Smoked Pheasant Four Cheese Morel Lasagna
It amazes me how some people cannot figure out what to do with their pheasant meat. It is like they are afraid of it. It is true that pheasant meat will cook fast, and too cooked it will become hard and rubbery. However, that is not a reason to be afraid of it. My daughter and her friend wanted lamb, wedge salad, and I had to do something with some pheasant so they decided on Lasagna. So the first thing you need to do, after you clean your shot out of the meat, is BRINE the pheasant breast. I had 6 pheasant breast so this is what I used for my brine for 3 hours. Boil water first then add ingredients, bring to a cool. Toss in your bird.
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 1/2 cup salt
- 2 bay leaves
- 1/2 gallon of water
After the brine I smoked them on 200 degrees for 1.5 hours. Remove and chop into pieces. Do not worry if they are a little pink in the middle, it is okay because they will finish in the oven. You want them moist in the cheese mixture.
Get a nice bowl out and add the following.
- 16 oz of ricotta cheese
- 2 eggs
- 1/4 cup of fine bread crumbs
- 1 cup of Asiago cheese
- 1 cup of Mozzarella cheese grated
- 1/2 cup Romano cheese grated
- 2 tablespoon of fresh chopped parsley
- 1 teaspoon of pepper
- 1 teaspoon of sea salt (season to taste)
- 1/4 cup of morel mushrooms chopped (I rehydrated some from last April)
Combine mixture in a bowl and set aside
Okay, it is now time for the sauce. You can make your own, but I was on a time budget so I improvised with a jar of red sauce. I am partial to Rao’s marinara, but use who you prefer. Lay down a little cover fire on the 9 x 11 baking dish, by that I mean put a little on the bottom of the pan to lay your lasagna sheets on.
Repeat this process three times, not less. Do not get all cheap and just blot a little down. Nobody wants a little taste of nothing in their mouths, layer it down thick y’all.
Cover with aluminum foil and add to the preheated oven at 375 degrees and let cook for 35 minutes, remove foil and continue cooking for 20 minutes to get a nice brown on top. Remove from oven and let cool for 10 minutes before cutting.
This is what happy 18 year olds look like before they go to college. I cannot wait until they are eating Top Ramen.
They have pesto rolls, slow roasted lamb, lasagna, and a wedge salad. I hope they paid attention to how I do all of this.
Enjoy
Hunting Chef
2012 Valentines Dinner-This is why my wife lets me go hunting
For all of you outdoorsmen out there, pay attention to what I am going to tell you. The reason my wife allows me to do the things I do, is not because of how handsome I am, or my “Mr. Wonderful” personality, nor my Greek God washboard stomach. I know this is hard to believe, but truth be known it is because I won her heart via her stomach. I could take her to dinner out on Valentines, but that would not come from the Hunting Chef’s heart now would it? This is my Valentines dinner, I hope you learn something and you try it next year.
I was going to do her favorite Chilean Sea Bass, it is also the couple joining us for dinner favorite, Todd and Karen Saunders. However, my favorite place did not have any fresh so I opted out and went with her second favorite tenderloin steak.
First thing I did is wash and clean the asparagus, put olive oil and sea salt and dash of pepper. I have my lemons on stand by ready for the last step of the process. I prepare my bbq and get the coals hot on my Green Egg. This will be my first step of prepping, my last step in the process of cooking.
Now, I am going to make my Gorgonzola Shrimp pasta as a side. The recipe is on the blog, check it out. I took my steaks out about 30 minutes ago to bring to a room temperature. I have Todd season them, he uses sea salt, garlic salt and pepper.
We take golden and green broccoli/cauliflower mix. Todd seasons them with olive oil, a little butter and salt and pepper. I put the steaks on and bring them to a medium rare. He cooks the vegetables in high heat in the cast iron.
I take the steaks off at 135 degrees and let sit for 5 minutes as I throw the asparagus on. This will take about the same 5 minutes. I turn them after they get a little char to them. I remove them and plate them, the last thing you want to do is squeeze lemon on them. The shrimp get cooked that same five minutes and the noodles get dropped. Its plate time folks.
