November 19, 2024 • 54 mins
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
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
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Here we go, welcome.
(02:01):
Welcome everybody to anotherepisode of the Eating Well
podcast.
I am your host, antonio SmashMalecka.
Solo.
This is a solo trip, folks.
A while back I told you we'd bedoing a lot of these episodes
Smash's kitchen.
Well, today, folks, you're inluck.
I hope you like soup season.
I also hope you had a pleasantfull waterfowl popping season,
(02:26):
because we're going to talkabout waterfowl Now.
What I did, folks, is Iliterally I told everybody,
especially with the boys Hookset, martins, top Dog, pereira,
showtime Johnson that we got tostart catching up on our emails
with tons of questions.
We'll be getting a lot of tonsof food questions, fishing
questions, hunting questions andkeep pouring them in at
theeatingwildpodcast at gmailcom.
(02:48):
We're always checking them andif we haven't done this episode
for a while we apologize.
There's been so much happeningwith the Eating Wild podcast me
and the boys, we've been onjourneys from the musky brawl
which I'm probably sure everyoneheard about was a great success
for us and our team Meetingtons and tons of new people,
(03:10):
getting the meat out there fromthe butcher shop and making
breakfast with some of the stufffrom our sponsors, with Lou's
products.
It's been a crazy month,believe it or not, for myself
and the boys, and we're lookingto create more.
We are, uh, we are signing upto do some, uh, really
incredible stuff for the rest ofthis year.
(03:32):
Obviously, ice fishing season'saround the corner and you know
me and the boys, we like to goout there and try to ice fish.
I mean, we don't really, I'mgonna be honest, we don't really
put that much effort other thangoing up to my place in Port
Perry putting out the hut.
We always say we're going tomove and you know we get lazy
(03:53):
and it's always Hooksack,hooksack's like look man, we got
to move, we got to find thesefish.
We're like, nah, I think wejust stay where we are and I'm
okay with catching perch thesize of my pinky finger on one
inch of ice.
That's cracking all the timeand, uh, you know it's pretty,
it's pretty funny.
But listen, they're, they'refun memories.
(04:13):
Hopefully we get some ice thisyear.
Hopefully we get some snow,because we got the beachy klutz
sitting inside the garage, thethree 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 alsoplanning Showtime.
Was talking to me last nightwhile we were playing Call of
(04:33):
Duty.
We popped, by the way, 900score.
That's me personally.
And speaking of Call of Duty,andrew Walker man got to meet
him at the Muskie Brawl and ifanybody hasn't seen this guy's
YouTube page, okay, this guyplays Call of Duty on his phone
while he's popping Walters onthe Bay of Quinte.
(04:54):
Now, I got to do that LikeAndrew.
If you're listening, you justtext me the calendar, buddy, I'm
bringing my phone so we can popand hopefully we get into some
of those gigantic Walters thatyou get out there and it's
incredible.
So hopefully we get to do somesome trips together, me and the
boys this winter.
(05:14):
It is around the corner, infact, looking at my phone from
like 10 years ago, there's beentrips that I went on with the
boys where it's been likesnowing already, like I'm
talking like October snow andwe're in November now and let's,
I mean it was 22 degrees a fewdays ago.
Water temps are still prettywarm out there.
(05:36):
Actually, speaking to CousinGlenn who's out on Lake St Clair
with the boys right now as wespeak doing the trip with the
boys and water temps are stillhigh, mid-50s, I think he said
to me in a text yesterday.
So I mean, yeah, times arechanging, weather is changing,
patterns are changing.
(05:56):
Hopefully we could get Coke man, coke Machine, on again this
winter to give us some liveupdates of the ice on Lake
Nipissing getting ready for thehard water up there.
If you haven't heard thatepisode last year around, I'd
say probably around earlyDecember, we had Coke Machine on
Great episode Donated somestuff for his cool giveaway that
(06:17):
he does Check out his YouTubepage.
We're going to try to get theCoke man on again before
season's up.
But fast forwarding to today'sepisode, smash's Kitchen.
Welcome to my kitchen.
Basically it's a perspective offood stuff that you know again,
the best to my knowledge, thebest experience I have with
these products, and hopefully Ican help you along the way with
(06:40):
your questions.
Again, guys, I'm not saying I'mthe best, I'm not saying that
this is the way you should bedoing it.
This is just an opinion from achef who's obviously worked with
a lot of these things and a lotof these menus and products in
the kitchen many, many years ofexperience doing this.
So we're going to get to it.
(07:01):
And again, I apologize for notgetting to all the questions,
but I sort of went through itall and I tried to get these
questions and group themtogether.
So the subject's kind of thesame.
So I kind of broke it down tosoups and seasonal dishes and
that's going to be the firstsegment of Smash's Kitchen today
and the second one is going tobe about waterfowl after the
(07:22):
break.
We're going to talk aboutwaterfowl after the break.
We're going to talk aboutwaterfowl because tons and tons
of emails and recipe requestsand people asking me questions
about waterfowl, so I figuredI'd kind of start off with the
soups and the reason why I likesoups.
This is the time of year soupsis probably the most hearty and
the most I don't know, I guesssatisfying thing when it's cold
(07:44):
outside.
You know stews and soups andbroths.
This time of year is probablymy favorite time to share
recipes and also create new ones.
Like I met a lot of chefs overmy years, I worked with a lot of
different chefs and wheneverit's soup season everyone gets
pumped up and everyone alwaysmakes the best broths, everyone
always makes the best bonebroths and it's funny watching
(08:07):
different cultures and how theydo their soups and their broths.
So I got some tips I can giveyou guys based on some of the
questions, and let's get to it.
The first one comes from RobertBrown.
Robert Brown is in Kenora,ontario.
That's pretty cool, kenora.
I think this is one of thefirst ones, and his first
question was how do you achievethe perfect texture in a creamed
(08:32):
base soup?
I've always wanted to make areally rich and creamy soup
using the bones from my chicken.
Is there any way or any adviceyou can help me achieve the
perfect texture?
Great question, robert, andcream-based soups, cream-based
(08:53):
soups, using chicken broth,using bone broth, beef, any kind
of broth.
Really, I think the mostimportant thing you need to
think about is when you'remaking these broths is how rich,
how creamy do you want it?
And there's two different waysof doing it.
When you're making your roux soroux again celery, carrots,
(09:16):
onion butter, and you're goingto need a little bit of flour
all purpose you want to startyour roux kind of sweat it off,
cook that flour out, and thenyou add your broth and naturally
that will thicken in time.
To add richness.
To add richness, robert, Ithink what you would want to do
(09:40):
is add heavy cream, and thereason why I'm saying this is
because one the heavy cream,when you're adding it to like,
say, 10 liters of liquid or evenroux that you've created with
your stock, what that's gonna dois it's not gonna thicken your
soup any.
All it's gonna do is enhancethe color.
It's obviously gonna be alittle bit more white, but it
will definitely add morerichness to your broth.
(10:02):
Another way of doing it andlisten, I have nothing against
this whatsoever and people willlaugh and probably say what kind
of chef uses this technique?
And I'm going to tell you rightnow, you're nuts.
If you don't think that it's asmart way of doing your making
your soups richer is adding acream-based tinned soup.
Give you an example adding acream-based tinned soup.
(10:22):
Give you an example Cream ofmushroom by Campbell's Thick,
really, really rich.
It's got so much bloody sodiumin it that you don't have to add
any salt to it.
Now listen, I'm a chef man andpeople listening out there,
whether you're a chef or whetheryou're just a home cook, you're
going to need salt, you'regoing to need sodium.
I don't give a shit what you'redoing.
(10:43):
If you're going to make a soupand you're not going to add the
salt or you're not going to addsome sort of sodium, it's going
to taste like water, it's goingto taste like dishwater.
Add a little bit of salt, don'tbe afraid.
If you are going to add cream ofmushroom, cream of chicken,
cream of celery, I'm telling youright now you adding that is
there's nothing wrong with it.
And again, it's loaded withsalt.
(11:05):
I wouldn't add too much salt.
If you're planning on addingthat to your soup and it's going
to add texture, it's going toadd richness and flavor and
there's nothing wrong with it.
So you know, john, if you aregoing to be making a you know
soup based on your chicken bonesthat you mentioned in the
question, add a little bit ofcream of chicken soup.
(11:27):
Add a bit of cream of mushroomsoup.
Add a little bit of cream ofcelery nothing wrong with it.
Add a little bit of 35% creamand I'll tell you right now,
it's going to be richer.
You're going to get lots offlavor out of it.
It's going to be beautiful.
And here's another thing I liketo touch on with, now that we're
talking about cream-based soupsuse it as a sauce.
Use it as a sauce, man.
(11:47):
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, useit 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 thatcomes to mind chicken stuffed
with Havarti and, you know,asparagus, beautiful, sewer up
(12:12):
pan, sear, roast it in the oven.
Cheese is oozing everywhere,compliment it.
Cover it with a nice, reallythick, rich, creamy chicken
stock.
Oh, beautiful Mushrooms, whynot?
It's beautiful.
So be creative when you'remaking these creamy base soups
and I think there's nothingwrong with it.
And you know, adding somecrackers.
(12:32):
Have some bread Beautiful,that's a great lunch.
Have a sandwich with a soupsandwich You're rocking.
Next question comes from CharlesMiller.
Didn't say where he's from, butCharles Miller has another
question Can you share any tipsfor balancing flavors in a soup?
I have a lot of bones from myharvest this past year and would
(12:55):
like to get some rich soups.
Balancing flavors Wow, I'mtrying to read this far away and
I think I need glasses, likeMarty boy.
So, basically what he's askingme is there any tips in
balancing flavors in soup usingthe bones from his harvest this
past year?
So I don't know if that was amoose, if it was a deer, if it
(13:17):
was waterfowl, doesn't matter.
Same techniques, okay,balancing flavor that's a very
good question.
Here's the thing.
There's the Holy Trinity and Icall 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 sweattheir vegetables off however way
(13:39):
they like.
Balancing flavor is very simple.
There's different flavors inbones in itself, the more fat
you get and I find this whenpeople are having traditional
dishes like ramen or you knowAsian style soups, and you know
fat is a really, really bigthing when you're making these
(13:59):
types of soups and it's therichness that you know.
People leave these broths onfor like two or three days
sometimes and some people skimthe fat and some people leave
the fat because, you know,depending on what kind of soup
you're making, the fat is animportant element to it.
So I would say that balancingthe flavors is going to depend
(14:19):
on what bones, what stock you'reusing.
But you start with the HolyTrinity roast your bones.
I think roasting your bones isan stock you're using.
But you start with the HolyTrinity um, throw, roast your
bones.
I think roasting your bones isis an important thing.
Now, a lot of people.
Again, this is anothertechnique that people use that
you know.
Chef Craig uses this techniqueall the time.
Recently we just did pho umspelled P-H-O, so pho, pho,
however you want to, you want topronounce it Um.
(14:42):
He rinsed, he actually boiledthe bones first and we used beef
bones and he boiled the bones,rinsed the bones, then roasted
them and then started making thebroth.
