Wild Abundance

by Schadt, Susan; Buser, Lisa; Besh, John (CON); Carrier, Karen (CON); Currence, John (CON)

• ISBN13: 9780615398235
• ISBN10: 0615398235
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2010-10-21
• Publisher: Wild Abundance Pub

Summary

Wild Abundanceis a coffee table book with 250 stunning photographs documenting the stories and spirit of hunting clubs. It features over 70 recipes, appealing to camp cooks and home cooks alike. Through the voices of nine renowned chefs,Wild Abundancehonors and documents the contribution of often-untrained cooks who create traditions and are important parts of the vitality of each club.

Excerpts

 

I meet up with the beautiful and sweet ladies who I will cook with tonight – in particular Ms. Sylvia, who is quite the chef and leader of this kitchen brigade. Having met Sylvia before, I know she’s a pistol and that this is her kitchen. Without a doubt, she is able to cook as well, if not better, than most restaurant chefs throughout south Louisiana. As with most folks from Cajun country, she was born not with a silver spoon but one made of wood, perfect for stirring a cast iron pot. Though I had met her before, today would be my first time cooking with her, and boy, am I excited. I come bearing gifts of crabs, oysters, shrimp and wine. That’s the way in with a good cook – food and wine! From that point on, we have a ball. We swap stories of gumbo, étouffée, grillades and jambalaya. I pour her a glass of wine and ask her to sit, as I am going to do the work for her tonight. Of course, she won’t hear of it. So we get in there and cook, drink and dance. It is on. First things first, I show her how to debone the teal while keeping the skin intact, stuff the birds and prepare them for roasting. While that’s taking place, I’ve also got a sauce made out of quince preserves that will reduce down with onions, cane vinegar and veal stock. I burn the sauce twice, much to the enjoyment of my dear chef Sylvia, who laughs and thinks it humorous that even with a television cooking show, I still burn the sauce. With the stuffed teal in various stages of preparation, the ladies and I work on a few hors d’oeuvres for the hunters to enjoy before the meal. As they wait for dinner to be served, they browse the meticulously kept hunt log, where much speculation is made of where we should hunt and what we might expect to bag.