This is what two happy Valentines look like right before you ask them to go Steelhead fishing.
That there is how you do it Gentlemen. A happy wife is a “let you hunt and fish” wife. Pay attention to the details boys.
Thank you honey for being a wonderful understanding wife. I hope to make you 100 more Valentines dinner. Love you Baby.
That is how you do it boys!
Hunting Chef
Steelhead fishing on the Umpqua River in Oregon
There are a lot of good rivers in Oregon to pursue the illusive, powerful steelhead on. However, the waters of the Umpqua river are one of the best Oregon has to offer. I am a true believer that pound for pound a the wild steelhead is the most powerful fish on the planet. This annual trip that Grover and Scott Brown put together is always a highlight for Winter Steelhead.
After virtually no sleep at night because Scott talks in his sleep we hit the waters looking for big Steelies. Grover is the first to hook up followed by Scott. I swear the two of them were putting on a fishing clinic. Usually it is my luck that has me boating fish, but this day belonged to the Brown Boys.
Scott hooked into a few more
Finally hooked into one, and he took my line and hammered down river with fire in his belly.
Nothing like a little white water to navigate
Our day stats were 22 steelhead boated, not a bad day. Grover and I only lost a few on early take downs but our statistics were above average for not losing fish. Grover’s shoulders were sore for carrying the weight. For whatever reason, the fish stayed away from my line. I guess that is just the way it is sometimes. I think Scott boated 9 that day, so for a year he will carry the burden of being the February annual champ.
See you next year fellas. I am coming back for my championship run next year.
Hunting Chef
Dove Hunting in Cordoba, Argentina
When we first arrived in the Cordoba airport, the first thing I noticed is how hot it was. It was like Africa hot. Our outfitter picked us up in a truck that did not have air-conditioning and the three of us Reed, Dave and I sweated our asses off in a hot box for the two-hour drive.
Once we arrived we knew that we were gonna shorten the trip and get out of there to go fishing early. I will not give you the name of the outfitter because I am not going to endorse them. The people were great, the accommodations just was not up to par. I guess, when I walk into my room and there is an ash tray next to the bed with no air-conditioning it becomes pretty apparent we are not in a 2 star lodge.
That afternoon, in the height of the heat (101 degrees) they took us to a field with the sun in our eyes and lots of birds. However, after 30 minutes of shooting I am hot, sweaty, and bored. I called out to Reed, who was to my left about a hundred yards.
“Reed, I have ADD and I am hot and sweaty, want to meet in the shade for a beer?”
He yelled back he would meet me in the middle. Soon, Dave came down for a frosty and we all three shot some birds together. The next day they took us to a prime hunting area with a sunflower seed farm, and the doves were wreaking havoc on this farmers crop.
One thing came apparent that afternoon, Dave was a pretty good wing shooter. I think if I remember correctly we were close to 1000 birds combined that morning.
We spent a few hours shooting doves with our .20 gauges. At some point, I pull my chair up to take a break in the shade. I handed my shotgun off to my guide and told him I wanted to see what he can do. We were sort of tucked behind some bushes so Reed and Dave could not really see me. My guide, started knocking every bird out of the sky that flew in his directions. I could hear Dave tell Reed “Wow Shay is getting a lot better over there.”
I couldn’t help myself so I opened a cold frosty beer and yelled “Boys, I am getting so good they are gonna name a shotgun after me.”
That afternoon at lunch I came clean on my scam and all of us had a good laugh. We took a 3 hour lunch break to escape the heat. This time, we decided to have the Red neck olympics which basically the only difference is that we shoot lazy style….out of lawn chairs.
After the shoot we drove an hour home and they had dinner ready for us.
