, this goes for parsnips, rutabaga, any kind of these root vegetables, and don't be afraid to mix them together. I've done a parsnip and butternut squash soup many times.
Speaker 2:Jerusalem artichokes, another really cool one to use. That's people don't really know much about, but I'm sure you go to your grocery store you don't even know they exist, and ask for Jerusalem artichoke, make a puree or a soup out of that. It'll change your life. Also, ginger Ginger is a really, really, really important thing that I like to use this time of year. One people are getting colds, people are getting sick, you know. Let's keep the body clean. Let's add a bit of ginger. Don't be shy, spice it up a little bit.
Speaker 2:Adding doing a parsnip and ginger soup. Are you kidding me? Beautiful, it's a simple technique. Start with your stock, throw your your chopped parsnips in there, let it boil. You're gonna puree, you're gonna add a little bit of roasted ginger in there, or even fire your ginger in there while you're, while you're making your stock, the only thing I would say is you got to be careful on the amount of ginger you use, because I'll tell you it can. It can actually ruin the soup. You only need a tiny, tiny bit. You don't need to put a whole stock in there. I mean, some people like it spicy, I don't know. Some people love the gingerness, you know. But again, everything that I'm telling you to do here is all personal preference. Like I don't like too much ginger. Some people listening are like well, I love ginger Well, fire in a whole stock of it, don't care. If you like it, do it and, again, have fun with it.
Speaker 2:Don't be afraid to mix different ingredients. There's no wrong way of doing things when you're in the kitchen, guys, and I try to stress this a lot. And one thing that I can definitely tell you with this time of year when again going back to his question with seasonal ingredients is when you are harvesting your own. So, again, if this is the time of year where you're picking up your zucchinis and you're cutting out your squash and you're getting your spaghetti squash, whatever it, really really take the time and do research, because you spent the whole year planting and taking care of these vegetables and I think that it's important that you take the time and do some research on how to properly make this the way you want. And again, I mentioned pumpkin.
Speaker 2:Pumpkin soup has been so popular lately, especially in the Thai restaurants, and I love it. Like you go in there and you order a Thai pumpkin soup, it's coconut milk based. You know, again, you get the little bit of sweetness, you get the heat from the curried flavors and the lemongrass and the kaffir lime leaves and all that stuff. And I'm telling you right now, one pumpkin, just one average style pumpkin, you could probably make 18 liters of soup. Freeze it, put it in deli containers. And I'm telling you right now, we go ice fishing.
Speaker 2:We go to my place out in Lake Scugog, me and the boys, and I remember Hooks that brought one of our chefs, gonzalo, at our other shop. He made this beautiful black bean I think it was a Brazilian black bean soup and he four or five deli containers of it. And I swear to you, every year we go the past three years we always pull out a deli container of it and we we thaw it out, we put it in the oven or in a pot and we reheat it and it's friggin delicious. So it's, it's not like it's gonna go bad once it freezes, it's frozen, it's it's not gonna be bad after a year or two. And I'm telling you, I'm telling you like, I'm telling you as a chef, there's nothing wrong with it and it's hearty, it was so good. And we're like, oh, my god, remember when he made this. So, yeah, make a whack, a soup, make a bunch of it, freeze it, put in deli containers. And I'll tell you right now, there's nothing wrong with it and you'll have it all winter long, even in the summer times, no problem. So, uh, great questions on the soups. Again, it's one of my favorite times of year and, uh, we're going to take a short break. We got a message from our sponsors, but when we come back, we're talking waterfowl pop. I love the uh, the waterfowl trips and uh, and I love harvesting them as well. So we're going to talk about that right after the short messages.
Speaker 2:Imagine the joy of gathering around a table where every meal is a celebration At the Butcher Shop. They're just not a family-owned business. They're your partners in creating unforgettable dining experiences. Since 1984, they've honored the art of butchery. Each order is hand-cut fresh, reflecting their commitment to quality and tradition, with a minimum of 30 days aging. That enhances tenderness. From exquisite Wagyu to unique game meats, their carefully curated selection is designed to inspire your creativity in the kitchen. With next day delivery, they bring the finest meats directly to your door so you can focus on sharing delicious moments with loved ones. Discover the difference at the Butcher Shop, where every cut tells a story. Shop online at wwwbutchershopdirectcom. Free delivery on all orders above $250 and please use code EATINGWILD15 for 15% off of your first purchase From their house to yours, the Butcher Shop.