So it was a technique that heheard was I don't know if it's
traditional in the culture, butit was a cleaner way of making
(15:03):
the broth and you maximizeflavors, hence balancing flavors
in the question.
So again, I like to roast thebones.
Again, he didn't mention whatbones it was.
If it was, you know, let's justsay venison, roast those bones,
get a nice color on it, add itto your water, to your liquid,
with your Holy Trinity, and letit go.
(15:24):
Let it go for I don't know, atleast 45, at least 45 minutes.
Obviously, the longer thebetter, unless we're getting
into seafood.
That's a whole different game.
But skim the top, take the fatoff.
If you are making somethinglike a ramen broth then yes, you
might want to keep that fat onthere.
You're not going to get muchfat from the venison.
(15:45):
You'll probably get more fat,say, from pork or possibly some
of the waterfowl, depending.
You know, duck obviously has atraditionally has a bunch of fat
on it.
If you clean your duck and youwant to do a nice duck broth,
keep it whole skin on.
You know, like I said, youprobably want to roast that duck
.
Get it inside of a pot with theHoly Trinity, let it go, add a
(16:08):
bay leaf and away you go.
Now balancing the flavors.
Again, it's all going to dependon the bones.
But adding salt.
Salt is probably the mostimportant ingredient in stocks
because basically, if there isno sort of sodium in that and
again this goes back to thefirst question you're not
(16:28):
getting any flavor.
Salt peppercorns, you can addstar anise, you can add so many
different types of herbs to yourbroth.
Parsley is another one freshparsley, I wouldn't use dry
parsley.
Some people get cheesecloth.
They know thyme and bay leavesand some people even add
rosemary, believe it or not,which I think is nuts.
(16:48):
But any kind of fresh herbs,wrap it up in a cheesecloth,
fire it in there, so that wayyou can just pull that out and
away.
It goes in the garbage andyou're not.
You know you're not gettingwoody stems going down your
throat.
But don't be afraid.
When you say balance yourflavors, I mean everyone's
palate is always going to bedifferent.
There's some people that can'thave salt at all, they can't
(17:09):
have sodium, whether it's theirdiet, their cholesterol is high,
whatnot.
So really, when it comes downto it, you are flavoring to
taste it to what you and yourfamily desire.
Me again, I'm a salt guy.
It's got to be loaded withkosher salt.
I want to make sure there'sbite richness as well.
I would prefer not to keep thefat.
There's other ways of makingsoups rich, like I said in the
(17:31):
previous question.
But great question.
I hope I answered it properly.
Next question coming in fromEdward Taylor.
Edward doesn't say where he'sfrom.
What are your favorite seasonalingredients to incorporate in
soups this time of year?
Great question.
(17:51):
So before we kick this one off,we were talking about time of
year, favorite time of year tomaking soups, and one of the
things that I get pumped upabout is your fall vegetables.
You got pumpkin, you gotbutternut squash, you got
parsnips, you got rutabaga,onions, leeks.
(18:12):
There's so many different rootvegetables that come up this
time of year that traditionallyyou don't see in the summertime
because people always takeadvantage of seasonal vegetables
.
You're not seeing asparagusthis time of year.
You're not seeing leeks or Iknow I mentioned leeks, but
you're not seeing.
You know, traditionally, thestuff that comes up in the
spring and then you know in thesummertime.
(18:32):
So this this to me, you know,speaks of hardiness and sweet
potatoes.
I'll add sweet potato to thattoo, even though you can get
them all year round, butprobably my favorite seasonal
ingredients to use would bebutternut squash, parsnips,
(18:53):
adding something like nutmeg orcinnamon, or adding simple
ingredients like coconut milk,if you're doing Thai flavors or
you're doing curries, all thesethings.
So butternut squash, let's saybutternut squash, one of my
favorite soups to make, adding atouch of nutmeg and a touch of
(19:14):
cinnamon, kind of making it,giving it that festive sort of
flavors, to me really puts itover the top.
And it's very simple.
And again, you can use whateverbase you want, holy Trinity, if
you want to use chicken stock,if you want to use vegetable
stock I wouldn't do mushroomstock kind of weird, but any of
(19:35):
those stocks, any of those baseswill do and you simply just
chop up your butternut squash,fire it into that stock, let it
roast, let it simmer down for atleast 45 to an hour and a half
and you'll notice like once thatbutternut squash sort of floats
.
And this goes for carrots, thisgoes for parsnips, rutabaga,
any kind of these rootvegetables, and don't be afraid
(19:57):
to mix them together.
I've done a parsnip andbutternut squash soup many times
.
Jerusalem artichokes, anotherreally cool one to use.
That's people don't really knowmuch about, but I'm sure you go
to your grocery store you don'teven know they exist, and ask
for Jerusalem artichoke, make apuree or a soup out of that.
It'll change your life.
Also, ginger Ginger is a really, really, really important thing
(20:21):
that I like to use this time ofyear.
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 alittle bit.
Adding doing a parsnip andginger soup.
Are you kidding me?
Beautiful, it's a simpletechnique.
Start with your stock, throwyour your chopped parsnips in
there, let it boil.
You're gonna puree, you'regonna add a little bit of
(20:42):
roasted ginger in there, or evenfire your ginger in there while
you're, while you're makingyour stock, the only thing I
would say is you got to becareful on the amount of ginger
you use, because I'll tell youit can.
It can actually ruin the soup.
You only need a tiny, tiny bit.
You don't need to put a wholestock in there.
I mean, some people like itspicy, I don't know.
Some people love the gingerness, you know.
(21:03):
But again, everything that I'mtelling you to do here is all
personal preference.
Like I don't like too muchginger.
Some people listening are likewell, I love ginger Well, fire
in a whole stock of it, don'tcare.
If you like it, do it and,again, have fun with it.
Don't be afraid to mix differentingredients.
There's no wrong way of doingthings when you're in the
(21:24):
kitchen, guys, and I try tostress this a lot.
And one thing that I candefinitely tell you with this
time of year when again goingback to his question with
seasonal ingredients is when youare harvesting your own.
So, again, if this is the timeof year where you're picking up
your zucchinis and you'recutting out your squash and
(21:45):
you're getting your spaghettisquash, whatever it, really
really take the time and doresearch, because you spent the
whole year planting and takingcare of these vegetables and I
think that it's important thatyou take the time and do some
research on how to properly makethis the way you want.
(22:05):
And again, I mentioned pumpkin.
Pumpkin soup has been so popularlately, especially in the Thai
restaurants, and I love it.
Like you go in there and youorder a Thai pumpkin soup, it's
coconut milk based.
You know, again, you get thelittle bit of sweetness, you get
the heat from the curriedflavors and the lemongrass and
the kaffir lime leaves and allthat stuff.
And I'm telling you right now,one pumpkin, just one average
(22:28):
style pumpkin, you couldprobably make 18 liters of soup.
Freeze it, put it in delicontainers.
And I'm telling you right now,we go ice fishing.
We go to my place out in LakeScugog, me and the boys, and I
remember Hooks that brought oneof our chefs, gonzalo, at our
other shop.
He made this beautiful blackbean I think it was a Brazilian
(22:49):
black bean soup and he four orfive deli containers of it.
And I swear to you, every yearwe go the past three years we
always pull out a deli containerof it and we we thaw it out, we
put it in the oven or in a potand we reheat it and it's
friggin delicious.
So it's, it's not like it'sgonna go bad once it freezes,
it's frozen, it's it's not gonnabe bad after a year or two.
(23:12):
And I'm telling you, I'mtelling you like, I'm telling
you as a chef, there's nothingwrong 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 winterlong, even in the summer times,
no problem.
So, uh, great questions on thesoups.
(23:34):
Again, it's one of my favoritetimes of year and, uh, we're
going to take a short break.
We got a message from oursponsors, but when we come back,
we're talking waterfowl pop.
I love the uh, the waterfowltrips and uh, and I love
harvesting them as well.
So we're going to talk aboutthat right after the short
messages.
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Speaker 3 (25:14):
When you're out fishing, it's all about the
catch, but what if the fisharen't biting?
Speaker 2 (25:20):
Hey boys, what's our backup plan if we don't catch
anything for lunch?
Speaker 1 (25:23):
I'm starving, we better catch something quick.
No worries, I packed somepulled pork sandwiches from
Lou's Kitchen just in case weget skunked.
It's always smart to have aplan B.
Speaker 2 (25:34):
Good thinking, Siege.
I hate to go hungry out here.
Speaker 1 (25:36):
We all know how Lou gets when he doesn't eat Exactly
Fishing's fun, but great foodmakes it even better.
Speaker 3 (25:43):
So remember, whether it's fish or sandwiches, make
your shore lunch a guaranteedcatch.
With Lou's, we're happy to beplan B on the water.
Speaker 2 (26:01):
Welcome back, lose.
We're happy to be plan b on thewater.
Welcome back, we are back.
Smash malecca.
We're here in smash's kitchentoday.
Guys, I'm running solo for hookset martin's top dog prayer and
show time jansen.
Folks go on instagram, reachout to show time jansen because
he's pulling this guy's pullingmagic tricks on I don't know how
he does it social media I'mstill.
You know, I go on there, I lookaround, I'm checking, I'm
always looking at the fishingstuff, the hunting stuff and
(26:21):
obviously the food videos.
But Showtime Jansen, he'staking it to another level that
this guy with his posts andstuff, he's becoming a pro.
And don't be afraid to reachout to him on social media.
He'll get back to you.
And please, guys, again reachout to us.
Theeatingwildpodcast atgmailcom.
You got a question for any oneof the four skins.
(26:41):
You let us know.
We'll try to answer them thebest we can.
Moving on, we're moving on tothe waterfowl.
Now, waterfowl, the season iskind of coming down to an end
and we haven't been successfulthis 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
(27:02):
some grouse, we're hoping to getinto 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'scalled fishing.
So we go out there with theguns and we hope, hopefully we
pop, but uh, it's been, it'sbeen a shit year for us.
But, needless to say, I'vecooked a million birds in my
time.
Hook set, martins, I rememberme, and hook set used to have
(27:23):
competitions on who can cut abird quicker, and we know our
way around these, uh, thesebeautiful animals, and again,
we've we've got lots ofexperience with them.
So, getting onto the questions,barbara Wilson, sudbury, ontario
, barbara, thanks for thequestion.
What are the best cookingmethods for different types of
(27:45):
waterfowl?
This is one area I strugglewith.
We have so much waterfowl inour neighborhood and I can never
find different methods of doingit.
Great question, that is a greatquestion.
Here's the thing Chicken, I'mgoing to use chicken, bush
chicken, so hopefully we can.
You know she pops grouse outthere, because I'll target this
(28:06):
one for this question Bushchicken or chicken?
You go to an Italian restaurant, you go to a Portuguese
restaurant, you go to a, let'sjust say, any kind of restaurant
.
Chicken is always on the menu,always.