The next morning we shot another place and each of us were improving our weaponry. These doves are fast, the screaming parrots are faster. The difference is that the doves fly by you as fast as they can. The parrots do the same thing but faster, and they come straight at you. It is very hard to distinguish what exactly it is until it to late. Face it folks, in this type of situation, there is a friendly fire. The farmers hate the parrots too, because there are millions of them that hammer the food in their fields. These parrots are nasty too, they scream at you from behind you bad words. I don’t know exactly what they say to me from the bushes, but I can guarantee it’s not that Polly wants a cracker.
They do not eat the doves there, probably because there are millions of them and they do not care for them. The locals do like eating the pigeons though. Every once in a while one would fly through and the guides would point and tell you in Spanish to shoot them. I guess they thought it was a delicacy.
Our final shoot, we were a little bored and so I noticed that Dave was trying to shoot birds that would land on me. He put one right above my head, hit the tree behind me.
We finished up a good hunt with a lot of empty shells.
We had a good time and made the best of it. The people were truly great. The guides really tried to work hard for you. The also picked up all the shells.
I felt a little sorry for the employees of this outfit, they all worked really hard. The owner just was burned out and tired. He was not interested in making his accommodations better. His free bar was full of booze that I swear they had on pirate ships, bottles with dust all over it, spiders that ate you everynight, and the building falling apart. All he needed to do was put a little money into the place and it would improve their situation. We left two days early, picked up Braden and hauled ass to Patagonia to get on some great fishing water and awesome accommodations at the Patagonia River Ranch.
Marinaded Elk Sirloin Stir Fry
The other day I pulled what I thought to be elk hamburger out of the freezer, when I got home that evening I grabbed the now thawed hamburger. To my surprise, it was not elk hamburger but elk sirloin. This threw me for a loop, but being the Hunting Chef I was able to recover. I wanted to try something new, and I am sort of watching my weight because I gained some LB’s in Argentina (I said watching my weight, not a diet). So, I thought to myself…how ’bout some stir fry. So I researched a couple of sites on the internet and found a few recipes then “tricked” them out in the test kitchen to make them even better. For those of you looking for some elk recipes, take this one down because my daughter Megan loves Chinese food more than the Chinese people, thought this one was a winner, winner elk recipe dinner.
Marinade
- 2 pounds of elk sirloin (you can use any steak, just make sure to cut all the fat out of it).
- 1 tablespoon of soy sauce
- 1 tablespoon of dry sherry (use the good stuff here folks).
- 1 tablespoon of Chinese hot pepper oil.
- 3 Garlic cloves, minced.
- 1/4 tsp of Pepper
- 1/4 tsp of Salt
I put the whole steaks in the marinade sauce and put in a zip lock for about 2 hours.
When you are ready. Remove the meat and marinade from the refrigerator about thirty minutes before cooking. Cut into then slices about 1/4 thick or to your preference. Make sure to remove all fat from the meat when you trim your steak.
Sauce
- 1 tablespoon of dry sherry
- 2 tablespoons of soy sauce
- 1 teaspoon of sesame seed oil
- 1 teaspoon of sugar
- 1 1/2 teaspoon of rice vinegar
Mix these ingredients and put in bowl and save for later.
- Cut up 6 green onions into short strips and save for later.
I used a Wok, because my fan base has serious expectations and I do not want to let any of you down by not having true authentic Chinese cookware for my blog.
Get the wok nice and hot then add:
- 2 tablespoons of canola oil.
While the oil is getting hot. Take 2 tablespoons of water, and 1 tablespoon of corn starch mix and save for later.
Add the meat and the marinade to the wok. Stir the meat until it turns nice and brown. Add sliced chestnuts if you like, my oldest daughter and I love chestnuts in our Chinese food.
Once the meat is brown, add the half the corn starch mixture. Then I add the sauce and mix until I get my desired sauce consistency. You can add more of the corn starch mixture if you like it a little thicker. Throw in your green onions immediately. You should have your rice already made.
The entire time I am making this dinner I have a little one watching me and wondering why she is eating peas and I am about to eat the good stuff. Notice she has smashed some peas into her hair on the side of her head? Classic move.