Speaker 3:When you're out fishing, it's all about the catch, but what if the fish aren't biting?
Speaker 2:Hey boys, what's our backup plan if we don't catch anything for lunch?
Speaker 1:I'm starving, we better catch something quick. No worries, I packed some pulled pork sandwiches from Lou's Kitchen just in case we get skunked. It's always smart to have a plan B.
Speaker 2:Good thinking, Siege. I hate to go hungry out here.
Speaker 1:We all know how Lou gets when he doesn't eat Exactly Fishing's fun, but great food makes it even better.
Speaker 3:So remember, whether it's fish or sandwiches, make your shore lunch a guaranteed catch. With Lou's, we're happy to be plan B on the water.
Speaker 2:Welcome back, lose. We're happy to be plan b on the water. Welcome back, we are back. Smash malecca. We're here in smash's kitchen today.
Speaker 2:Guys, I'm running solo for hook set martin's top dog prayer and show time jansen. Folks go on instagram, reach out to show time jansen because he's pulling this guy's pulling magic tricks on I don't know how he does it social media I'm still. You know, I go on there, I look around, I'm checking, I'm always looking at the fishing stuff, the hunting stuff and obviously the food videos. But Showtime Jansen, he's taking it to another level that this guy with his posts and stuff, he's becoming a pro. And don't be afraid to reach out to him on social media. He'll get back to you. And please, guys, again reach out to us. Theeatingwildpodcast at gmailcom. You got a question for any one of the four skins. You let us know. We'll try to answer them the best we can.
Speaker 2:Moving on, we're moving on to the waterfowl. Now, waterfowl, the season is kind of coming down to an end and we haven't been successful this year. I'm not gonna lie. We haven't been successful. We've been out a few times and, uh, we're hoping to get into some grouse, we're hoping to get into some ducks. But uh, hey, man, this is sport, it's not. Uh, it's like fishing, man, it's. It's not called catching, it's called fishing. So we go out there with the guns and we hope, hopefully we pop, but uh, it's been, it's been a shit year for us. But, needless to say, I've cooked a million birds in my time. Hook set, martins, I remember me, and hook set used to have competitions on who can cut a bird quicker, and we know our way around these, uh, these beautiful animals, and again, we've we've got lots of experience with them.
Speaker 2:So, getting onto the questions, barbara Wilson, sudbury, ontario, barbara, thanks for the question. What are the best cooking methods for different types of waterfowl? This is one area I struggle with. We have so much waterfowl in our neighborhood and I can never find different methods of doing it. Great question, that is a great question.
Speaker 2:Here's the thing Chicken, I'm going to use chicken, bush chicken, so hopefully we can. You know she pops grouse out there, because I'll target this one for this question Bush chicken or chicken? You go to an Italian restaurant, you go to a Portuguese restaurant, you go to a, let's just say, any kind of restaurant. Chicken is always on the menu, always. You can get it as a chicken sandwich, breaded or fried chicken chicken, parmesan chicken, caesar salad, chicken, wrap chicken, this chicken, alfredo, blah, blah, blah, chicken, chicken, chicken. Here's the thing. There's nothing wrong with using your waterfowl. The same way, there's nothing wrong with it Bush chicken. They call it bush chicken for a reason.
Speaker 2:Pound that thing out, cut it. Get those breasts out, get a mallet, pound it. Egg wash, bread crumbs, fry it. Parmesan cheese, tomato sauce. You got a chicken cutlet. You got a chicken parmigiano right there. You want to barbecue it, barbecue it. Honey garlic sauce, southern sauce. You got a chicken cutlet. You got a chicken parmigiano right there. Okay, you want to barbecue it. Barbecue it. Honey garlic sauce, southern sauce, whatever. You want. Frank's Red Hot, you want to spice it up, chop it up, throw it in a Caesar salad.