You can get it as a chickensandwich, breaded or fried
chicken chicken, parmesanchicken, caesar salad, chicken,
wrap chicken, this chicken,alfredo, blah, blah, blah,
(28:29):
chicken, chicken, chicken.
Here's the thing.
There's nothing wrong withusing your waterfowl.
The same way, there's nothingwrong with it Bush chicken.
They call it bush chicken for areason.
Pound that thing out, cut it.
Get those breasts out, get amallet, pound it.
Egg wash, bread crumbs, fry it.
Parmesan cheese, tomato sauce.
You got a chicken cutlet.
You got a chicken parmigianoright there.
You want to barbecue it,barbecue it.
(28:49):
Honey garlic sauce, southernsauce.
You got a chicken cutlet.
You got a chicken parmigianoright there.
Okay, you want to barbecue it.
Barbecue it.
Honey garlic sauce, southernsauce, whatever.
You want.
Frank's Red Hot, you want tospice it up, chop it up, throw
it in a Caesar salad.
There's so many differentmethods of cooking waterfowl and
(29:10):
I always take it to chickenbecause if you don't think of
chicken being the holy trinityof the bird population and what
we consume in the general publichere, you know it's a reason
why it's the cheapest thing onthe menu, the menu.
And there's also a reason whywhen you go to the grocery store
(29:33):
it's probably out of all.
You know the proteins, probablyone of the most.
And here's the thing that'skind of weird to me.
Speaking of pricing, chickenlegs are so cheap for some
reason, and to me it's myfavorite part of a chicken.
I mean, the breasts are great.
I mean they're easy to make dry.
People don't know what the hellthey're doing 90% of the time,
(29:57):
but you can't screw up a chickenleg, especially if it's bone in
.
You know, throw it in the oven.
People will cook it to 200 andit'll still be moist.
I mean, let's be honest.
So there's nothing wrong withyour chicken legs at 99 cents a
pound and your chicken breastsare 3.99, 4.99 a pound.
For me it's kind of crazy.
But just some advice.
(30:17):
If you're going to the grocerystore, buy the whole bird, get
your knife, ask the boys, me orHooks, how to properly clean a
chicken.
Maybe we'll do a YouTube videoof it.
But it's not hard.
You get two breasts and twolegs for half of the price you'd
pay for one breast.
So think about that.
Anyways, back to the questionDifferent techniques.
(30:40):
Go on Google and punch in themost popular, trending chicken
dishes and I'm going to tell youright now.
There's going to be hundredsthat pop up.
Treat your waterfowl the same,treat it the same.
Now let's talk about the darkmeat, because yes, I'm going to
admit, the dark meat is probablychallenging.
(31:02):
When it comes to waterfowl, theduck 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 thelegs and pull up.
You got a beautiful, twobeautiful breasts right there,
ready to clean and cook.
Here's the thing If you were tokeep the whole thing, you know
(31:24):
you pluck it, you got it, youclean it and you see these
little, tiny, two ounce legs oneach side of your waterfowl,
whether it's, you know, awoodcock or your duck or
whatever it is your grouse, yourpartridge pheasants even.
You know, pheasants are, eventhough a bit bigger, in Turkey,
listen to this guys that arecatching wild turkey.
(31:44):
I know some of them that don'teven eat the lakes.
So here's the thing techniques.
There's only one techniqueyou're going to get to make that
dark meat moist and that'sconfit, or braising.
So the French call it confit.
Confit is cooking, sametechniques as braising, but
you're using fat.
So you're using, you know, mostpopular thing is duck fat.
(32:05):
You know you're rendering downthe 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 yourkill.
Here's the thing.
(32:25):
And I'm just being honest.
If you go out there and you getone or two partridge or grouse,
whatever you call them, you'regetting like four ounces of meat
total.
You know what I mean.
So you're not getting a lot.
And I understand you can spendtwo and a half hours on
(32:46):
harvesting the dark meat and thereward is very.
Maybe it's a two biter, I don'tknow.
For me it might be a one biter,and I get why people don't do
it.
But listen, you have a freezerat 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.
If you pop on a whole season 12to 20 pheasants, 12 to 15 ducks,
(33:14):
a couple geese throwing apheasant or two, maybe you have
a turkey too, maybe it was agood year, whatever, save it all
.
Take your breast meat, use itfresh, no problem.
You know what I mean.
Save the dark meat, throw it ina freezer.
One day.
You know, go on the butchershop's website.
There are huge sponsor bars.
(33:34):
You can buy the duck fat.
You can have you got tallow athome, whatever kind of fat you
want.
Geez, you want to use vegetableoil.
Use vegetable oil.
Who cares?
Braise the dark meat and I'mtelling you right now you will
have at least a couple pounds ofbeautiful meat and you will
enjoy that waterfowl so muchmore.
(33:54):
So you know great question,barbara, and I hope this answers
it, because you're looking fordifferent methods and different
types of way to cook this.
Well, I just gave you one thatyou probably wouldn't even have
in your repertoire.
I guarantee you you're probablyjust going to be looking for
ways to cook the breast and youknow nothing wrong with using
the dark meat.
(34:14):
I get it.
You got one or two.
Maybe it's not worth it, but tome, save it, freeze it and save
it for a day where you can feedthe family and make some pulled
grouse nachos one day.
It'd be great beautiful.
Moving on Karen Thomas KarenThomas doesn't say where she is.
Are there specific techniquesfor preparing the skin of
(34:37):
waterfowl for optimal crispiness?
That's a tough one, karen.
Great question.
I'm not sure I'm going to beable 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 PurchasingMuscovy duck breast often as we
(34:58):
do here at Gourmet Craft andCatering in the Eating Wild
headquarters breast often as wedo here at Gourmet Craft and
Catering in the Eating Wildheadquarters when you are buying
farm raised game, so let's sayyou go to the butcher shop, like
I mentioned, or Costco orwherever, and they got, let's
say, duck I'll use duck as anexample for this question and
they have, you know, 16 ounceduck breast which is very hard
(35:19):
to find when you're popping herein Ontario.
Usually you know bigger ducks.
You can get maybe 12 to 14ounce breasts out of them.
But you know you're you'rebuying, you're buying farm
raised duck and you get abeautiful 16 ounce breast and
you're going to have about aquarter inch of fat on that, I
think.
I think maximizing thecrispiness out of the skin is
(35:41):
going to be based on saltingseasoning, obviously, cooking
technique, pan searing, highheat, skin down or brining.
Brining is a great way ofenhancing crispiness from your
catch.
And I'll use pork as well.
So a lot of the times peoplewill buy pork belly and I'm
(36:02):
going to go to an Asian style ofdoing like an Asian style banh
mi sort of thing.
A banh mi sandwich is atraditional Korean crispy pork,
crispy pork belly sandwich witha little bit of kimchi, maybe a
spicy aioli.
Had it a few times, not crazyabout it.
I'm not really a kimchi type ofguy.
I think it's gross, I think itsmells gross, but again, people
(36:28):
love it and we provide it allthe time on set for people and
they actually go crazy for it.
The brine the brine that is amixture between salt, sugar,
water, aromatics, and when yousoak that pork belly in the
brine or in this case, if youwanted to use the duck breast,
you absolutely can, dissolvingthe sugar and the salt, boiling
your liquid first, cooling itoff, then adding your pork belly
(36:52):
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'sgoing to happen is, as it dries,
as it's cooking in the oven, itactually, believe it or not,
enhances the crispiness of theskin, and I would have thought
otherwise, believe me.
(37:12):
And again, I have a couple ofreally great chefs that I worked
with, and still one of them,simon, he's still with me right
now Asian inspired chef and hemade the pork belly Korean style
and he's not even Korean, he'sChinese.
But again, fusion and it wasabsolutely incredible.
(37:33):
So brining can be a really,really good technique to
bringing out the crispiness.
And again, when you're talkingabout waterfowl crispiness,
again, I haven't had muchexperience with my catches
because I'm usually taking theskin off, usually with the
breast, and again, if I do keepthe whole bird, I'm peeling the
(37:56):
whole bird out, so it has noskin on it whatsoever.
So hopefully that helps answeryour question.
I think I got one more hereLinda Davis, it's funny, all the
waterfowl questions are females, which is pretty cool.
Siege will like to hear thatbecause he did mention that we
do have a great female audienceout there and we really
appreciate the questions and wereally appreciate you listening
(38:18):
in.
So this is from Linda Davis.
Linda doesn't say where she'sfrom.
She says what are sometraditional flavor pairings you
recommend with waterfowl dishes?
I'm not talking about alcohol,I'm talking about side dishes.
We hear you guys talk about sidedishes in your recipes of the
day and it's funny how you comeup with them on a wind.
(38:39):
Can you help us out with somepairings for our waterfowl Great
show.
Love listening.
Well, great question.
I really appreciate it andthanks for listening.
Oh man, where do I start?
Okay, time of year, I think.
I mean this would be a greatquestion from Hookset for
Hookset, because he is the kingof side dishes.
(39:01):
He always just whips upsomething in his mind and, boom,
it comes out and it pairsperfectly.
Let's start with, I guess, duckDuck.
If you listened to our lastepisode, I actually did a recipe
of the day and I used duckbreast Again.
We're going to do one againtoday and we're going to pull
one of the items out of oureating wild box that is
available at the butcher shop.
(39:22):
So that way, if you guys areordering 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 getinto trying some game meat, I
did the duck breast on therecipe on the last episode and
Martin's paired it with like aparsnip puree, I think, with a
little bit of truffle.
Anyways, it was insane, like Icould picture the whole dish in
(39:42):
my head.
It was perfect, and I thinktime of year will for me.
When I'm thinking of side dishes, I'm always thinking of
seasonal vegetables, a starch Ithink pairing something with a
starch is always going to beimportant, and the reason why I
say that is because you know,and again, unless you're on a
keto diet or something, but thestarch is always going to help
(40:05):
you feel full and satisfied atthe end of the meal.
That's what it's designed to do, folks, because if you're just
eating, if you're eating healthyand you want to, obviously if
you're on a diet whatever andyou 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 ofpatati.
The risotto is the rice.
(40:28):
I got to have a little bit ofstarch with my meal.
So I'm going to do something.
Let's do.
How about quail?
Let's do something with quail awhole quail and roasting a
whole quail.
And there's so many really cooldishes that I see people doing
with quail, because it's like alittle mini chicken and you can
cut it in half and thepresentation with quail is
(40:49):
perfect.
And, again, you can buy quailat grocery stores.
They're frozen.
Any grocery store will havethem.
That's one of the probably themost easiest wild game items to
find in a grocery store in thepoultry section, and they come
whole and it's really cool.
So thaw it out, roast it wholelike you would.
Chicken and side dishingspairings Okay, let's just say
(41:12):
we're in the fall season.
Let's keep it to the actualtime we're in.
Right now I'm thinking we'renot good Purees are perfect.
I like the way Hookset wasthinking with the parsnip puree.
I'm going to go butternutsquash puree.
Very simple, folks.
It's like making baby food.
I tell people all the time it'sthe easiest thing to make puree
(41:33):
.
