Gundog Training Forum

Could I ask the admin and or mods opinion about the posting of recipes in a section of the forum, similar to the recipes listed below, I live in France and have a French Game fur & feather recipe book, and other French recipe books, some of the recipes I have translated, adapted and "tweaked" to suit English tastes, and posted in the members section of the forum that I help to administer, together with some of my own, and other members recipes, one of the more outlandish recipes is for a Starling Pate which calls for a dozen Starlings, another is for a stuffed ducks neck fried in duck fat

Smoked Duck and Melon Salad

Ingredients:

• 1 ripe Charentais melon
• 12 thin slices of magret de canard fume (smoked duck breast)
• 1 lettuce or other salad leaves
• Vinaigrette made with 1 tbsp vinegar, 1 tsp mustard, 3 tbsps
olive, sunflower or walnut oil, salt & pepper.
• Fresh mint leaves, washed

Method:

Either de-seed skin and cut melon into cubes or use a melon-baller to
empty the melon from the skin.
Cut the magret into fine strips. Arrange salad leaves in a
bowl, dress with vinaigrette and sprinkle the duck and melon on top.
Decorate with mint leaves.


Pigeons with Cherries and Eau de Vie or Kirsh

Preparation time 25 mins
Cooking time 20 mins
Ingredients:
• 4 Pigeons
• 700g ripe cherries
• 70g butter
• 2 soup spoons of eau de vie or kirsh
• Salt and pepper
• A small bunch of fresh chopped chive's

Method:

Pluck and gut the pigeons; remove head, feet and wings.
Wash and de-stone the cherries, reserve 24 cherries with stalks for the
decoration.
Salt and pepper the pigeons, put 50g of butter in a large
saucepan and brown the pigeons on all sides.
Add the eau de vie, leave until it has evaporated then add the cherries; cover and simmer
for 15 minutes, turning the pigeons half way through the cooking.
Remove the pigeons and cherries from the pan, cut the pigeons in
half length ways and keep warm. De-glaze the bottom of the pan with
1cl of water, add the remaining butter. Adjust the seasoning, add the cherries cover and simmer for 5 minutes.
Place two of the pigeon halves on each plate; add the sauce, the cherries with stalks 6 per
plate, and sprinkle the pigeon halves with the chives. Serve.


Sarcelles en Brochettes et Jus de Truffe (Teal on
Skewer's & Truffle Juice)

Ingredients:
• 2 teal with the liver and heart
• 100g duck foie gras, cooked or half cooked
• 125g softened butter
• 2 soup spoons Armagnac
• 2 apples
• ½ a lemon
• 100g salted butter
• 20cl chicken stock
• 5cl truffle juice
• 25g truffles
• Salt & pepper

Method:

Prepare a butter of foie gras by mixing in a mixer, the foie gras, the
softened butter, the Armagnac and a pinch of salt and pepper.
Place in the refrigerator. Pluck and gut the teal keeping the heart and liver.
Finely chop the teal heart and liver.
Cut the 2 apples (across the apple) into 4 thick slices.
Put to one side the 2 innermost slices, and
cover with lemon juice; peel the outer slices and put the flesh to one
side for the moment.
Prepare the stuffing by mixing with a fork one
third of the foie gras butter, the outer slices of apple and the chopped
heart and Liver; pepper then stuff inside the teals.
On the skewers, place one slice of apple, then the teal, followed by
another apple slice, lightly pepper, brush with melted butter and place
on an oven tray.
Place into the oven on a high shelf, 180°c for 20
minutes turning from time to time and brushing with melted butter.
Meanwhile prepare the sauce; on a low heat reduce the chicken stock,
in a saucepan, just until it will cover (or cling to) the back of the
spoon, add the truffle juice, the chopped truffles, and bring to the
boil, when boiling remove from the heat.
Incorporate the remainder of the foie gras butter, little by little; keep warm without cooking
again.
When the teal are cooked, serve half a bird and stuffing on a toasted
slice of bread, on which a cooked slice of apple had been placed,
add a couple of slices of truffle.
Serve the sauce in a sauce boat.

Sausages and Terrines

Goat & Deer with Beer

Ingredients:
• 1kg minced goat
• ½ kg minced venison
• 50g lard or suet
• 1 large onion
• 250g bread crumbs toasted (this is the rusk)
• 1 bottle brown ale (stout, or what ever grabs you)
• Salt and pepper to taste
Method:
Mix all the ingredients well, taste and adjust the seasoning if needed.
Fill the casings.

Pork (Wild Boar) and Apple

Ingredients:

•1.5kg pork (wild boar) coarse minced (can be cooked)
• 4 large cooking apples, peeled, cored and minced
• 250g rusk
• 50g lard or suet
• Salt & pepper
• 15cl Calvados
Method:
Mix all the ingredients well, taste and adjust seasoning if necessary.
Fill the casings.
If you live in an old house with large fireplaces you could try drying
the sausages in the chimney or smoking them with a low wood fire;
apple and pear wood is nice to give a good flavour. Try using the
heart, lung's and other offal together with oatmeal, tomatoes and
other vegetables, other spices, and flavourings, gin or juniper
berries, or indeed whisky.