Speaker 2:There's so many different methods of cooking waterfowl and I always take it to chicken because if you don't think of chicken being the holy trinity of the bird population and what we consume in the general public here, you know it's a reason why it's the cheapest thing on the menu, the menu. And there's also a reason why when you go to the grocery store it's probably out of all. You know the proteins, probably one of the most. And here's the thing that's kind of weird to me. Speaking of pricing, chicken legs are so cheap for some reason, and to me it's my favorite part of a chicken. I mean, the breasts are great. I mean they're easy to make dry. People don't know what the hell they're doing 90% of the time, but you can't screw up a chicken leg, especially if it's bone in. You know, throw it in the oven. People will cook it to 200 and it'll still be moist. I mean, let's be honest. So there's nothing wrong with your chicken legs at 99 cents a pound and your chicken breasts are 3.99, 4.99 a pound. For me it's kind of crazy.
Speaker 2:But just some advice. If you're going to the grocery store, buy the whole bird, get your knife, ask the boys, me or Hooks, how to properly clean a chicken. Maybe we'll do a YouTube video of it. But it's not hard. You get two breasts and two legs for half of the price you'd pay for one breast. So think about that. Anyways, back to the question Different techniques. Go on Google and punch in the most popular, trending chicken dishes and I'm going to tell you right now. There's going to be hundreds that pop up.
Speaker 2:Treat your waterfowl the same, treat it the same. Now let's talk about the dark meat, because yes, I'm going to admit, the dark meat is probably challenging. When it comes to waterfowl, the duck grouse some people don't even touch the grouse. I've seen videos on YouTube. Hey, we're guilty of it too. Step on the wings, grab the legs and pull up. You got a beautiful, two beautiful breasts right there, ready to clean and cook. Here's the thing If you were to keep the whole thing, you know you pluck it, you got it, you clean it and you see these little, tiny, two ounce legs on each side of your waterfowl, whether it's, you know, a woodcock or your duck or whatever it is your grouse, your partridge pheasants even.
Speaker 2:You know, pheasants are, even though a bit bigger, in Turkey, listen to this guys that are catching wild turkey. I know some of them that don't even eat the lakes. So here's the thing techniques. There's only one technique you're going to get to make that dark meat moist and that's confit, or braising. So the French call it confit. Confit is cooking, same techniques as braising, but you're using fat. So you're using, you know, most popular thing is duck fat.
Speaker 2:You know you're rendering down the dark meat in the duck fat for over two and a half hours, covered in the oven, say at 300. Again, it's going to be tender, it's going to be delicious, it's going to fall apart. You're going to maximize your kill. Here's the thing. And I'm just being honest. If you go out there and you get one or two partridge or grouse, whatever you call them, you're getting like four ounces of meat total. You know what I mean. So you're not getting a lot.
Speaker 2:And I understand you can spend two and a half hours on harvesting the dark meat and the reward is very. Maybe it's a two biter, I don't know. For me it might be a one biter, and I get why people don't do it. But listen, you have a freezer at home, for whatever reason that people don't do this. I, you have a freezer at home, for whatever reason that people don't do this. I think they're insane.
Speaker 2:If you pop on a whole season 12 to 20 pheasants, 12 to 15 ducks, a couple geese throwing a pheasant or two, maybe you have a turkey too, maybe it was a good year, whatever, save it all. Take your breast meat, use it fresh, no problem. You know what I mean. Save the dark meat, throw it in a freezer. One day. You know, go on the butcher shop's website. There are huge sponsor bars.
Speaker 2:You can buy the duck fat. You can have you got tallow at home, whatever kind of fat you want. Geez, you want to use vegetable oil. Use vegetable oil. Who cares? Braise the dark meat and I'm telling you right now you will have at least a couple pounds of beautiful meat and you will enjoy that waterfowl so much more.
Speaker 2:So you know great question, barbara, and I hope this answers it, because you're looking for different methods and different types of way to cook this. Well, I just gave you one that you probably wouldn't even have in your repertoire. I guarantee you you're probably just going to be looking for ways to cook the breast and you know nothing wrong with using the dark meat. I get it. You got one or two. Maybe it's not worth it, but to me, save it, freeze it and save it for a day where you can feed the family and make some pulled grouse nachos one day. It'd be great beautiful.