Oh my God, this puree isamazing.
How did you make that?
All you need is like one ofthose magic bullets or a hand
blender or even a juicer or anykind of emulsifier utility you
have in your kitchen.
And again, you're going to wantto steam or boil your butternut
squash and put it into yourblender and add a little bit of
heavy cream, 35% cream.
(41:53):
You could use coconut milk aswell, if you like those kinds of
flavors a bit of kosher salt,touch of nutmeg just to kind of
give it a little bit ofsweetness to it and a bit of
nuttiness to it, and you pureethat.
You're going to want to spreadthat puree first on your plate
Okay, beautiful puree.
And then you're going to putyour quail right on top of that
and I'm going to literally pairthat with duck fat mini potatoes
(42:17):
.
You're going to fry thatbeautiful small mini Yukons or
fingerling potatoes in the duckfat, 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.
Um, you know, when you'rethinking of pairing your game,
think of painting a picture,think of the colors.
Heirloom carrots you got purple, you got yellow, you got orange
(42:37):
.
Um, sweet potato, sweet potatois one of my favorite things.
Right now.
You can actually take a sweetpotato Plum carrots you got
purple, you got yellow, you gotorange.
Sweet potato, sweet potato isone of my favorite things.
Right now.
You can actually take a sweetpotato and use your carrot
peeler and literally do strandsof sweet potato, run that thing
like you're peeling it down toits core, fry that off and make
(42:58):
sweet potato frits.
Do steak and frits.
I'm telling you there's so manydifferent side dishes, but again
, if we're talking about sidedishes, in the spring green
comes to my mind.
I'm thinking kale, I'm thinkingasparagus.
Asparagus in Ontario you gettwo months of it.
If you're ordering asparagus inJuly and August, well, you're
most likely getting it fromMexico or Peru.
(43:19):
Nothing wrong with it, it'sbeautiful.
But we're talking aboutseasonal stuff here for our
locals here in Ontario and, youknow, typically in the States as
well.
I mean, obviously we get a lotof our produce from California
and stuff like that.
You know our lettuces and stuff.
But potatoes take advantage ofour beautiful potatoes we got in
Ontario.
You can get those any time ofyear.
(43:40):
Here Again, adding a starch,adding rice, a nice risotto you
can do risotto with likemushrooms and blue cheese and
add richness to your dish.
You know if you're doing youknow, let's say, we're doing
pheasants.
If you're doing a pheasant,you're doing a beautiful
pheasant dish where you're doingjust the breasts and you want
to pan, sear them, floured andyou want nice crispy.
(44:02):
Add a nice mushroom risotto tothat, add a nice rich sort of
hearty starch and then combineit with something like, you know
, baby carrots.
Or you know what's that?
I'm thinking of that reallybeautiful candied pecan.
What's that dish I make?
Usually Brussels sprouts, yeah,brussels sprouts, candied
(44:25):
Brussels sprouts, with a littlebit of Ontario maple syrup.
Let's make it sweet, let's gosweet and salty, why not right?
So there's so many differentpairings you can use.
But to answer your question, Ithink the best way to pair and
when you're trying to think ofside dishes to use with your
game seasonal, go seasonal,literally think of what time of
(44:48):
year it is and what's in.
There's nothing more.
I mean price-wise too, when yougo to the grocery store,
asparagus is gonna be $1.99 whenyou're buying in May and June,
and then when you're buying itfrom Mexico in July, august,
even up until December, it'sgoing to be really, really
skinny and you're paying $7.99apound for it.
It's not even worth it.
(45:08):
So I think pairing your sidedishes, again, it's all going to
be all about season and havefun with it.
Think of the colors, make thatdish pop.
It's an art piece and I'll tellyou, just have with it and I'm
excited.
Please, guys, if you arelistening and you do decide to
make some of these dishes, sharethem with us.
Man, nothing makes me happieris seeing what our listeners are
(45:29):
making out there, and we havebeen getting them.
You know Todd Tickle, he was.
He got his Wagyu steak fromTodd.
If you're listening thepictures this guy was sending me
, it was absolutely incrediblethe tomahawk steak, the tomahawk
steaks that the boys got at thebrawl from us, the guys who won
the eating wild box.
(45:50):
Please, whoever, whoever endedup 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 jobwith his Wagyu and he had A5
Wagyu and he butchered ithimself.
I gave him it was about aneight pound piece and he
actually did a fantastic job.
(46:11):
He tagged us in it and it wasreally, really cool to see what
people do out there with thestuff that we can get.
And again, I'm going to finishthis episode with a recipe of
the day that's brought to you bythe Butcher Shop.
Make sure you check out ButcherShop direct.
And again, they deliver 200radius, 200 kilometer radius
(46:33):
from the Etobicoke area, andlook for that eating wild box.
And one of the things that I'mgonna do today for the recipe of
the day is I'm gonna do thevenison tender'm going to do the
venison tenderloin.
Now, the venison tenderloin.
I believe you get two in theEating Wild box.
They're a lot smaller than yourtraditional pork tenderloin or
beef tenderloin.
Obviously, and to maximizemyself, to maximize those
(46:59):
tenderloins, and I did it.
I actually did it last week andI did it with Chef Craig and we
had the two tenderloins that Igot from my buck, that I shot
this year, and again we made thesausages and we made some
burgers.
We're going to talk about thatwhen I get the boys back in
studio, which is coming up veryshortly.
(47:20):
What a beautiful day that wastogether.
But what I did with thetenderloins was, as I noticed,
they were quite small and I wastalking with Craig and he's like
why don't we butterfly theseopen?
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 themand let's overlap them.
(47:43):
Let's try to stretch this asfar as we can.
And what I did was is weseasoned it up just a little bit
of salt and pepper, a littlebit of olive oil and we did a
mixture of portobello mushrooms,smoked gouda, spinach,
artichokes and chopped basil andparsley and we made this
(48:03):
mixture and we're folding ittogether, folding it together
and we lined it in the center ofthese two flattened venison
tenderloins and then weliterally rolled them up.
We rolled it as tight as wecould and because it was too
overlapping each other, weprobably got like a good 14 inch
long tenderloin strap, um thatwe tied up again.
(48:26):
Tying it up was reallyimportant.
Tied it up, we actually usedsome, um, butcher's twine, but
then we actually used toothpickswhere the seams were, just to
make sure that it was.
Uh, it was, it was closed tight.
For when we uh cooked it off andwe seared it first, uh, we
seared it on the flat top andthen roasted it in the oven and
only took like 12 minutes,believe it or not.
(48:47):
And the, the cheese, the smokedgouda, was like literally
popping out the sides and we letit rest for almost a half an
hour, believe it or not.
And I know they say, rest yourmeat for as long as you cook
your meat.
But I felt like we needed torest it a little bit longer,
especially because I don't knowif people notice this when
they're stuffing, say, porktenderloins or pork loins and
(49:08):
you buy them at the storepre-stuffed and stuff, and when
you cut into them, there's thatring around the stuffing where
it looks raw all the time and Ireally, truly believe it's not.
It's just the color, becausethe cheese and the stuffing
usually gives off moisture, butI wanted to let it rest a little
longer and let it activate abit.
And when we cut into thesepinwheels, oh my God, it was
(49:31):
incredible, just incredible, andI will take a picture of this
and send the show time to put onthe picture for when we do the
recipe of the week, which isgoing to be put up on our social
media page after this airs andalong with the instructions on
how to make this.
But I will tell you this itmaximized the meal itself
(49:54):
because it went from being maybetwo pounds to six pounds,
because I literally stuffed thehell out of it Again, it turned
it into maybe a two inchdiameter to a four inch diameter
.
And when we serve that into themedallions, one medallion is
all people got and I got aboutsix to seven really nice, six
ounce medallions out of it.
(50:15):
It was beautiful and thepresentation was nice.
And again, you can serve thatwith any kind of vegetables you
want out of starch in there,and'll tell you right now it's a
beautiful, beautiful way toprepare your, your tenderloins.
That will be the recipe of theweek brought to you by the
butcher shop.
Now again, I answered so manyquestions today and it's always
(50:36):
nice there's so many more guysand again I apologize if we
don't get to all of them, butbut we really do appreciate the
feedback.
And again, the question of theday are brought to you by
extreme Marine boats.
And listen, I'm going to tellyou right now what's cooking up
at extreme Marine right now.
Woo, I'm going to tell youfolks, talk to Showtime Johnson.
(50:56):
He's been talking to Rob realclosely and next year is going
to be a big year.
I have a feeling that the boyswill be testing out some new
boats because, from the feedbackthat Rob's giving Showtime
Johnson, there's some big thingscooking up there and we're
excited to be a part of theirteam, that's for sure.
And keep the questions comingin for myself Hookset, showtime,
(51:19):
top Dog, lou Spices.
I got lots of questions aboutour spices.
Please, guys, be, be a littlebit patient with us.
We're, we're, we.
So many things happening andmoving parts going on and we, we
are completely out of ourspices.
We have not been able to make anew batch, um, but it's in the
works.
It is totally in the works andwe should have some spices If
(51:43):
you do.
If you did get a chance to getsome of our sample spices at the
Muskie Brawl, feel free toagain send Siege a direct
message and ask how to use anyof the spices.
Again, you got Lose a Jerk.
The Key Lime Lemon Pepper hasbeen popping.
The Piri Piri, the Smoked PiriPiri.
The Mapled Smoke you know we'regot lose a jerk.
The key lime lemon pepper hasbeen popping.
Um, the period period.
The smoke period period.
The mapled smoke.
(52:03):
Um, you know, we're just havingfun with things.
That's all we're doing.
Guys and uh.
Again, if you haven't seen ourlatest giveaway on social media,
mike from kakushin hasdeveloped the hunting knife, the
eating wild edition.
Still still go on Cocuchin'swebsite, get this knife.
They're limited time, it is thebest.
(52:25):
And this is the words from theboys up north.
Uncle P, with his bare hand,used.
He was the first one to use theEating Wild sportsman knife on
a buck and he literally lookedat me and said this is probably
the sharpest knife I've everskinned a deer with.
(52:45):
And this guy's skinned lots ofdeers, okay, him and coach and
and fish on to gagne.
They were like oh my lord.
This thing is insane.
We got the, we got the patentapproval here to send over to
Mike.
And again you can get theangling Pro Filet Knife.
And also, I think ShowtimeJohnson threw in from Mike, from
Cocosian Knives, a EverydayChef Damascus Knife.
(53:09):
What a prize, folks.
This is like the holy grail ofknife giveaways.
So make sure you log on to ourInstagram page to see what you
need to do to get yourselfentered into that.
And, with that being said, thisis Smash Muleka.
Thank you for joining me for anepisode of Smash's Kitchen
Again.
I will be doing theseperiodically and just keeping
(53:32):
people up to date what'shappening in the kitchen.
Smash Muleka for Top Dog PrayerHookset, 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 (53:55):
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Here we go, welcome.
(02:01):
Welcome everybody to anotherepisode of the Eating Well
podcast.