I think that is a great idea! We are a group of like-minded folks from all over the world( some of us ) sharing experiences and ideas. Good recipes for the game that we and our dogs work so hard for. Why not? Although we are at the keystroke whim of the Mods,so I dunno. Let's see what others have to say. After all there is a joke section on here?!?

Scrumptious Braised Guinea Fowl

Ingredients:
1 large onion, cut into eighths
5 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon coarse salt, plus more to taste
2 to 3 pounds Guinea Fowl (Tarentaal) as we South Africans call it.
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 cup homemade chicken stock or reduced-sodium chicken broth
1/4 cup dry white wine
1 teaspoon chopped fresh thyme or rosemary, or 1/2 teaspoon dried
1/2 pound mushrooms,button, sliced
Chopped fresh parsley
1tbsp finely stamped ginger and garlic
Coriander leaves for garnishing

Directions:
Heat the olive oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add the onions and sauté until golden brown, about 8 minutes. Transfer the onions to a bowl and set aside.
Stir the flour and salt together in a shallow bowl and dredge the guinea fowl in the mixture.
Melt 1 tablespoon of the butter in the same pan. Add the meat and sauté the pieces until they are lightly browned, then add the ginger and garlic and braise for 2 minutes . Layer the onion over the top and pour in the chicken stock, white wine, and thyme. Cover and simmer until the pieces are tender, 30 to 40 minutes.
Meanwhile, melt the remaining 1 tablespoon of butter in a small skillet and add the mushrooms. Sauté until they begin to soften. Season with a pinch of salt. Add the mushrooms and their cooking juices to the large pan 10 minutes before the guinea fowl pieces are done. Serve garnish with chopped parsley and coriander leaves.

As a keen cook I'm all in favour of having a section for recipies, as has been said game is the end product to our sport and how we can cook that game should be shared.

I'm also in favour of a recipe section. Think it's a great idea. I'll definitely try some of the recipes once the season starts.

My own personal thoughts are:- The forum doesn't support any way of indexing posts so if I was looking for a specific game species recipe would I read page after page of recipes on here trying to find the appropriate one? Probably not, I'd either Google it or more than likely look in my cookery books...

For now I've amended the heading so we can at least keep it game related.

Rascal

I think that Rabbit could be classed as game, so a few rabbit recipes

Lapin en Daube (Rabbit Stew)

Ingredients:
• 1 good sized rabbit
• 1 bouquet garni
• 2 cloves of garlic
• 1 red onion
• 2 oranges
• Olive oil
• 75cl red wine (A Cahors red, its nice and robust)
• 2 soup spoons of flour
• 6 cherry tomatoes
• 12 small shallots
• 100g stoned olives black and green
• Salt and pepper

Method:

Cut the rabbit into portions place the rabbit portions into a large dish, add the bouquet garni, the crushed cloves of garlic, the minced onion, the zest of one orange, salt, pepper, 1 soup spoon of olive oil, and the
wine, leave to marinade for 4 hours.
Remove and drain the rabbit, saving the marinade.
In a large saucepan brown the rabbit on all sides with 3 soup spoons of olive oil; whilst the rabbit is browning sieve the marinade.
When the rabbit is nice and golden on all sides add the garlic, the onion, and the solids from the sieved marinade, cover and cook for 5 minutes,
sprinkle the flour over the rabbit, add the liquid from the marinade and the bouquet garni; bring to the boil, cover and simmer for an hour.
Half way through the cooking, add the cherry tomatoes which have been skinned, de-seeded, and crushed, also the shallots, continue cooking with the cover off.
Cut the skin of the second orange into very fine zest, blanch in boiling water for 3 minutes, at the end of the cooking time add the drained blanched zest of orange and the black and green olives to the dish check for seasoning and rectify if not to taste. Serve.


Red Rabbit Rable (Roast Rabbit Legs)

Ingredients:
• 1 large rabbit about 1-5kg
• The back and flanks of the rabbit (just the flesh cut from
between the back legs, do not use the legs, and the rib's of the
rabbit) diced in to ½" squares
• 1½ tbps of walnut oil
• 2 long red shallots diced
• Diced bacon
• 2 tbsp creme fraiche
• Knob of butter (about a tablespoon)
• ¾ tbsp mustard
• Handful of dried chopped chives
• 1 tsp of garlic granules
• 1 glass red wine
• ½ glass of milk
• Salt & pepper