Speaker 2:Moving on Karen Thomas Karen Thomas doesn't say where she is. Are there specific techniques for preparing the skin of waterfowl for optimal crispiness? That's a tough one, karen. Great question. I'm not sure I'm going to be able to answer that properly because I'm going to be honest, I really have not really cooked too much waterfowl skin. Now I will say this Purchasing Muscovy duck breast often as we do here at Gourmet Craft and Catering in the Eating Wild headquarters breast often as we do here at Gourmet Craft and Catering in the Eating Wild headquarters when you are buying farm raised game, so let's say you go to the butcher shop, like I mentioned, or Costco or wherever, and they got, let's say, duck I'll use duck as an example for this question and they have, you know, 16 ounce duck breast which is very hard to find when you're popping here in Ontario.
Speaker 2:Usually you know bigger ducks. You can get maybe 12 to 14 ounce breasts out of them. But you know you're you're buying, you're buying farm raised duck and you get a beautiful 16 ounce breast and you're going to have about a quarter inch of fat on that, I think. I think maximizing the crispiness out of the skin is going to be based on salting seasoning, obviously, cooking technique, pan searing, high heat, skin down or brining. Brining is a great way of enhancing crispiness from your catch. And I'll use pork as well. So a lot of the times people will buy pork belly and I'm going to go to an Asian style of doing like an Asian style banh mi sort of thing.
Speaker 2:A banh mi sandwich is a traditional Korean crispy pork, crispy pork belly sandwich with a little bit of kimchi, maybe a spicy aioli. Had it a few times, not crazy about it. I'm not really a kimchi type of guy. I think it's gross, I think it smells gross, but again, people love it and we provide it all the time on set for people and they actually go crazy for it.
Speaker 2:The brine the brine that is a mixture between salt, sugar, water, aromatics, and when you soak that pork belly in the brine or in this case, if you wanted to use the duck breast, you absolutely can, dissolving the sugar and the salt, boiling your liquid first, cooling it off, then adding your pork belly to it or your duck breast to it. The next day or the day after, when you pull that out, you're basically marinating and what's going to happen is, as it dries, as it's cooking in the oven, it actually, believe it or not, enhances the crispiness of the skin, and I would have thought otherwise, believe me. And again, I have a couple of really great chefs that I worked with, and still one of them, simon, he's still with me right now Asian inspired chef and he made the pork belly Korean style and he's not even Korean, he's Chinese. But again, fusion and it was absolutely incredible. So brining can be a really, really good technique to bringing out the crispiness. And again, when you're talking about waterfowl crispiness, again, I haven't had much experience with my catches because I'm usually taking the skin off, usually with the breast, and again, if I do keep the whole bird, I'm peeling the whole bird out, so it has no skin on it whatsoever. So hopefully that helps answer your question.
Speaker 2:I think I got one more here Linda Davis, it's funny, all the waterfowl questions are females, which is pretty cool. Siege will like to hear that because he did mention that we do have a great female audience out there and we really appreciate the questions and we really appreciate you listening in. So this is from Linda Davis. Linda doesn't say where she's from. She says what are some traditional flavor pairings you recommend with waterfowl dishes? I'm not talking about alcohol, I'm talking about side dishes.
Speaker 2:We hear you guys talk about side dishes in your recipes of the day and it's funny how you come up with them on a wind. Can you help us out with some pairings for our waterfowl Great show. Love listening. Well, great question. I really appreciate it and thanks for listening. Oh man, where do I start? Okay, time of year, I think. I mean this would be a great question from Hookset for Hookset, because he is the king of side dishes. He always just whips up something in his mind and, boom, it comes out and it pairs perfectly.