Okay, now what you need to pay particular attention too is how fast the elk will cook. You want to serve this dish almost medium rare so the entire Wok work should be done in less than 4 minutes. It happens fast, the last thing you want to do is have it sit on a plate or the wok for 10 minutes while you prepare to serve. Have your rice ready, and serve immediately otherwise it will be overcooked and not as good.
Enjoy y’all.
Hunting Chef
Return to the Patagonia River Ranch with the Boys
My wife often says that when I go on a vacation that I always try to repeat the same trip in my pursuit of the same experience I originally had, and that more often than not it never ends up being as good as the first time. Thus far, she has been correct. I was returning to Argentina three weeks after our wonderful trip to the same place and there was a part of me thinking “Can this possibly be as good as the trip the last one? This is going to be hard to repeat”. On this trip, I had a father son team from California, David and Braden. They are very good clients and friends. Also joining us was a good friend and also in the business, Reed. The three of them have never been to Argentina so they had no idea of the massive travel adventure that laid in wait before them. We went to Cordoba to dove hunt for four days then down to San Martin Los Andes. I will blog about the bird hunting later, lets start in the middle when we got off the plane in Neuquen. The airport in San Martin was closed due to the ash so we had to rent a suburban to get the four of us and our gear down to Patagonia River Ranch. I was a little skeptical about Hertz having a Suburban rental because I never saw one the entire I time I had been in Argentina.
There was no way that two of us and all of our gear could fit in this rig. Reed spotted a big van in the parking lot of a competitor and we were able to rent that for less cost. We stayed the night at the Casino Magic hotel and after 5 days of heavy traveling I was spent at 0500 hours and looking straight in the face of a long 5 hour drive down to San Martin. Reed said “No problem dude, I have a caffeine pill for you and it will fix you right up”. Since I was the only one that knew the way, I figured it was my duty to take the pill because there are no Starbucks in this area. Two seconds after I swallowed it Reed says to me “Oh wait, that could have been an ambient.”
I reply “Reed, there is a BIG difference between the two. One makes you SLEEPY, the other makes you awake. Which one was it?”
He was not sure because all his pills were in one bottle. One hour later, I pull off the road because I am seeing monkeys and goblins on the road and say to Dave “That was an ambient, I am toast.”
So I relieved myself of my driving duty and they woke me up to ask me where to turn at. Somewhere in between we stopped for fuel and put regular gas in the diesel tank. Hours later we arrived at the Patagonia River Ranch and it was like I was a long-lost family member welcomed home. At some point during the welcome party I saw Claudio the chef and ran to him like a fat kid in a candy store. We did not dilly dally around we loaded up and I drank some coffee to offset the ambient in my system and soldiered up for some fishing.
We were ripping out roll cast all with dry flies in shallow water searching for good brown water when I hooked a nice Brownie.
The wind picked up and we were ready for some dinner and my main man Claudio did not let me down. This would be my 43rd steak in Argentina, I did of course reduce my empanadas intake down to just having Claudio’s at the out-door Asadore that was coming later.
The next morning after a hearty breakfast we headed out for the Alumine river. Which I think is one of the prettiest rivers in the world, and some good fishing to boot.
Do you want to know what it looks like to be the first boat on the water jumping out in the current to fish fresh water while your buddies wait for their guide to go to the bathroom? It looks something like this….
Dave lands his first Rainbow on the Alumine with a nice cast out in some flat water.
After catching roughly twenty nice size Rainbows Dave and I built up a little hunger for some lunch. We all met at a beautiful spot on the river to enjoy lunch and a few bottles of wine.
We all enjoyed a nice lunch, at about this time we realize that our guides only put 6 beers in each of our coolers. We are relaxed enough looking in the photo, but in our hearts we were stricken with fear.
We continued on fishing…with no beer.
Dave and I were enjoying the day when out from around the bend a boat was coming out of no where with Maverick and Goose from Top Gun. What are the chances of that?
The next day Braden and I joined forces in our search for the illusive Big Brown. Braden jumped off the boat and started on his own down through some shallow water with large river rock in hot pursuit. It did not take him 5 minutes before whooping and hollering.