Method:
In a large frying pan soften the diced shallots in the walnut oil, add the diced rabbit, creme fraiche, mustard, dried chives, garlic granules, milk and butter and simmer for 15 minutes.
Add the red wine and simmer for another 10 minutes, adding salt and pepper to taste.
Remove the meat and serve with a little of the sauce and shallots.
Use the remaining sauce and shallots for the roast rabbit legs.
Remove the rabbit legs, and put to one side, for use later. Remove and discard the head, remove the liver, kidney's, heart and lungs (you can save or discard the lungs), put to one side. Place the rabbit carcase (spine & rib cage) into a saucepan with a glass full of wine vinegar and 75cl,
cold water, bring to the boil and simmer for 45 minutes, allow to cool, remove the flesh from the bones, put to one side.
Reduce the liquid to about 25cl.
In an oiled oven dish arrange the 4 rabbit legs, add the sauce, a handful of dried chives, cover and cook for 30 minutes, medium heat, remove from the oven, remove the cover, add the liquid from the saucepan thickened a little with a gravy powder.
Add the pieces of the rabbit (from the carcass) cover with mashed potato, roasted bread crumbs, grated cheese and fresh ground black pepper, place into the oven and cook for another 30 minutes or until the cheese melts into
the mashed potato and it forms a golden crust.
Dice the heart, liver and kidney's and fry off in a frying pan in a little oil, add 100g diced bacon, a diced shallot, a tablespoon creme fraiche and half a tablespoon of mustard, simmer for 15 minutes. Add ½
glass red wine; continue simmering for another 10 minutes. Serve with Pommes Sarlandaise


Terrine de Lapin

(or as the English would have it, course cut rabbit pate) or Terrine
Campagnarde if not using rabbit;

2 versions

A very simple and tasty terrine to make
Preparation 30 mins
Cooking 1 hr 15 mins to 1 hr 30 mins
Waiting time 12 hr (to let it cool & set)
1 x 2ltr terrine dish or several smaller ones, all with lids

Ingredients:
• 2 hind legs of a medium sized rabbit boned out and minced; instead of rabbit you can use 250g veal or venison minced.
• 250g barde (pork fat beaten out flat & thin)
• 15g butter
• 1 onion, finely chopped (fresh young ones for the best taste) or
2 shallots (I use shallots).
• 2 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
• 350g pork sausage meat
• 2 beaten eggs
• Nutmeg
• 2 or 3 cloves
• 3 or 4 juniper berries, crushed
• Salt and pepper
• 3cl brandy, Calvados, (or a good glug of the spirits you like, if using gin omit the juniper berries)
• 2 or 3 rashers of bacon
• Approx 200g flour mixed with approx 30cl water; this is to seal the lid of the dish whilst cooking, not essential but nice for decoration.
• 25cl chicken stock
• 4 gelatin leaves
• 2 bay leaves and a sprig of thyme.

Method Version 1:
Line the sides of a 2 ltr terrine dish with lid, (or a cake mould if you do not have a terrine dish) with and also cover the bottom with the strips of barde.
Preheat the oven (150 /175°c., mark 3 or 4).
Melt the butter in a sauce pan and cook the onions without colouring on a low heat.
Mix the rest of the well ingredients well except for the bacon rasher and with a wooden spoon, spoon into a ball; adjust the seasoning if needed.
Fill one third of the terrine dish with the mixture, cover the
top with a covering of barde, a few rashers of bacon and the bay leaves and thyme.
Make a thick paste with the flour and water (it should be like putty) and use it to seal the joint between the lid and
dish, this is to stop any vapour escaping.
Place in a deep oven tray filled with water (a bain-marie) cook for 1¼ to 1½ hours; top-up the bain-marie with water if it evaporates too quickly.
Remove from oven when cooked, let it cool and when tepid, replace the lid cover with aluminium foil and place a 500g weight on the terrine to compress it.
Place in a refrigerator until completely cool
De-mould the terrine.

Method Version 2:
Instead of putting a weight on top, melt the gelatin in 25cl chicken stock and pour over the terrine, place in refrigerator until set.

Rascal wrote:My own personal thoughts are:- The forum doesn't support any way of indexing posts so if I was looking for a specific game species recipe would I read page after page of recipes on here trying to find the appropriate one? Probably not, I'd either Google it or more than likely look in my cookery books...

I believe, but stand to be corrected, that most browsers allow users to search a web page. So, so long as all the recipes are under this heading all instances of a particular word could be shown:

In Google Chrome click on 'Customize and Control Google Chrome' and then on 'Find'

In IE 'Edit - Find on this page'

At least one wouldn't have to just scroll through every post?

DRW you may as well be talking to me in Swahili, I just love that whooshing sound as stuff flies straight over the top of me head....

Rascal

At the risk of sounding a know-all, I know just about bugger all when it comes to computers, but being admin on another forum that uses the phpBB set up, I would say that one way to make a recipe section easy to access, would be to have a recipe section, in the general chat section, with sub sections for say, Soups, Starters, Main meals, Deserts, Sausages Pates and Terrines, then Drinks alcoholic or not

Depending on how the forum owner has given permissions to the admin and mods, it might only be admin who could set this up, and would take about a quarter of an hour to do so, the hardest part would be to type out the different sub section headings

Then the members could add a recipe in the correct sub section, and also other members could brows the different sub sections to see if there was anything that caught their fancy

Mods and admin please excuse me if I have trod on any feet, or ruffled feathers, it was not my intention to do so