Speaker 2:Let's start with, I guess, duck Duck. If you listened to our last episode, I actually did a recipe of the day and I used duck breast Again. We're going to do one again today and we're going to pull one of the items out of our eating wild box that is available at the butcher shop. So that way, if you guys are ordering one of those eating wild boxes which is a great buy, by the way I really think you should do it if you want to get into trying some game meat, I did the duck breast on the recipe on the last episode and Martin's paired it with like a parsnip puree, I think, with a little bit of truffle. Anyways, it was insane, like I could picture the whole dish in my head. It was perfect, and I think time of year will for me.
Speaker 2:When I'm thinking of side dishes, I'm always thinking of seasonal vegetables, a starch I think pairing something with a starch is always going to be important, and the reason why I say that is because you know, and again, unless you're on a keto diet or something, but the starch is always going to help you feel full and satisfied at the end of the meal. That's what it's designed to do, folks, because if you're just eating, if you're eating healthy and you want to, obviously if you're on a diet whatever and you want to have your protein with some vegetables, great. But I'm 225 pounds for a reason, folks, I eat okay. I'm 225 pounds for a reason, folks, I eat okay. I'm Italian. I got to have my paste. I got to have a little bit of patati. The risotto is the rice. I got to have a little bit of starch with my meal. So I'm going to do something. Let's do.
Speaker 2:How about quail? Let's do something with quail a whole quail and roasting a whole quail. And there's so many really cool dishes that I see people doing with quail, because it's like a little mini chicken and you can cut it in half and the presentation with quail is perfect. And, again, you can buy quail at grocery stores. They're frozen. Any grocery store will have them. That's one of the probably the most easiest wild game items to find in a grocery store in the poultry section, and they come whole and it's really cool. So thaw it out, roast it whole like you would. Chicken and side dishings pairings Okay, let's just say we're in the fall season. Let's keep it to the actual time we're in. Right now I'm thinking we're not good Purees are perfect.
Speaker 2:I like the way Hookset was thinking with the parsnip puree. I'm going to go butternut squash puree. Very simple, folks. It's like making baby food. I tell people all the time it's the easiest thing to make puree. Oh my God, this puree is amazing. How did you make that? All you need is like one of those magic bullets or a hand blender or even a juicer or any kind of emulsifier utility you have in your kitchen. And again, you're going to want to steam or boil your butternut squash and put it into your blender and add a little bit of heavy cream, 35% cream. You could use coconut milk as well, if you like those kinds of flavors a bit of kosher salt, touch of nutmeg just to kind of give it a little bit of sweetness to it and a bit of nuttiness to it, and you puree that. You're going to want to spread that puree first on your plate Okay, beautiful puree. And then you're going to put your quail right on top of that and I'm going to literally pair that with duck fat mini potatoes. You're going to fry that beautiful small mini Yukons or fingerling potatoes in the duck fat, crisp them up real, real nice, cut them nice and thin. And I'm telling you, right now, kosher salt, that's all you need.
Speaker 2:Um, you know, when you're thinking of pairing your game, think of painting a picture, think of the colors. Heirloom carrots you got purple, you got yellow, you got orange. Um, sweet potato, sweet potato is one of my favorite things. Right now. You can actually take a sweet potato Plum carrots you got purple, you got yellow, you got orange. Sweet potato, sweet potato is one of my favorite things. Right now. You can actually take a sweet potato and use your carrot peeler and literally do strands of sweet potato, run that thing like you're peeling it down to its core, fry that off and make sweet potato frits. Do steak and frits.
Speaker 2:I'm telling you there's so many different side dishes, but again, if we're talking about side dishes, in the spring green comes to my mind. I'm thinking kale, I'm thinking asparagus. Asparagus in Ontario you get two months of it. If you're ordering asparagus in July and August, well, you're most likely getting it from Mexico or Peru. Nothing wrong with it, it's beautiful. But we're talking about seasonal stuff here for our locals here in Ontario and, you know, typically in the States as well. I mean, obviously we get a lot of our produce from California and stuff like that. You know our lettuces and stuff. But potatoes take advantage of our beautiful potatoes we got in Ontario. You can get those any time of year. Here Again, adding a starch, adding rice, a nice risotto you can do risotto with like mushrooms and blue cheese and add richness to your dish.