Underwater shot of proper release method
We stopped for lunch and a few bottles of Malbec. What I am going to show you now is the true fundamentals of how to look cool when on a satellite phone….which is later lost after Reed dives into the river with it on his belt. These are not staged photos, and this is the last time the satellite phone is photographed before it gets dunked in the river.
Moments later Dave gets out of his relaxed phase and enters…..
Braden then takes the phone but calls to check in with work.
I was pulling large streamers all day, because that is what I heard the owner of Patagonia River Ranch, Ken does. He also happened to be down at the ranch at the same time we were so I was picking his brain about what he does to pursuit the large browns. The evening before I was talking to him and my guide Nicko came up as we were talking about streamers and he looked at me like I was betraying him because Nicko liked me fishing with all surface flies. I took Ken’s advice and I went streamers this day, and still had not caught a big fish. This afternoon, I rigged up my 5 weight just for surface action if I needed it. Not an hour after we made the switch back to the surface I hooked into a real dandy….on a surface fly. It was a perfect cast for me with a nice tight roll under a shaded tree and I gave it a small twitch as the beetle hit the water, not a half second later there was a thrashing with a large mouth that came out of the water. Nicko and I saw it and knew it was a large brown.
I retired my casting hand for the day and watched Braden land a bunch of fish, all the while drinking a beer (the guides brought beer this time) with a smile on my face.
That evening they had the Asadore (outside Argentinian BBQ over a fire).
The boys having a cocktail and preparing for the empanadas feast that is about to appear
That evening we all shared in a wonderful meal with great wine.
That evening after we had our stomachs full of wonderful food and some good belly laughs about what had happened that day on the river. Ken stood up and inducted me into the “Blue Label Club” . Apparently when you bestow yourself a fish over 25″ inches your inducted into the BLC and written down in the Patagonia River Ranch bible of famous Patagonia fishermen. I actually was sitting next to a very nice lady named Candy who actually was in the book several times with fish larger than mine, not only was she a classy act, she was a “fine fishermen” as the father in the River runs through it described his son. Your guide comes up to the table with you and you tell the story as you recall it and your guide nods his head like he agrees with every thing your saying.
I got inducted into the hall of fame, and Nicko got to sign his name into the book next to mine. I felt a little awkward when I looked down at the empty shot glasses.
I guess there are some benefits to getting your fisherman onto a big fish.
The next morning was our final day fishing and the guides were really excited about taking us to the upper Alumine. We knew it was a long drive and wanted to fish the Chimehuin but they had some tremendous days up there and really wanted us to fish the waters. Something happened up in the upper Alumine that changed Nicko for life. I cannot really talk about it because Reed, Nicko, and I are sworn to secrecy. However, if I get an email from Nicko telling me that it is okay to discuss my misfortune I shall. Chances our he probably already told everyone at the ranch by now so I am in another Blue Book.
The Alumine is a fantastic river to float, it has majestic rock formations that were the living grounds of the ancient people. This rock formation above had caves in it with drawings on the wall. We did not have time to go up and look but I envisioned the cave man with drawings of stick figures with fishing rods and a fish.
We finished up the day and had another great dinner and the next morning we said good-bye to our friends of Patagonia River Ranch. They set the bar earlier this month and again they met the standards of providing the best service, product, and experience. We all got great sleep on their comfortable beds and gained 20 pounds. If I was to give a recommendation on a fly fishing bucket list this place would top the list. Thank you Ken and Patagonia River Ranch staff for making another unbelievable trip.
I would also like to thank Nicko and Santiago for putting up with us on the river. We joke around a lot and that is what makes our fishing together special.