I am your host, antonio SmashMalecka.
Solo.
This is a solo trip, folks.
A while back I told you we'd bedoing a lot of these episodes
Smash's kitchen.
Well, today, folks, you're inluck.
I hope you like soup season.
I also hope you had a pleasantfull waterfowl popping season,
(02:26):
because we're going to talkabout waterfowl Now.
What I did, folks, is Iliterally I told everybody,
especially with the boys Hookset, martins, top Dog, pereira,
showtime Johnson that we got tostart catching up on our emails
with tons of questions.
We'll be getting a lot of tonsof food questions, fishing
questions, hunting questions andkeep pouring them in at
theeatingwildpodcast at gmailcom.
(02:48):
We're always checking them andif we haven't done this episode
for a while we apologize.
There's been so much happeningwith the Eating Wild podcast me
and the boys, we've been onjourneys from the musky brawl
which I'm probably sure everyoneheard about was a great success
for us and our team Meetingtons and tons of new people,
(03:10):
getting the meat out there fromthe butcher shop and making
breakfast with some of the stufffrom our sponsors, with Lou's
products.
It's been a crazy month,believe it or not, for myself
and the boys, and we're lookingto create more.
We are, uh, we are signing upto do some, uh, really
incredible stuff for the rest ofthis year.
(03:32):
Obviously, ice fishing season'saround the corner and you know
me and the boys, we like to goout there and try to ice fish.
I mean, we don't really, I'mgonna be honest, we don't really
put that much effort other thangoing up to my place in Port
Perry putting out the hut.
We always say we're going tomove and you know we get lazy
(03:53):
and it's always Hooksack,hooksack's like look man, we got
to move, we got to find thesefish.
We're like, nah, I think wejust stay where we are and I'm
okay with catching perch thesize of my pinky finger on one
inch of ice.
That's cracking all the timeand, uh, you know it's pretty,
it's pretty funny.
But listen, they're, they'refun memories.
(04:13):
Hopefully we get some ice thisyear.
Hopefully we get some snow,because we got the beachy klutz
sitting inside the garage, thethree 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 alsoplanning Showtime.
Was talking to me last nightwhile we were playing Call of
(04:33):
Duty.
We popped, by the way, 900score.
That's me personally.
And speaking of Call of Duty,andrew Walker man got to meet
him at the Muskie Brawl and ifanybody hasn't seen this guy's
YouTube page, okay, this guyplays Call of Duty on his phone
while he's popping Walters onthe Bay of Quinte.
(04:54):
Now, I got to do that LikeAndrew.
If you're listening, you justtext me the calendar, buddy, I'm
bringing my phone so we can popand hopefully we get into some
of those gigantic Walters thatyou get out there and it's
incredible.
So hopefully we get to do somesome trips together, me and the
boys this winter.
(05:14):
It is around the corner, infact, looking at my phone from
like 10 years ago, there's beentrips that I went on with the
boys where it's been likesnowing already, like I'm
talking like October snow andwe're in November now and let's,
I mean it was 22 degrees a fewdays ago.
Water temps are still prettywarm out there.
(05:36):
Actually, speaking to CousinGlenn who's out on Lake St Clair
with the boys right now as wespeak doing the trip with the
boys and water temps are stillhigh, mid-50s, I think he said
to me in a text yesterday.
So I mean, yeah, times arechanging, weather is changing,
patterns are changing.
(05:56):
Hopefully we could get Coke man, coke Machine, on again this
winter to give us some liveupdates of the ice on Lake
Nipissing getting ready for thehard water up there.
If you haven't heard thatepisode last year around, I'd
say probably around earlyDecember, we had Coke Machine on
Great episode Donated somestuff for his cool giveaway that
(06:17):
he does Check out his YouTubepage.
We're going to try to get theCoke man on again before
season's up.
But fast forwarding to today'sepisode, smash's Kitchen.
Welcome to my kitchen.
Basically it's a perspective offood stuff that you know again,
the best to my knowledge, thebest experience I have with
these products, and hopefully Ican help you along the way with
(06:40):
your questions.
Again, guys, I'm not saying I'mthe best, I'm not saying that
this is the way you should bedoing it.
This is just an opinion from achef who's obviously worked with
a lot of these things and a lotof these menus and products in
the kitchen many, many years ofexperience doing this.
So we're going to get to it.
(07:01):
And again, I apologize for notgetting to all the questions,
but I sort of went through itall and I tried to get these
questions and group themtogether.
So the subject's kind of thesame.
So I kind of broke it down tosoups and seasonal dishes and
that's going to be the firstsegment of Smash's Kitchen today
and the second one is going tobe about waterfowl after the
(07:22):
break.
We're going to talk aboutwaterfowl after the break.
We're going to talk aboutwaterfowl because tons and tons
of emails and recipe requestsand people asking me questions
about waterfowl, so I figuredI'd kind of start off with the
soups and the reason why I likesoups.
This is the time of year soupsis probably the most hearty and
the most I don't know, I guesssatisfying thing when it's cold
(07:44):
outside.
You know stews and soups andbroths.
This time of year is probablymy favorite time to share
recipes and also create new ones.
Like I met a lot of chefs overmy years, I worked with a lot of
different chefs and wheneverit's soup season everyone gets
pumped up and everyone alwaysmakes the best broths, everyone
always makes the best bonebroths and it's funny watching
(08:07):
different cultures and how theydo their soups and their broths.
So I got some tips I can giveyou guys based on some of the
questions, and let's get to it.
The first one comes from RobertBrown.
Robert Brown is in Kenora,ontario.
That's pretty cool, kenora.
I think this is one of thefirst ones, and his first
question was how do you achievethe perfect texture in a creamed
(08:32):
base soup?
I've always wanted to make areally rich and creamy soup
using the bones from my chicken.
Is there any way or any adviceyou can help me achieve the
perfect texture?
Great question, robert, andcream-based soups, cream-based
(08:53):
soups, using chicken broth,using bone broth, beef, any kind
of broth.
Really, I think the mostimportant thing you need to
think about is when you'remaking these broths is how rich,
how creamy do you want it?
And there's two different waysof doing it.
When you're making your roux soroux again celery, carrots,
(09:16):
onion butter, and you're goingto need a little bit of flour
all purpose you want to startyour roux kind of sweat it off,
cook that flour out, and thenyou add your broth and naturally
that will thicken in time.
To add richness.
To add richness, robert, Ithink what you would want to do
(09:40):
is add heavy cream, and thereason why I'm saying this is
because one the heavy cream,when you're adding it to like,
say, 10 liters of liquid or evenroux that you've created with
your stock, what that's gonna dois it's not gonna thicken your
soup any.
All it's gonna do is enhancethe color.
It's obviously gonna be alittle bit more white, but it
will definitely add morerichness to your broth.
(10:02):
Another way of doing it andlisten, I have nothing against
this whatsoever and people willlaugh and probably say what kind
of chef uses this technique?
And I'm going to tell you rightnow, you're nuts.
If you don't think that it's asmart way of doing your making
your soups richer is adding acream-based tinned soup.
Give you an example adding acream-based tinned soup.
(10:22):
Give you an example Cream ofmushroom by Campbell's Thick,
really, really rich.
It's got so much bloody sodiumin it that you don't have to add
any salt to it.
Now listen, I'm a chef man andpeople listening out there,
whether you're a chef or whetheryou're just a home cook, you're
going to need salt, you'regoing to need sodium.
I don't give a shit what you'redoing.
(10:43):
If you're going to make a soupand you're not going to add the
salt or you're not going to addsome sort of sodium, it's going
to taste like water, it's goingto taste like dishwater.
Add a little bit of salt, don'tbe afraid.
If you are going to add cream ofmushroom, cream of chicken,
cream of celery, I'm telling youright now you adding that is
there's nothing wrong with it.
And again, it's loaded withsalt.
(11:05):
I wouldn't add too much salt.
If you're planning on addingthat to your soup and it's going
to add texture, it's going toadd richness and flavor and
there's nothing wrong with it.
So you know, john, if you aregoing to be making a you know
soup based on your chicken bonesthat you mentioned in the
question, add a little bit ofcream of chicken soup.
(11:27):
Add a bit of cream of mushroomsoup.
Add a little bit of cream ofcelery nothing wrong with it.
Add a little bit of 35% creamand I'll tell you right now,
it's going to be richer.
You're going to get lots offlavor out of it.
It's going to be beautiful.
And here's another thing I liketo touch on with, now that we're
talking about cream-based soupsuse it as a sauce.
Use it as a sauce, man.
(11:47):
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, useit 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 thatcomes to mind chicken stuffed
with Havarti and, you know,asparagus, beautiful, sewer up
(12:12):
pan, sear, roast it in the oven.
Cheese is oozing everywhere,compliment it.
Cover it with a nice, reallythick, rich, creamy chicken
stock.
Oh, beautiful Mushrooms, whynot?
It's beautiful.
So be creative when you'remaking these creamy base soups
and I think there's nothingwrong with it.
And you know, adding somecrackers.
(12:32):
Have some bread Beautiful,that's a great lunch.
Have a sandwich with a soupsandwich You're rocking.
Next question comes from CharlesMiller.
Didn't say where he's from, butCharles Miller has another
question Can you share any tipsfor balancing flavors in a soup?
I have a lot of bones from myharvest this past year and would
(12:55):
like to get some rich soups.
Balancing flavors Wow, I'mtrying to read this far away and
I think I need glasses, likeMarty boy.
So, basically what he's askingme is there any tips in
balancing flavors in soup usingthe bones from his harvest this
past year?
So I don't know if that was amoose, if it was a deer, if it
(13:17):
was waterfowl, doesn't matter.
Same techniques, okay,balancing flavor that's a very
good question.
Here's the thing.
There's the Holy Trinity and Icall 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 sweattheir vegetables off however way
(13:39):
they like.
Balancing flavor is very simple.
There's different flavors inbones in itself, the more fat
you get and I find this whenpeople are having traditional
dishes like ramen or you knowAsian style soups, and you know
fat is a really, really bigthing when you're making these
(13:59):
types of soups and it's therichness that you know.
People leave these broths onfor like two or three days
sometimes and some people skimthe fat and some people leave
the fat because, you know,depending on what kind of soup
you're making, the fat is animportant element to it.
So I would say that balancingthe flavors is going to depend
(14:19):
on what bones, what stock you'reusing.
But you start with the HolyTrinity roast your bones.
I think roasting your bones isan stock you're using.
But you start with the HolyTrinity um, throw, roast your
bones.
I think roasting your bones isis an important thing.
Now, a lot of people.
Again, this is anothertechnique that people use that
you know.
Chef Craig uses this techniqueall the time.
Recently we just did pho umspelled P-H-O, so pho, pho,
however you want to, you want topronounce it Um.
(14:42):
He rinsed, he actually boiledthe bones first and we used beef
bones and he boiled the bones,rinsed the bones, then roasted
them and then started making thebroth.
So it was a technique that heheard was I don't know if it's
traditional in the culture, butit was a cleaner way of making
(15:03):
the broth and you maximizeflavors, hence balancing flavors
in the question.
