More thoughts on cooking fish and game
Dennis L. Clay
This is the last of a two-part series about cooking fish and game.
An ample supply of fish and game is in the freezer and waiting for the cast iron skillet, the roaster pan or the slow cooker. The stockpile may consist of salmon, halibut, trout, walleye, duck breast, deer meat, goose breast, elk meat, etc.
While providing every last wild fish or game recipe is impossible, offering a few recipes may cause readers with meat in the freezer to try some new or different recipes.
Ground meat
Any wild game meat is suitable for grinding; deer, elk, goose, duck, etc. This meat can be made into a meatloaf, used for spaghetti or other recipes requiring ground meat.
Wild game meat is lean, so some type of fat needs to be added when make into a hamburger patty. Otherwise the patty or hamburger may fall apart. One solution is to split the wild ground game meat with ground beef.
Imagine adding 5-pounds of beef burger containing 30 percent fat to 5-pounds of ground elk meat. The result is 10 pounds of ground meat which contains 15 percent fat. This meat would hold together when made into a hamburger patty. Of course, the proportions could be more deer than beef and the percentage of fat will be smaller.
Straight ground deer or elk can be used to make browned meat for spaghetti, but again a special technique is required. If the meat is added to the skillet it will have a tendency to burn, because there is no fat. The solution is to add a splash of olive or other oil to the skillet before adding the meat.
Although not normally thought of as a source of ground meat, try grinding duck, turkey and goose breasts and using the result for spaghetti or meatloaf. Again, this meat can be used as is or mixed with ground beef.
The ground meat, from any source, is suitable for making sausage, using an old family recipe or one of the Hi-Country sausage seasoning packages. The same goes for making jerky; deer jerky, elk jerky and even turkey jerky.
Jalapeno popper ground deer appetizer
This recipe is still in the development stage, but I deem it to be edible. Cut the top off of a jalapeno and remove the seeds and pith with a melon baller or a special pepper seeder.
Brown ground deer meat and then place the meat into a blender or other grinder until the meat is as fine as sand. Combine cream cheese, shredded cheddar cheese and the deer meat until well mixed.
Place mixture in a decorator press, such as to decorate a cake, and fill the jalapenos. Place peppers in a jalapeno popper stand and bake at 350 degrees for 45 minutes.
These peppers do not have the expected heat from the peppers, because the seeds and pith have been removed.
Fish recipes
We are blessed to have so many fish species in the Greater Columbia Basin. We can catch salmon and steelhead in the nearby Columbia River, instead of traveling to the Pacific Ocean. Closer yet are opportunities to catch trout, crappie, bluegill, perch, burbot, kokanee, whitefish, crawfish, bass and more.
These days I enjoy cooking a bone-free fillet of any of the fish mentioned. However, the bones are easily removed from a cooked whole fish.
Here is a simple recipe for a whole salmon, steelhead or trout: Place the fish on a strip of aluminum foil. Squeeze half a lemon in the body cavity, plus salt and pepper to taste. Sprinkle with garlic powder if desired. Cook in the oven or on the grill until the flesh is flaky. This recipe is also suitable for half a larger salmon or several smaller trout.
Slow cooker fish; simple and delicious
Add a couple cans of diced tomatoes to a slow cooker. Add chopped green peppers and onions, sliced black olives, carrots, celery and garlic. Add other seasonings to taste.
When these ingredients are cooked, add bite-size and bone-free pieces of any type of fish. The fish will cook within 30 minutes. The result is delicious as is or served over rice.
Fish cakes
Any fish swimming in the Basin would make great fish cakes. If you haven't tried this way of preparing fish, try it before dismissing the idea.
This recipe is appropriate for crab, shrimp or fish. Mix one egg, one-quarter chopped onion, a half cup bread crumbs with 15 ounces of canned and flaked fish.
Shape into four patties and fry in olive oil until brown on both sides.
Wild fish and game is delicious
The amount of fish and wild game available in the Basin allows area cooks to try various recipes with family members being the luck beneficiaries.
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