Patagonia Asadore BBQ and Fly Fishing
I have just returned from fly fishing in Argentina, and decided to share a few photos and some Asadore BBQ cooking with my ole buddy Claudio, who is a master at the art of camp cooking. The fly fishing was a little early in the season, for a guy that loves Dry Fly action it was slower this time of year, though I did get quite a few fish on dries, streamers seemed to be producing more fish. Ryan and Kevin have never been to Patagonia, so this was a new adventure.
We like to target the big browns, but the Rainbows were a lot of fun as well. Kevin caught a few Bass, which was unusual to me because I have never caught one here before. They fight pretty good, and look to me like a big large mouth bass.
In the middle of the week, we decided that we would do a camp over on the river. Patagonia River Ranch made this possible for us, and let me tell you it was 5 star camping. We were not so sure that we were going to go, but when I found out that Claudio was going with us to cook. That decision was made in one second. Where ever that Chef Claudio was going….I was going.
The camp staff went down before us, to put up the tents and prepare dinner. Nicko Uribe was my fishing guide, as he has been for years, and Santiago was fishing the other buddies as we just fished until we had blisters on our hands. The wind made it a little difficult, but just meant you would have a sore shoulder from working so hard.
We really looked forward to the lunches they made for us on the side of the rivers every day. However, I was looking forward to dinner….
This is not a place you would want to go to if you were on a diet. I think we were about 2 miles up river and I could smell something divine, and I knew my buddy Claudio was just around the bend. I almost started whipping Nicko to row the boat faster.
If you are hungry right now, do not continue with this blog.
Claudio had brought sausage, beef ribs, and a nice flank steak to the party.
I just stayed back, drank my wine and watched the master work.
There is an art to this type of cooking. The heat has to be perfect on the Chapa (Steel or cast iron large skillet). The coals have to be rendered and it is an art of slow cooking is good.
I am telling you, there was something that was so relaxing watching this process. Perhaps, because it was not me cooking and I know the stress and pressure of putting on a dinner like this, or because he made it look so easy.
Then he brings out what I think is called a Chapa, this he will use for his side vegetable dishes and later….DESERT!
I cannot tell you how the smells of an open fire with the right wood smoking the meats and the sizzle of the veggies.
Then Claudio does the impossible, he adds fried cheese besides the roasted veggies. I am going to take two cholesterol pills tonight.
The three of us and all the guides are salivating at this point pretty good.
The wines they brought are all Malbec’s of the region and very good. I love drinking Malbec’s they have lots of flavor and go so well with the meals we had.
Now for the moment of truth….
The juices are just flowing out of the meat, it was moist, had some smoke to it. Cooked to perfection.
We are pretty much gorging ourselves like we are Romans, except we do not really exercise that much so its not really like Romans except for the eating part.
At this point, I am so full but I keep a close eye on Claudio as he prepares the desert.
These are crepes, with strawberries and a cream sauce. We all did about 5 jumping jacks in order to make a little room in the belly.
I am going to tell you, this was really, really good. You could not have asked for a better dinner, especially while camping. We were trying to figure out how to sneak Claudio out of the country in our bags.
We were full, we were happy, and it was getting cold so we had to move ourselves to the fire for some laughs and some great times.
We all really enjoyed each others company and enjoyed the evening.
We talked about the day fishing and who caught the biggest fish. Strange how they got bigger and bigger with food and wine in the belly. We had a great time with these guys. Claudio always puts on a great show and I respect the heck out of his cooking.
We had a great time in Patagonia, we caught a lot of fish, ate a lot of food, and had a lot of laughs. Patagonia River Ranch does a great job, and I would highly recommend them as a 5 star destination for fly fishing and lodge.
Hope you enjoyed the blog.
Hunting Chef
Smoked King Salmon for my Pappy
Sorry folks, I have been too busy this year to blog. Just finished up Salmon, Buck, and Elk season this year. Along with all my other duties and family time I just did not feel like blogging. However, Dad called me on the phone to ask me if I would make him some smoked salmon and send it to him down in Arizona once they arrived there. He loves smoked salmon and it is one of his favorite time of year. After all, we had a stellar fishing season this year and you have to keep everyone happy.
I am not sure what the final counts were for the Kings, however, I do recall being around 74 kings harvested out of our boat.
It was not a major silver run, though some were caught on the Columbia river they were not as big as normal and not as many of them. I targeted Kings majority of the time while fishing Buoy 10, in Astoria Oregon.
The buoy 10 fishery can be epic, it also can be full of boats and idiots that should not be on the water. One boat sunk on the bar, several other collisions and a large commercial guide came in and knocked everyone out of the fishing hole that some of us were hovering on and ended up hitting the bridge and tearing his control bridge off nearly capsizing his vessel. This fishery never ceases to impress with me with the bozos that do not pay attention.
Well let’s get on with the smoking of the fish, shall we?
The first thing that you need to do is brine the salmon. There are dry brines and wet brines. I choose to do the wet brine because I think it remains more moist, but that is my personal opinion.
I use a basic brine and you want to use plastic or zip locks to hold your fish while it cures. I use large zip locks. I cut the fish, and try to remove all pin bones if I can. I usually cut them in three-inch width but it really doesn’t matter too much the actual size. In each bag I put 1/4 cup of soy sauce, 1/2 cup of non-iodized salt (make sure it is non-iodized this important you do not want a metal taste) and 1/2 brown sugar in each bag. I also add two tablespoon of garlic powder, and 1 tablespoon of all spice to the bag. Put the bags in the fridge for 18-24 hours, and flip them as many times as you can. The next morning, dump the fish out of the bags and wash with fresh water. Then dry off with paper towels. This next step is very important and most people do not know this trick but I am going to show you.