So again, I like to roast thebones.
Again, he didn't mention whatbones it was.
If it was, you know, let's justsay venison, roast those bones,
get a nice color on it, add itto your water, to your liquid,
with your Holy Trinity, and letit go.
(15:24):
Let it go for I don't know, atleast 45, at least 45 minutes.
Obviously, the longer thebetter, unless we're getting
into seafood.
That's a whole different game.
But skim the top, take the fatoff.
If you are making somethinglike a ramen broth then yes, you
might want to keep that fat onthere.
You're not going to get muchfat from the venison.
(15:45):
You'll probably get more fat,say, from pork or possibly some
of the waterfowl, depending.
You know, duck obviously has atraditionally has a bunch of fat
on it.
If you clean your duck and youwant to do a nice duck broth,
keep it whole skin on.
You know, like I said, youprobably want to roast that duck
.
Get it inside of a pot with theHoly Trinity, let it go, add a
(16:08):
bay leaf and away you go.
Now balancing the flavors.
Again, it's all going to dependon the bones.
But adding salt.
Salt is probably the mostimportant ingredient in stocks
because basically, if there isno sort of sodium in that and
again this goes back to thefirst question you're not
(16:28):
getting any flavor.
Salt peppercorns, you can addstar anise, you can add so many
different types of herbs to yourbroth.
Parsley is another one freshparsley, I wouldn't use dry
parsley.
Some people get cheesecloth.
They know thyme and bay leavesand some people even add
rosemary, believe it or not,which I think is nuts.
(16:48):
But any kind of fresh herbs,wrap it up in a cheesecloth,
fire it in there, so that wayyou can just pull that out and
away.
It goes in the garbage andyou're not.
You know you're not gettingwoody stems going down your
throat.
But don't be afraid.
When you say balance yourflavors, I mean everyone's
palate is always going to bedifferent.
There's some people that can'thave salt at all, they can't
(17:09):
have sodium, whether it's theirdiet, their cholesterol is high,
whatnot.
So really, when it comes downto it, you are flavoring to
taste it to what you and yourfamily desire.
Me again, I'm a salt guy.
It's got to be loaded withkosher salt.
I want to make sure there'sbite richness as well.
I would prefer not to keep thefat.
There's other ways of makingsoups rich, like I said in the
(17:31):
previous question.
But great question.
I hope I answered it properly.
Next question coming in fromEdward Taylor.
Edward doesn't say where he'sfrom.
What are your favorite seasonalingredients to incorporate in
soups this time of year?
Great question.
(17:51):
So before we kick this one off,we were talking about time of
year, favorite time of year tomaking soups, and one of the
things that I get pumped upabout is your fall vegetables.
You got pumpkin, you gotbutternut squash, you got
parsnips, you got rutabaga,onions, leeks.
(18:12):
There's so many different rootvegetables that come up this
time of year that traditionallyyou don't see in the summertime
because people always takeadvantage of seasonal vegetables
.
You're not seeing asparagusthis time of year.
You're not seeing leeks or Iknow I mentioned leeks, but
you're not seeing.
You know, traditionally, thestuff that comes up in the
spring and then you know in thesummertime.
(18:32):
So this this to me, you know,speaks of hardiness and sweet
potatoes.
I'll add sweet potato to thattoo, even though you can get
them all year round, butprobably my favorite seasonal
ingredients to use would bebutternut squash, parsnips,
(18:53):
adding something like nutmeg orcinnamon, or adding simple
ingredients like coconut milk,if you're doing Thai flavors or
you're doing curries, all thesethings.
So butternut squash, let's saybutternut squash, one of my
favorite soups to make, adding atouch of nutmeg and a touch of
(19:14):
cinnamon, kind of making it,giving it that festive sort of
flavors, to me really puts itover the top.
And it's very simple.
And again, you can use whateverbase you want, holy Trinity, if
you want to use chicken stock,if you want to use vegetable
stock I wouldn't do mushroomstock kind of weird, but any of
(19:35):
those stocks, any of those baseswill do and you simply just
chop up your butternut squash,fire it into that stock, let it
roast, let it simmer down for atleast 45 to an hour and a half
and you'll notice like once thatbutternut squash sort of floats
.
And this goes for carrots, thisgoes for parsnips, rutabaga,
any kind of these rootvegetables, and don't be afraid
(19:57):
to mix them together.
I've done a parsnip andbutternut squash soup many times
.
Jerusalem artichokes, anotherreally cool one to use.
That's people don't really knowmuch about, but I'm sure you go
to your grocery store you don'teven know they exist, and ask
for Jerusalem artichoke, make apuree or a soup out of that.
It'll change your life.
Also, ginger Ginger is a really, really, really important thing
(20:21):
that I like to use this time ofyear.
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 alittle bit.
Adding doing a parsnip andginger soup.
Are you kidding me?
Beautiful, it's a simpletechnique.
Start with your stock, throwyour your chopped parsnips in
there, let it boil.
You're gonna puree, you'regonna add a little bit of
(20:42):
roasted ginger in there, or evenfire your ginger in there while
you're, while you're makingyour stock, the only thing I
would say is you got to becareful on the amount of ginger
you use, because I'll tell youit can.
It can actually ruin the soup.
You only need a tiny, tiny bit.
You don't need to put a wholestock in there.
I mean, some people like itspicy, I don't know.
Some people love the gingerness, you know.
(21:03):
But again, everything that I'mtelling you to do here is all
personal preference.
Like I don't like too muchginger.
Some people listening are likewell, I love ginger Well, fire
in a whole stock of it, don'tcare.
If you like it, do it and,again, have fun with it.
Don't be afraid to mix differentingredients.
There's no wrong way of doingthings when you're in the
(21:24):
kitchen, guys, and I try tostress this a lot.
And one thing that I candefinitely tell you with this
time of year when again goingback to his question with
seasonal ingredients is when youare harvesting your own.
So, again, if this is the timeof year where you're picking up
your zucchinis and you'recutting out your squash and
(21:45):
you're getting your spaghettisquash, whatever it, really
really take the time and doresearch, because you spent the
whole year planting and takingcare of these vegetables and I
think that it's important thatyou take the time and do some
research on how to properly makethis the way you want.
(22:05):
And again, I mentioned pumpkin.
Pumpkin soup has been so popularlately, especially in the Thai
restaurants, and I love it.
Like you go in there and youorder a Thai pumpkin soup, it's
coconut milk based.
You know, again, you get thelittle bit of sweetness, you get
the heat from the curriedflavors and the lemongrass and
the kaffir lime leaves and allthat stuff.
And I'm telling you right now,one pumpkin, just one average
(22:28):
style pumpkin, you couldprobably make 18 liters of soup.
Freeze it, put it in delicontainers.
And I'm telling you right now,we go ice fishing.
We go to my place out in LakeScugog, me and the boys, and I
remember Hooks that brought oneof our chefs, gonzalo, at our
other shop.
He made this beautiful blackbean I think it was a Brazilian
(22:49):
black bean soup and he four orfive deli containers of it.
And I swear to you, every yearwe go the past three years we
always pull out a deli containerof it and we we thaw it out, we
put it in the oven or in a potand we reheat it and it's
friggin delicious.
So it's, it's not like it'sgonna go bad once it freezes,
it's frozen, it's it's not gonnabe bad after a year or two.
(23:12):
And I'm telling you, I'mtelling you like, I'm telling
you as a chef, there's nothingwrong 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 winterlong, even in the summer times,
no problem.
So, uh, great questions on thesoups.
(23:34):
Again, it's one of my favoritetimes of year and, uh, we're
going to take a short break.
We got a message from oursponsors, but when we come back,
we're talking waterfowl pop.
I love the uh, the waterfowltrips and uh, and I love
harvesting them as well.
So we're going to talk aboutthat right after the short
messages.
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Speaker 3 (25:14):
When you're out fishing, it's all about the
catch, but what if the fisharen't biting?
Speaker 2 (25:20):
Hey boys, what's our backup plan if we don't catch
anything for lunch?
Speaker 1 (25:23):
I'm starving, we better catch something quick.
No worries, I packed somepulled pork sandwiches from
Lou's Kitchen just in case weget skunked.
It's always smart to have aplan B.
Speaker 2 (25:34):
Good thinking, Siege.
I hate to go hungry out here.
Speaker 1 (25:36):
We all know how Lou gets when he doesn't eat Exactly
Fishing's fun, but great foodmakes it even better.
Speaker 3 (25:43):
So remember, whether it's fish or sandwiches, make
your shore lunch a guaranteedcatch.
With Lou's, we're happy to beplan B on the water.
Speaker 2 (26:01):
Welcome back, lose.
We're happy to be plan b on thewater.
Welcome back, we are back.
Smash malecca.
We're here in smash's kitchentoday.
Guys, I'm running solo for hookset martin's top dog prayer and
show time jansen.
Folks go on instagram, reachout to show time jansen because
he's pulling this guy's pullingmagic tricks on I don't know how
he does it social media I'mstill.
You know, I go on there, I lookaround, I'm checking, I'm
always looking at the fishingstuff, the hunting stuff and
(26:21):
obviously the food videos.
But Showtime Jansen, he'staking it to another level that
this guy with his posts andstuff, he's becoming a pro.
And don't be afraid to reachout to him on social media.
He'll get back to you.
And please, guys, again reachout to us.
Theeatingwildpodcast atgmailcom.
You got a question for any oneof the four skins.
(26:41):
You let us know.
We'll try to answer them thebest we can.
Moving on, we're moving on tothe waterfowl.
Now, waterfowl, the season iskind of coming down to an end
and we haven't been successfulthis 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
(27:02):
some grouse, we're hoping to getinto 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'scalled fishing.
So we go out there with theguns and we hope, hopefully we
pop, but uh, it's been, it'sbeen a shit year for us.
But, needless to say, I'vecooked a million birds in my
time.
Hook set, martins, I rememberme, and hook set used to have
(27:23):
competitions on who can cut abird quicker, and we know our
way around these, uh, thesebeautiful animals, and again,
we've we've got lots ofexperience with them.
So, getting onto the questions,barbara Wilson, sudbury, ontario
, barbara, thanks for thequestion.
What are the best cookingmethods for different types of
(27:45):
waterfowl?
This is one area I strugglewith.
We have so much waterfowl inour neighborhood and I can never
find different methods of doingit.
Great question, that is a greatquestion.
Here's the thing Chicken, I'mgoing to use chicken, bush
chicken, so hopefully we can.
You know she pops grouse outthere, because I'll target this
(28:06):
one for this question Bushchicken or chicken?
You go to an Italian restaurant, you go to a Portuguese
restaurant, you go to a, let'sjust say, any kind of restaurant
.
Chicken is always on the menu,always.
You can get it as a chickensandwich, breaded or fried
chicken chicken, parmesanchicken, caesar salad, chicken,
wrap chicken, this chicken,alfredo, blah, blah, blah,
(28:29):
chicken, chicken, chicken.