I hope you enjoyed our fishing trip. The Hunting Chef
Empanadas the Argentinian Way
I read about them like they were little morsels that only the elders spoke of in small pockets of South American communities in California. They always spoke of them like they were magical but when I questioned them about making them or the recipes they always looked at me like I was loco crazy! Too much work they would say. Needless to say, I was not only going to South America to seek out fly fishing waters, I was in pursuit of the history of the empanadas and who made the best. This was an endeavor that would add 10 lbs. to my frame, but one worth taking the risk for because….I just had to know. I ate them in Buenos Aires, Petuluma, and La Boca. I ate them in Neuquen, Patagonia, and San Martin los Andes. I ate them fried and baked, and ate them in lamb, beef, pork and chicken. What I quickly learned is that each of them were unique and different with their own spin on them, and none of them were bad. Some of them were obviously better than the others, but recipes were different and mostly because different regions used different ingredients and their recipes were sometimes five generations old.
After consuming what I think was….556 empanadas (may be a bit less, but it feels like I did). I started to notice what I liked about the ones I had, so I could build my own personal empanadas that was a product of the knowledge I learned from my consumption.
The fried vs. baked argument is a good debate. I think most people who tried Claudios at the Patagonia River Ranch enjoyed the fried ones the most, however, they are fried and there is a part of me that says “Shay if your going to live to 75, you need to stay away from the fried stuff….if you can.”
So here we go folks, this is my gift to you that I so graciously put my life and health on the line so you could enjoy this recipe. I used beef on the first one, and lamb on the second.
Makes 30 empanadas, do not worry they will get mauled.
Cook the potatoes in cold water with 2 teaspoons of salt and bring to boil, reduce the heat and cook for about 8 minutes. Remove from heat and pour cold water over them to stop the cooking process. Cover with saran wrap on a plate and save for later.
Finely chop the beef up into small 1/8 inch size. Season with sea salt and pepper.
You want to sear the meat in a cast iron skillet with 2 tablespoons of the lard on high, then remove to a plate spread the meat to stop the cooking process. Do this in stages, you want to keep the meat from steaming or over cooking. Take chopped onions and add 1 tablespoon of lard and cook on medium, add the white parts of the green onions chopped. Cook until translucent but not browned then remove them.
Cook the frozen peas and add the peas, meat, onions, red pepper flakes, chopped oregano, remainder of the chopped green onions and potatoes into a dish and mix with your fork. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Then add chopped eggs. Cover and put in the refrigerator.
empanadas Dough
-
2 cups of water
-
1 1/2 tablespoons of salt
-
3 1/2 tablespoons of organic lard cut into pieces
-
6 cups of all-purpose flour, keep it handy may have to add more
Bring water and salt to boil in small sauce pan. Add lard and stir until it melts. Allow to cool at room temperature. Using your hand gradually add the flour 1 cup at a time until you roll the dough into a ball. Sprinkle flour as needed on the work service to keep from sticking. Divide dough in half, wrap in clear plastic and let chill for an hour. Get your rolling-pin out y’all and start rolling it in batches until it is flat and 1/8 thick or less. Use a biscuit cutter or a large cup to cut the dough in a disk that is four inches wide circles.
Get your dough disk, and your big spoon. Take a little water and get the outside edge a little wet. And begin to fill the disc up with the mixed ingredients.
Then pinch the ends together
I then take the a fork and do a little crimping on the outside
Take one egg and beat it, then brush them nice and easy.
Bake them on the top two racks for 15 minutes or until nice and brown
Fly Fishing in Patagonia, Argentina
We left Buenos Aires New Years day and took a hopper to Neuquin, Argentina. Due to the volcanic ash we could not fly into San Martin de los Andes. We could either take a bus, or a van, or rent a car. We chose the latter of the options. Let me tell you two things about renting a car when there is volcanic ash has the airports closed. The first revolves around simple economics, supply and demand. Low supply, high demand equals HIGH PRICE. Secondly, the cars are like mini go carts designed for people who are 4 feet tall and 80 lbs.
It was a 5 hour drive from Neuquin to San Martin, but I did it in 4 hours. Let me honest with you, the drive is like driving thru the desert on route 97 to Vegas. However, it would be fun with a very fast car because people pass each other like they are racing in the Indy 500 and there is no cops. Once you get about an hour from San Martin it begins to look very pretty. We arrive at the Patagonia River Ranch and instantly greeted by the staff. They are very nice and show us to our room immediately.