Speaker 2:You know if you're doing you know, let's say, we're doing pheasants. If you're doing a pheasant, you're doing a beautiful pheasant dish where you're doing just the breasts and you want to pan, sear them, floured and you want nice crispy. Add a nice mushroom risotto to that, add a nice rich sort of hearty starch and then combine it with something like, you know, baby carrots. Or you know what's that? I'm thinking of that really beautiful candied pecan. What's that dish I make?
Speaker 2:Usually Brussels sprouts, yeah, brussels sprouts, candied Brussels sprouts, with a little bit of Ontario maple syrup. Let's make it sweet, let's go sweet and salty, why not right? So there's so many different pairings you can use. But to answer your question, I think the best way to pair and when you're trying to think of side dishes to use with your game seasonal, go seasonal, literally think of what time of year it is and what's in. There's nothing more. I mean price-wise too, when you go to the grocery store, asparagus is gonna be $1.99 when you're buying in May and June, and then when you're buying it from Mexico in July, august, even up until December, it's going to be really, really skinny and you're paying $7.99a pound for it. It's not even worth it. So I think pairing your side dishes, again, it's all going to be all about season and have fun with it. Think of the colors, make that dish pop. It's an art piece and I'll tell you, just have with it and I'm excited.
Speaker 2:Please, guys, if you are listening and you do decide to make some of these dishes, share them with us. Man, nothing makes me happier is seeing what our listeners are making out there, and we have been getting them. You know Todd Tickle, he was. He got his Wagyu steak from Todd. If you're listening the pictures this guy was sending me, it was absolutely incredible the tomahawk steak, the tomahawk steaks that the boys got at the brawl from us, the guys who won the eating wild box. Please, whoever, whoever ended up winning that prize, please take pictures and tag us in it, because I'm dying to see how you guys create it. But Todd did an amazing job with his Wagyu and he had A5 Wagyu and he butchered it himself. I gave him it was about an eight pound piece and he actually did a fantastic job. He tagged us in it and it was really, really cool to see what people do out there with the stuff that we can get.
Speaker 2:And again, I'm going to finish this episode with a recipe of the day that's brought to you by the Butcher Shop. Make sure you check out Butcher Shop direct. And again, they deliver 200 radius, 200 kilometer radius from the Etobicoke area, and look for that eating wild box. And one of the things that I'm gonna do today for the recipe of the day is I'm gonna do the venison tender'm going to do the venison tenderloin. Now, the venison tenderloin. I believe you get two in the Eating Wild box. They're a lot smaller than your traditional pork tenderloin or beef tenderloin.
Speaker 2:Obviously, and to maximize myself, to maximize those tenderloins, and I did it. I actually did it last week and I did it with Chef Craig and we had the two tenderloins that I got from my buck, that I shot this year, and again we made the sausages and we made some burgers. We're going to talk about that when I get the boys back in studio, which is coming up very shortly. What a beautiful day that was together.
Speaker 2:But what I did with the tenderloins was, as I noticed, they were quite small and I was talking with Craig and he's like why don't we butterfly these open? Let's butterfly both of these, you know beautiful venison tenderloins completely open. We don't need to pound them out. Let's keep some body to them and let's overlap them. Let's try to stretch this as far as we can. And what I did was is we seasoned it up just a little bit of salt and pepper, a little bit of olive oil and we did a mixture of portobello mushrooms, smoked gouda, spinach, artichokes and chopped basil and parsley and we made this mixture and we're folding it together, folding it together and we lined it in the center of these two flattened venison tenderloins and then we literally rolled them up. We rolled it as tight as we could and because it was too overlapping each other, we probably got like a good 14 inch long tenderloin strap, um that we tied up again. Tying it up was really important. Tied it up, we actually used some, um, butcher's twine, but then we actually used toothpicks where the seams were, just to make sure that it was. Uh, it was, it was closed tight.