Here's the thing.
There's nothing wrong withusing your waterfowl.
The same way, there's nothingwrong with it Bush chicken.
They call it bush chicken for areason.
Pound that thing out, cut it.
Get those breasts out, get amallet, pound it.
Egg wash, bread crumbs, fry it.
Parmesan cheese, tomato sauce.
You got a chicken cutlet.
You got a chicken parmigianoright there.
You want to barbecue it,barbecue it.
(28:49):
Honey garlic sauce, southernsauce.
You got a chicken cutlet.
You got a chicken parmigianoright there.
Okay, you want to barbecue it.
Barbecue it.
Honey garlic sauce, southernsauce, whatever.
You want.
Frank's Red Hot, you want tospice it up, chop it up, throw
it in a Caesar salad.
There's so many differentmethods of cooking waterfowl and
(29:10):
I always take it to chickenbecause if you don't think of
chicken being the holy trinityof the bird population and what
we consume in the general publichere, you know it's a reason
why it's the cheapest thing onthe menu, the menu.
And there's also a reason whywhen you go to the grocery store
(29:33):
it's probably out of all.
You know the proteins, probablyone of the most.
And here's the thing that'skind of weird to me.
Speaking of pricing, chickenlegs are so cheap for some
reason, and to me it's myfavorite part of a chicken.
I mean, the breasts are great.
I mean they're easy to make dry.
People don't know what the hellthey're doing 90% of the time,
(29:57):
but you can't screw up a chickenleg, especially if it's bone in
.
You know, throw it in the oven.
People will cook it to 200 andit'll still be moist.
I mean, let's be honest.
So there's nothing wrong withyour chicken legs at 99 cents a
pound and your chicken breastsare 3.99, 4.99 a pound.
For me it's kind of crazy.
But just some advice.
(30:17):
If you're going to the grocerystore, buy the whole bird, get
your knife, ask the boys, me orHooks, how to properly clean a
chicken.
Maybe we'll do a YouTube videoof it.
But it's not hard.
You get two breasts and twolegs for half of the price you'd
pay for one breast.
So think about that.
Anyways, back to the questionDifferent techniques.
(30:40):
Go on Google and punch in themost popular, trending chicken
dishes and I'm going to tell youright now.
There's going to be hundredsthat pop up.
Treat your waterfowl the same,treat it the same.
Now let's talk about the darkmeat, because yes, I'm going to
admit, the dark meat is probablychallenging.
(31:02):
When it comes to waterfowl, theduck 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 thelegs and pull up.
You got a beautiful, twobeautiful breasts right there,
ready to clean and cook.
Here's the thing If you were tokeep the whole thing, you know
(31:24):
you pluck it, you got it, youclean it and you see these
little, tiny, two ounce legs oneach side of your waterfowl,
whether it's, you know, awoodcock or your duck or
whatever it is your grouse, yourpartridge pheasants even.
You know, pheasants are, eventhough a bit bigger, in Turkey,
listen to this guys that arecatching wild turkey.
(31:44):
I know some of them that don'teven eat the lakes.
So here's the thing techniques.
There's only one techniqueyou're going to get to make that
dark meat moist and that'sconfit, or braising.
So the French call it confit.
Confit is cooking, sametechniques as braising, but
you're using fat.
So you're using, you know, mostpopular thing is duck fat.
(32:05):
You know you're rendering downthe 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 yourkill.
Here's the thing.
(32:25):
And I'm just being honest.
If you go out there and you getone or two partridge or grouse,
whatever you call them, you'regetting like four ounces of meat
total.
You know what I mean.
So you're not getting a lot.
And I understand you can spendtwo and a half hours on
(32:46):
harvesting the dark meat and thereward is very.
Maybe it's a two biter, I don'tknow.
For me it might be a one biter,and I get why people don't do
it.
But listen, you have a freezerat 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.
If you pop on a whole season 12to 20 pheasants, 12 to 15 ducks,
(33:14):
a couple geese throwing apheasant or two, maybe you have
a turkey too, maybe it was agood year, whatever, save it all
.
Take your breast meat, use itfresh, no problem.
You know what I mean.
Save the dark meat, throw it ina freezer.
One day.
You know, go on the butchershop's website.
There are huge sponsor bars.
(33:34):
You can buy the duck fat.
You can have you got tallow athome, whatever kind of fat you
want.
Geez, you want to use vegetableoil.
Use vegetable oil.
Who cares?
Braise the dark meat and I'mtelling you right now you will
have at least a couple pounds ofbeautiful meat and you will
enjoy that waterfowl so muchmore.
(33:54):
So you know great question,barbara, and I hope this answers
it, because you're looking fordifferent methods and different
types of way to cook this.
Well, I just gave you one thatyou probably wouldn't even have
in your repertoire.
I guarantee you you're probablyjust going to be looking for
ways to cook the breast and youknow nothing wrong with using
the dark meat.
(34:14):
I get it.
You got one or two.
Maybe it's not worth it, but tome, save it, freeze it and save
it for a day where you can feedthe family and make some pulled
grouse nachos one day.
It'd be great beautiful.
Moving on Karen Thomas KarenThomas doesn't say where she is.
Are there specific techniquesfor preparing the skin of
(34:37):
waterfowl for optimal crispiness?
That's a tough one, karen.
Great question.
I'm not sure I'm going to beable 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 PurchasingMuscovy duck breast often as we
(34:58):
do here at Gourmet Craft andCatering in the Eating Wild
headquarters breast often as wedo here at Gourmet Craft and
Catering in the Eating Wildheadquarters when you are buying
farm raised game, so let's sayyou go to the butcher shop, like
I mentioned, or Costco orwherever, and they got, let's
say, duck I'll use duck as anexample for this question and
they have, you know, 16 ounceduck breast which is very hard
(35:19):
to find when you're popping herein Ontario.
Usually you know bigger ducks.
You can get maybe 12 to 14ounce breasts out of them.
But you know you're you'rebuying, you're buying farm
raised duck and you get abeautiful 16 ounce breast and
you're going to have about aquarter inch of fat on that, I
think.
I think maximizing thecrispiness out of the skin is
(35:41):
going to be based on saltingseasoning, obviously, cooking
technique, pan searing, highheat, skin down or brining.
Brining is a great way ofenhancing crispiness from your
catch.
And I'll use pork as well.
So a lot of the times peoplewill buy pork belly and I'm
(36:02):
going to go to an Asian style ofdoing like an Asian style banh
mi sort of thing.
A banh mi sandwich is atraditional Korean crispy pork,
crispy pork belly sandwich witha little bit of kimchi, maybe a
spicy aioli.
Had it a few times, not crazyabout it.
I'm not really a kimchi type ofguy.
I think it's gross, I think itsmells gross, but again, people
(36:28):
love it and we provide it allthe time on set for people and
they actually go crazy for it.
The brine the brine that is amixture between salt, sugar,
water, aromatics, and when yousoak that pork belly in the
brine or in this case, if youwanted to use the duck breast,
you absolutely can, dissolvingthe sugar and the salt, boiling
your liquid first, cooling itoff, then adding your pork belly
(36:52):
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'sgoing to happen is, as it dries,
as it's cooking in the oven, itactually, believe it or not,
enhances the crispiness of theskin, and I would have thought
otherwise, believe me.
(37:12):
And again, I have a couple ofreally great chefs that I worked
with, and still one of them,simon, he's still with me right
now Asian inspired chef and hemade the pork belly Korean style
and he's not even Korean, he'sChinese.
But again, fusion and it wasabsolutely incredible.
(37:33):
So brining can be a really,really good technique to
bringing out the crispiness.
And again, when you're talkingabout waterfowl crispiness,
again, I haven't had muchexperience with my catches
because I'm usually taking theskin off, usually with the
breast, and again, if I do keepthe whole bird, I'm peeling the
(37:56):
whole bird out, so it has noskin on it whatsoever.
So hopefully that helps answeryour question.
I think I got one more hereLinda Davis, it's funny, all the
waterfowl questions are females, which is pretty cool.
Siege will like to hear thatbecause he did mention that we
do have a great female audienceout there and we really
appreciate the questions and wereally appreciate you listening
(38:18):
in.
So this is from Linda Davis.
Linda doesn't say where she'sfrom.
She says what are sometraditional flavor pairings you
recommend with waterfowl dishes?
I'm not talking about alcohol,I'm talking about side dishes.
We hear you guys talk about sidedishes in your recipes of the
day and it's funny how you comeup with them on a wind.
(38:39):
Can you help us out with somepairings for our waterfowl Great
show.
Love listening.
Well, great question.
I really appreciate it andthanks for listening.
Oh man, where do I start?
Okay, time of year, I think.
I mean this would be a greatquestion from Hookset for
Hookset, because he is the kingof side dishes.
(39:01):
He always just whips upsomething in his mind and, boom,
it comes out and it pairsperfectly.
Let's start with, I guess, duckDuck.
If you listened to our lastepisode, I actually did a recipe
of the day and I used duckbreast Again.
We're going to do one againtoday and we're going to pull
one of the items out of oureating wild box that is
available at the butcher shop.
(39:22):
So that way, if you guys areordering 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 getinto trying some game meat, I
did the duck breast on therecipe on the last episode and
Martin's paired it with like aparsnip puree, I think, with a
little bit of truffle.
Anyways, it was insane, like Icould picture the whole dish in
(39:42):
my head.
It was perfect, and I thinktime of year will for me.
When I'm thinking of side dishes, I'm always thinking of
seasonal vegetables, a starch Ithink pairing something with a
starch is always going to beimportant, and the reason why I
say that is because you know,and again, unless you're on a
keto diet or something, but thestarch is always going to help
(40:05):
you feel full and satisfied atthe end of the meal.
That's what it's designed to do, folks, because if you're just
eating, if you're eating healthyand you want to, obviously if
you're on a diet whatever andyou 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 ofpatati.
The risotto is the rice.
(40:28):
I got to have a little bit ofstarch with my meal.
So I'm going to do something.
Let's do.
How about quail?
Let's do something with quail awhole quail and roasting a
whole quail.
And there's so many really cooldishes that I see people doing
with quail, because it's like alittle mini chicken and you can
cut it in half and thepresentation with quail is
(40:49):
perfect.
And, again, you can buy quailat grocery stores.
They're frozen.
Any grocery store will havethem.
That's one of the probably themost easiest wild game items to
find in a grocery store in thepoultry section, and they come
whole and it's really cool.
So thaw it out, roast it wholelike you would.
Chicken and side dishingspairings Okay, let's just say
(41:12):
we're in the fall season.
Let's keep it to the actualtime we're in.
Right now I'm thinking we'renot good Purees are perfect.
I like the way Hookset wasthinking with the parsnip puree.
I'm going to go butternutsquash puree.
Very simple, folks.
It's like making baby food.
I tell people all the time it'sthe easiest thing to make puree
(41:33):
.
Oh my God, this puree isamazing.
How did you make that?
All you need is like one ofthose magic bullets or a hand
blender or even a juicer or anykind of emulsifier utility you
have in your kitchen.
