Hi Mountain Seasonings: Perfect for Waterfowl Cooking
Mike Bolton 03.05.12
It’s an age-old problem for waterfowlers. You can bring the meat to the table but how do you make it delectable so it wows your friends and family?
Waterfowl is a specialty for many chefs but they often use commercially raised birds. You, too, can be a chef that draws praise using your own harvests.
Hi Mountain Seasonings makes the job easy with its mouth-watering recipes and jerky specialty kits that will make any tough old bird melt in your mouth. A variety of recipes for ducks and geese can be found on the Hi Mountain Seasonings website at www.himtnjerky.com.
If you’re a goose hunter, Hi Mountain Seasonings offers three seasonings kits: Wild Goose Original, Wild Goose Hickory and Wild Goose Mesquite—all three of which are specially blended to enhance the natural succulent flavors of the waterfowl to provide a tender jerky that everyone in the family will enjoy.
Duck and geese often have a reputation of being tough and too gamey, to eat but both provide a healthy and tasty meal with an amazingly table-ready appeal. Be sure to give the wild fowl a try this season.
Here is a great recipe to start with. In the tradition of the Philly Cheesesteak Sandwich, this recipe is a quick one that will fool some of your friends that claim they don’t like the flavor of duck. The meat is sliced very thin, so be careful when cooking. It only takes a minute or two to cook. If you like your foods spicy, splash in some hot sauce or some thinly sliced jalapeno peppers before topping with cheese. Try it with a sourdough hoagie or slider rolls. Serves four.
Ingredients
- 2 cups duck skinless breast fillets
- 1 teaspoon each Hi Mountain Cajun Cowboy and Trail Dust Seasonings
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 large yellow onion, thinly sliced
- 1 green bell pepper, thinly sliced
- 3 garlic cloves, minced
- ½ cup Italian dressing
- 8 slices provolone cheese
- Italian rolls, slider rolls, etc.
Slice the duck breasts as thinly as possible. If possible, place in the freezer for an hour or so to firm up the meat before slicing. Season with Cajun Cowboy and Trail Dust Seasonings. Heat olive oil in a large heavy skillet or griddle over medium-high heat. Add onions, pepper and garlic. Cook until onions are lightly browned.
Move vegetables over to one side of the skillet and add duck breast. Cook meat until lightly brown, but do not overcook. Combine with peppers, onion and garlic. Add Italian seasonings to mixture and toss to warm.
Mound meat and vegetables into piles (according to the number and size of the roles – 4 rolls = 4 mounds). Top with cheese for each mound until cheese melts. Scoop up each portion of meat and vegetables and place in rolls.
Mike Bolton, 56, served as the outdoors writer for the Birmingham News for 25 years until his retirement in 2009. He won the AP Sweepstakes Award for best sports story in Alabama on eight occasions and his stories on the Cahaba River were nominated for a Pulitizer Prize. He has also contributed to Sporting Classics, Bassmaster Magazine, Buckmasters Magazine and other national pubications.