Speaker 2:For when we uh cooked it off and we seared it first, uh, we seared it on the flat top and then roasted it in the oven and only took like 12 minutes, believe it or not. And the, the cheese, the smoked gouda, was like literally popping out the sides and we let it rest for almost a half an hour, believe it or not. And I know they say, rest your meat for as long as you cook your meat. But I felt like we needed to rest it a little bit longer, especially because I don't know if people notice this when they're stuffing, say, pork tenderloins or pork loins and you buy them at the store pre-stuffed and stuff, and when you cut into them, there's that ring around the stuffing where it looks raw all the time and I really, truly believe it's not. It's just the color, because the cheese and the stuffing usually gives off moisture, but I wanted to let it rest a little longer and let it activate a bit. And when we cut into these pinwheels, oh my God, it was incredible, just incredible, and I will take a picture of this and send the show time to put on the picture for when we do the recipe of the week, which is going to be put up on our social media page after this airs and along with the instructions on how to make this. But I will tell you this it maximized the meal itself because it went from being maybe two pounds to six pounds, because I literally stuffed the hell out of it Again, it turned it into maybe a two inch diameter to a four inch diameter. And when we serve that into the medallions, one medallion is all people got and I got about six to seven really nice, six ounce medallions out of it. It was beautiful and the presentation was nice. And again, you can serve that with any kind of vegetables you want out of starch in there, and'll tell you right now it's a beautiful, beautiful way to prepare your, your tenderloins. That will be the recipe of the week brought to you by the butcher shop.
Speaker 2:Now again, I answered so many questions today and it's always nice there's so many more guys and again I apologize if we don't get to all of them, but but we really do appreciate the feedback. And again, the question of the day are brought to you by extreme Marine boats. And listen, I'm going to tell you right now what's cooking up at extreme Marine right now. Woo, I'm going to tell you folks, talk to Showtime Johnson. He's been talking to Rob real closely and next year is going to be a big year. I have a feeling that the boys will be testing out some new boats because, from the feedback that Rob's giving Showtime Johnson, there's some big things cooking up there and we're excited to be a part of their team, that's for sure. And keep the questions coming in for myself Hookset, showtime, top Dog, lou Spices.
Speaker 2:I got lots of questions about our spices. Please, guys, be, be a little bit patient with us. We're, we're, we. So many things happening and moving parts going on and we, we are completely out of our spices. We have not been able to make a new batch, um, but it's in the works. It is totally in the works and we should have some spices If you do. If you did get a chance to get some of our sample spices at the Muskie Brawl, feel free to again send Siege a direct message and ask how to use any of the spices. Again, you got Lose a Jerk. The Key Lime Lemon Pepper has been popping. The Piri Piri, the Smoked Piri Piri. The Mapled Smoke you know we're got lose a jerk. The key lime lemon pepper has been popping. Um, the period period. The smoke period period. The mapled smoke. Um, you know, we're just having fun with things. That's all we're doing. Guys and uh.
Speaker 2:Again, if you haven't seen our latest giveaway on social media, mike from kakushin has developed the hunting knife, the eating wild edition. Still still go on Cocuchin's website, get this knife. They're limited time, it is the best. And this is the words from the boys up north. Uncle P, with his bare hand, used. He was the first one to use the Eating Wild sportsman knife on a buck and he literally looked at me and said this is probably the sharpest knife I've ever skinned a deer with. And this guy's skinned lots of deers, okay, him and coach and and fish on to gagne. They were like oh my lord. This thing is insane.
Speaker 2:We got the, we got the patent approval here to send over to Mike. And again you can get the angling Pro Filet Knife. And also, I think Showtime Johnson threw in from Mike, from Cocosian Knives, a Everyday Chef Damascus Knife. What a prize, folks. This is like the holy grail of knife giveaways. So make sure you log on to our Instagram page to see what you need to do to get yourself entered into that. And, with that being said, this is Smash Muleka. Thank you for joining me for an episode of Smash's Kitchen Again. I will be doing these periodically and just keeping people up to date what's happening in the kitchen. Smash Muleka for Top Dog Prayer Hookset, martin, showtime Jansen. Coach, get that tune started. We'll catch you next week. Folks, same time, same place. I'm out, ciao.
Speaker 1:Ciao, we've got the stars lined up. They're coming out ready to play. It won't be long. They'll be pulling up fish and we'll be serving them their favorite dish. All the feeling screaming reels on fish and fire.