And again, you're going to wantto steam or boil your butternut
squash and put it into yourblender and add a little bit of
heavy cream, 35% cream.
(41:53):
You could use coconut milk aswell, if you like those kinds of
flavors a bit of kosher salt,touch of nutmeg just to kind of
give it a little bit ofsweetness to it and a bit of
nuttiness to it, and you pureethat.
You're going to want to spreadthat puree first on your plate
Okay, beautiful puree.
And then you're going to putyour quail right on top of that
and I'm going to literally pairthat with duck fat mini potatoes
(42:17):
.
You're going to fry thatbeautiful small mini Yukons or
fingerling potatoes in the duckfat, 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.
Um, you know, when you'rethinking of pairing your game,
think of painting a picture,think of the colors.
Heirloom carrots you got purple, you got yellow, you got orange
(42:37):
.
Um, sweet potato, sweet potatois one of my favorite things.
Right now.
You can actually take a sweetpotato Plum carrots you got
purple, you got yellow, you gotorange.
Sweet potato, sweet potato isone of my favorite things.
Right now.
You can actually take a sweetpotato and use your carrot
peeler and literally do strandsof sweet potato, run that thing
like you're peeling it down toits core, fry that off and make
(42:58):
sweet potato frits.
Do steak and frits.
I'm telling you there's so manydifferent side dishes, but again
, if we're talking about sidedishes, in the spring green
comes to my mind.
I'm thinking kale, I'm thinkingasparagus.
Asparagus in Ontario you gettwo months of it.
If you're ordering asparagus inJuly and August, well, you're
most likely getting it fromMexico or Peru.
(43:19):
Nothing wrong with it, it'sbeautiful.
But we're talking aboutseasonal stuff here for our
locals here in Ontario and, youknow, typically in the States as
well.
I mean, obviously we get a lotof our produce from California
and stuff like that.
You know our lettuces and stuff.
But potatoes take advantage ofour beautiful potatoes we got in
Ontario.
You can get those any time ofyear.
(43:40):
Here Again, adding a starch,adding rice, a nice risotto you
can do risotto with likemushrooms and blue cheese and
add richness to your dish.
You know if you're doing youknow, let's say, we're doing
pheasants.
If you're doing a pheasant,you're doing a beautiful
pheasant dish where you're doingjust the breasts and you want
to pan, sear them, floured andyou want nice crispy.
(44:02):
Add a nice mushroom risotto tothat, add a nice rich sort of
hearty starch and then combineit with something like, you know
, baby carrots.
Or you know what's that?
I'm thinking of that reallybeautiful candied pecan.
What's that dish I make?
Usually Brussels sprouts, yeah,brussels sprouts, candied
(44:25):
Brussels sprouts, with a littlebit of Ontario maple syrup.
Let's make it sweet, let's gosweet and salty, why not right?
So there's so many differentpairings you can use.
But to answer your question, Ithink the best way to pair and
when you're trying to think ofside dishes to use with your
game seasonal, go seasonal,literally think of what time of
(44:48):
year it is and what's in.
There's nothing more.
I mean price-wise too, when yougo to the grocery store,
asparagus is gonna be $1.99 whenyou're buying in May and June,
and then when you're buying itfrom Mexico in July, august,
even up until December, it'sgoing to be really, really
skinny and you're paying $7.99apound for it.
It's not even worth it.
(45:08):
So I think pairing your sidedishes, again, it's all going to
be all about season and havefun with it.
Think of the colors, make thatdish pop.
It's an art piece and I'll tellyou, just have with it and I'm
excited.
Please, guys, if you arelistening and you do decide to
make some of these dishes, sharethem with us.
Man, nothing makes me happieris seeing what our listeners are
(45:29):
making out there, and we havebeen getting them.
You know Todd Tickle, he was.
He got his Wagyu steak fromTodd.
If you're listening thepictures this guy was sending me
, it was absolutely incrediblethe tomahawk steak, the tomahawk
steaks that the boys got at thebrawl from us, the guys who won
the eating wild box.
(45:50):
Please, whoever, whoever endedup 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 jobwith his Wagyu and he had A5
Wagyu and he butchered ithimself.
I gave him it was about aneight pound piece and he
actually did a fantastic job.
(46:11):
He tagged us in it and it wasreally, really cool to see what
people do out there with thestuff that we can get.
And again, I'm going to finishthis episode with a recipe of
the day that's brought to you bythe Butcher Shop.
Make sure you check out ButcherShop direct.
And again, they deliver 200radius, 200 kilometer radius
(46:33):
from the Etobicoke area, andlook for that eating wild box.
And one of the things that I'mgonna do today for the recipe of
the day is I'm gonna do thevenison tender'm going to do the
venison tenderloin.
Now, the venison tenderloin.
I believe you get two in theEating Wild box.
They're a lot smaller than yourtraditional pork tenderloin or
beef tenderloin.
Obviously, and to maximizemyself, to maximize those
(46:59):
tenderloins, and I did it.
I actually did it last week andI did it with Chef Craig and we
had the two tenderloins that Igot from my buck, that I shot
this year, and again we made thesausages and we made some
burgers.
We're going to talk about thatwhen I get the boys back in
studio, which is coming up veryshortly.
(47:20):
What a beautiful day that wastogether.
But what I did with thetenderloins was, as I noticed,
they were quite small and I wastalking with Craig and he's like
why don't we butterfly theseopen?
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 themand let's overlap them.
(47:43):
Let's try to stretch this asfar as we can.
And what I did was is weseasoned it up just a little bit
of salt and pepper, a littlebit of olive oil and we did a
mixture of portobello mushrooms,smoked gouda, spinach,
artichokes and chopped basil andparsley and we made this
(48:03):
mixture and we're folding ittogether, folding it together
and we lined it in the center ofthese two flattened venison
tenderloins and then weliterally rolled them up.
We rolled it as tight as wecould and because it was too
overlapping each other, weprobably got like a good 14 inch
long tenderloin strap, um thatwe tied up again.
(48:26):
Tying it up was reallyimportant.
Tied it up, we actually usedsome, um, butcher's twine, but
then we actually used toothpickswhere the seams were, just to
make sure that it was.
Uh, it was, it was closed tight.
For when we uh cooked it off andwe seared it first, uh, we
seared it on the flat top andthen roasted it in the oven and
only took like 12 minutes,believe it or not.
(48:47):
And the, the cheese, the smokedgouda, was like literally
popping out the sides and we letit rest for almost a half an
hour, believe it or not.
And I know they say, rest yourmeat for as long as you cook
your meat.
But I felt like we needed torest it a little bit longer,
especially because I don't knowif people notice this when
they're stuffing, say, porktenderloins or pork loins and
(49:08):
you buy them at the storepre-stuffed and stuff, and when
you cut into them, there's thatring around the stuffing where
it looks raw all the time and Ireally, truly believe it's not.
It's just the color, becausethe cheese and the stuffing
usually gives off moisture, butI wanted to let it rest a little
longer and let it activate abit.
And when we cut into thesepinwheels, oh my God, it was
(49:31):
incredible, just incredible, andI will take a picture of this
and send the show time to put onthe picture for when we do the
recipe of the week, which isgoing to be put up on our social
media page after this airs andalong with the instructions on
how to make this.
But I will tell you this itmaximized the meal itself
(49:54):
because it went from being maybetwo pounds to six pounds,
because I literally stuffed thehell out of it Again, it turned
it into maybe a two inchdiameter to a four inch diameter
.
And when we serve that into themedallions, one medallion is
all people got and I got aboutsix to seven really nice, six
ounce medallions out of it.
(50:15):
It was beautiful and thepresentation was nice.
And again, you can serve thatwith any kind of vegetables you
want out of starch in there,and'll tell you right now it's a
beautiful, beautiful way toprepare your, your tenderloins.
That will be the recipe of theweek brought to you by the
butcher shop.
Now again, I answered so manyquestions today and it's always
(50:36):
nice there's so many more guysand again I apologize if we
don't get to all of them, butbut we really do appreciate the
feedback.
And again, the question of theday are brought to you by
extreme Marine boats.
And listen, I'm going to tellyou right now what's cooking up
at extreme Marine right now.
Woo, I'm going to tell youfolks, talk to Showtime Johnson.
(50:56):
He's been talking to Rob realclosely and next year is going
to be a big year.
I have a feeling that the boyswill be testing out some new
boats because, from the feedbackthat Rob's giving Showtime
Johnson, there's some big thingscooking up there and we're
excited to be a part of theirteam, that's for sure.
And keep the questions comingin for myself Hookset, showtime,
(51:19):
top Dog, lou Spices.
I got lots of questions aboutour spices.
Please, guys, be, be a littlebit patient with us.
We're, we're, we.
So many things happening andmoving parts going on and we, we
are completely out of ourspices.
We have not been able to make anew batch, um, but it's in the
works.
It is totally in the works andwe should have some spices If
(51:43):
you do.
If you did get a chance to getsome of our sample spices at the
Muskie Brawl, feel free toagain send Siege a direct
message and ask how to use anyof the spices.
Again, you got Lose a Jerk.
The Key Lime Lemon Pepper hasbeen popping.
The Piri Piri, the Smoked PiriPiri.
The Mapled Smoke you know we'regot lose a jerk.
The key lime lemon pepper hasbeen popping.
Um, the period period.
The smoke period period.
The mapled smoke.
(52:03):
Um, you know, we're just havingfun with things.
That's all we're doing.
Guys and uh.
Again, if you haven't seen ourlatest giveaway on social media,
mike from kakushin hasdeveloped the hunting knife, the
eating wild edition.
Still still go on Cocuchin'swebsite, get this knife.
They're limited time, it is thebest.
(52:25):
And this is the words from theboys up north.
Uncle P, with his bare hand,used.
He was the first one to use theEating Wild sportsman knife on
a buck and he literally lookedat me and said this is probably
the sharpest knife I've everskinned a deer with.
(52:45):
And this guy's skinned lots ofdeers, okay, him and coach and
and fish on to gagne.
They were like oh my lord.
This thing is insane.
We got the, we got the patentapproval here to send over to
Mike.
And again you can get theangling Pro Filet Knife.
And also, I think ShowtimeJohnson threw in from Mike, from
Cocosian Knives, a EverydayChef Damascus Knife.
(53:09):
What a prize, folks.
This is like the holy grail ofknife giveaways.
So make sure you log on to ourInstagram page to see what you
need to do to get yourselfentered into that.
And, with that being said, thisis Smash Muleka.
Thank you for joining me for anepisode of Smash's Kitchen
Again.
I will be doing theseperiodically and just keeping
(53:32):
people up to date what'shappening in the kitchen.
Smash Muleka for Top Dog PrayerHookset, 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 (53:55):
Ciao, we've got the stars lined up.
They're coming out ready toplay.
It won't be long.
They'll be pulling up fish andwe'll be serving them their
favorite dish.
All the feeling screaming reelson fish and fire.
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I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!
Crime Junkie
Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by audiochuck Media Company.