The ranch is full of flowers, and a huge garden, the house faces the river. The living room is relaxing and comfortable with a bar.
I am not going to give a ton of photos of the Patagonia River Ranch, you can check them out at flyfishargentina.com or google the ranch itself and take a look. What I can tell you about the lodge itself is that is ran perfectly and with every little perfect detail. Salome, is your personal host with her assistant Isabel. There is nothing they do not have, or cannot get to make you comfortable. Their mission is to make you very comfortable and very happy. I can also tell you that the food is incredible, and this comes from the Hunting Chef who knows good food, as well as bad food. Claudio is a very competent chef and has a great staff. The guides were all very respectful and worked very hard, our personal guide Nicko not only spoke very good English (they all do at the lodge by the way), but his fishing and rowing skills as well as his knowledge and fly tying abilities exceeded my expectations.
Your guide stays with you for each daily trip and he not only assures that you see new fresh water, but that also sets up each lunch prepared by Claudio’s staff. It takes a little getting used too, having a big lunch and a bottle of wine. But somehow, we manage to live the Argentina way.
The cooler was always full of sodas, water, and Argentina beer. Did I mention it was 85 degrees and that cold beer was tasting good on the breaks in between when Nicko was ordering me to cast here, and cast there. Seriously, it was like going to fly fishing boot camp and I was the private.
Each day we were hauled off to another river. It was great because we got to see a lot of the surrounding terrain. What is great about this fly fishing Mecca, is that you NEVER see another boat, ever.
I cannot tell you how many fish we caught, because there was so many. Nicko said the fishing was a little slow because of the abnormal heat, it never got cold at night which is typical. The big fish were a little lazy. Did I mention that we were catching them all on surface flies? Tell me where you can go catch 100 fish on surface flies, and never see another person?
What is interesting about fly fishing in Patagonia is that your fishing shallow waters. Look at the shore in this photo. Literally less than a foot of water.
Each night we would return back to the lodge, take a shower and get ready for a knock out meal. Your hands would hurt from stripping line and casting a thousand times, but everyone had a smile on their face.
We did an over nighter one night and camped. Salso went down before us to set up the tents and get dinner ready. We were tired and fished all day, but very relaxed.
I swear these people are trying to make me fat! Of course, I came down South a little Gordo but only because I didn’t know how the food was going to be and had put on my winter weight.
The next morning after….breakfast. We were off on the river fishing again.
My casting started to get even better and I was rolling through branches with precision. Even Nicko was impressed for those 5 minutes, challenging me to put the fly in places he knew I couldn’t do, but those 5 minutes….I was like Brad Pitt in the movie “River runs through it”. I went two days without losing a fly, a river record. The next hour I made Nicko call me Brad. Steph later steals a fish from underneath me.
Then the wind picked up and I went back to being just a normal fishing dude with a hurt hand and sore arm.
We had our last meal on the river and there is something to be said about sitting having lunch and a glass of wine watching fish rise in front of you. It is pure torture.
We were rapping up a week of fishing in some of the best waters I have ever had the opportunity to fish. I sat down and opened and ice cold beer, and just enjoyed the moment for about 20 minutes before drill sergeant Nicko started barking orders for me to keep casting….”Get ready…this is really good water.”
That night, we broke down our gear and we prepared for the farewell party which was an Asadore prepared by Claudio and his staff. I have been waiting for this all week. I read the book “Seven Fires” my favorite cook book by Francis Mallman and I was giddy all day preparing for this meal.
I was warned by the guides to not eat more than three so you were not full for dinner. However, I watched each one of these skinny dudes knock down at least seven.
The table is set, the party is beginning to assemble. The bar is open, the empanadas have arrived. The meat is still on the Asadore slowly cooking.
Let the party begin…..
What a way to end the week with our Texan friends, the guides, and the wonderful staff. I can say this is a memory I will have for the rest of my life and/or until I go back next week.
I love this photo, because the whole time on the boat I would be speaking to Steph and say “Honey can you get some sun screen” or something like that and Nicko would always respond. Then I would reply “Thank you Honey” and he would reply “Your welcome Sweety”. I hope all his friends see this photo!
I would like to thank the all the staff of Patagonia River Ranch. It is amazing that all of you work so well together and get a long so well. You made our visit, unbelievable and for that I am forever indebted. I would also like to throw out a word to the owner, Ken. You sir, have created a paradise and I hope when the grim reaper comes to get me he takes me to the Patagonia River Ranch.
Four days in Buenos Aires 2012
This year, my wife and I decided to go to Patagonia to fish some of the worlds best Trout waters. She chose Patagonia River Ranch as our destination, and I felt it was her turn because of the horrible experience we had in Alaska a few years ago at Dove Island in Sitka, which was expensive and very poorly ran. You never really know what to expect, neither of us had ever been to Argentina before and it was on both of our buckets list. So right after Christmas, we left Mady with the Grandparents and headed down South with sunscreen, fly fishing gear and some shorts. The travel seems like a long way, over 18 hours with two flights and a three-hour delay in Houston. However, it is really not that bad because you fly on the red-eye and sleep on the plane. You wake up refreshed and ready to go, there is only a four-hour time difference so it is relatively easy.
- La Boca, Buenos Aires
We stayed 4 days in Buenos Aires, did some shopping, did some eating, then did some more eating. I swear the meaning of Buenos Aires should be steak, because they eat it 15 times a week. Buenos Aires is a huge city, fourth largest in the world.
It seems as though the Government cannot afford to maintain most of these older buildings so most of them are closed. There are a lot of these beautiful 100 year old buildings that are in desperate need of restoration.
When people think of Buenos Aires, the word that comes to mind is Tango. A mystifying dance that as one local told me takes your entire life to learn. When we saw that they were dancing at lunch we decided to sit down and watch and of course eat an empanadas and try their smoke trout.
There are several districts to shop and visit. The vendors are very respectful and never try to over sell their product. They are very laid back and some are very talented artist.
It is like a parking garage with a fork lift as a valet.
Then our guides drove us through the water ways viewing houses. The water was a little dirty from the muddy river bottom.
These are the river roads that you have to navigate thru, this would probably be considered an alley.
We made a quick stop by at a local ladies house who lived on the river that made fresh homemade pasta, then we went to our new friends house for lunch. He made his own sausages and bought the bread fresh in town.
He was very excited about cooking as well and showed me his disc chappa grill. This is made out of the disc that farmers use when farming.
They prepared lunch as we drank a few Quienes beers.
They returned us to Buenos Aires, and we drove by Shanti Town. This is the projects of Buenos Aires, and I guess it is quite a problem and it keeps growing with immigrants.
Elk Taco Casserole
This recipe is for those of you that rush home and have to put something on the table fast and easy. It actually is very good and hard to stop eating once you put your fork in it. For all you hunters out there that want to feed the family in 30 minutes or less….this one is for you.
- 1 package of refrigerated crescent dough roll from Pillsbury
- 1 lb of ground elk
- 1/2 onion chopped
- 1 can (16 oz) jalapeno refried beans
- 1 cup of sour cream
- 1 egg
- 1 tablespoon of chili powder
- 1 teaspoon of cumin
- 2 garlic gloves diced
- 1 cup of shredded cheddar cheese
Toppings:
- Shredded lettuce
- Chopped tomato
- Slice black olives
- Sliced green onions
Salsa
- Cook onion and elk burger until no longer pink
Season the burger with salt and pepper and toss in chopped onions and garlic. Cook until meat is no longer pink, then drain any fat off. Take a casserole dish, the 12″ one, and spray it with Pam and line it with the croissant dough uncooked.
Put the meat in the dish that is layered with the dough. Then take the sour cream, refried beans, egg, chili powder, cumin and salt and pepper to taste and put into a bowl and mix.
- Mix all the ingredients in a bowl
Then layer the mixture over the meat evenly.
huntingchef.com 
Recent Comments