Put the brined fish on cookie racks so the breath well. Then get a fan and air dry the fish for at least 1 hour 30 minutes.
You can add your spices to the top of the salmon as it sets up. Take a bowl and add the flavors you like, I add:
1 tablespoon of sea salt
1 tablespoon of pepper
1 tablespoon of bay seasoning
1 tablespoon of ancho seasoning, if you like a little more heat try cayenne.
Sprinkle evenly over the fish.
The fan is going to circulate air, you want the salmon to set and get firm so there is no liquid or wetness to the fish. This seals the salmon from leaking oils later in the smoker. I will show you later.
The last thing I do is put a little honey that I heated in the microwave to the top of the fish. This is not important, but I like a little sweet and heat combo.
Once the fish is set up, I take it to the smoker.
Spray down the grates with olive oil or pam so it does not stick. Add the fish so it is not overly crowded.
I strictly use alder for smoking salmon. One thing to remember is that outside temperature affects the time of smoking fish. If it was above 70 degrees I would get the smoke going, unplug the smoker, once it stopped smoking I would plug it back in. The smoke session produces more heat and you do not want to over cook your salmon. This session was 51 degrees out so I did not need to worry. I did four trays of chips throughout this process because my dad likes a lot of smoke flavor and very dry.
I smoked this batch for 7 hours, and the current technique I use is pushing on the fish, if there is too much cushion feel than I smoke it more. You can always cut a piece in the middle to inspect if you absolutely have too.
I only air-dried my fish for an hour, you see the white color in the middle of the last picture? That is because it did not set up long enough with air. It will not effect the taste, it is more of a visual flaw.
If you are not getting the temperature of the fish to rise because it is too cold outside, you can always finish in the oven after you rendered smoke in the oven at 225 degrees.
The season is officially over and so is my smoking salmon session
Hope you enjoy.
The Hunting Chef
The End of the Morel Season 2013
It is always a sad day for me, knowing that the Morel season is over. I made a hundred meals this year with fresh morels, really introducing them to a lot of people who either disliked mushrooms or have never had them before. One by one, meal by meal, making them a believer. My season ended about 3 weeks ago, and this was the last place I went too. This was the first place I found my first Morel, and always produces some good quality mushrooms. I got a Saturday to play for half a day, so I went “home” like a spawning Salmon. Can you guess the general location?
It took me about 2 minutes to find my first Morel, and within 30 minutes I had about 80 morels. I even came across a sleeping fawn, and I tried to back away before waking the little fella. I did not have my camera on me, but the little guy awoke and came up to me and followed me around like a little dog watching me cut shrooms. I tried to ignore him, but he stayed with me for at least thirty minutes as I tried to make my way back to the truck to get my camera. He would not go to close to the truck and when I returned his mom swooped him up. Pretty cool experience to say the least.
These were Grade A quality. Good size, and excellent moisture and shape.
I am already thinking of my favorite breakfast, that I eat every morning when I have fresh Morels in the Fridge.
Slice up 3-4 morels, add a little butter to the pan. On medium heat start cooking the morels. Cook for about 4 minutes. Take a small bowl, add two eggs, tablespoon of parmesan cheese, some fresh dill, about a teaspoon perhaps more depending on your taste. Salt and pepper. Blend with a fork very well. Turn down the heat of your pan to medium low, add some more butter and add your egg mixture. The key to perfect eggs is low heat, and stirring in the pan constantly. Once the eggs are done serve with toast. MY FAVORITE BREAKFAST FOLKS.
This year, I ended up with over a thousand morels, and close to 800 dried and ready for the remainder of the year. Should get me through the year I think.
I was a little sad driving home. My little buddy Trevor only got to go out twice with me, and I schooled him this year. The ring “Precious” is in my possession for another year. You may have to go back a year and read under wild mushrooms to catch the story on that. This was an outstanding season for morels, I really enjoyed showing some people how to hunt them successfully this year. That was a highlight.
Until then my Morel Friends.
The Hunting Chef
2013 Grand Oyster BBQ Championship
Ladies and Gentlemen welcome to the 2013 Grand Oyster BBQ Championship held in Seaside, Oregon. While fishing for Sturgeon, actually while watching Ben fishing for Sturgeon each contestant was allowed to phone in their ingredients to a hot supply line for the evening Oyster BBQ event. When we returned to the house after fishing it was a mad dash to the kitchen.
Contestant number one, Ben Hester grabs the white wine, shallots, and spinach. Contestant number two, Big Hess grabs the bacon and a pan and snags the cooking station.
I cannot tell you what everyone had in their oyster mixture, because it was hush, hush top-secret.
Stephanie, contestant three made a butter sauce with some fancy liquor, I think it was called Pastis. An Italian recipe she had read about in Bon Apetite I think.
Contestant four, Jan mama bear, was wearing her Oyster BBQ Championship attire. Jan was quite about her recipe as well and spent a small amount of time in the kitchen preparing. She was sort of like me, bounce in, grab something already chopped and get out with both eyes and all fingers, lots of knife wielding in that place.
Later on, I spotted Jan’s work station.
I basically just grabbed a few items, chopped peppers, pepperocini’s, garlic, anything I could steal from Molly. Then I mixed it all up with some blue cheese. I did not put a lot of time into like the Hester family. I couldn’t get any time on the stove.
Once they were all ready, we thru them on the bbq. Now here is where I get screwed out of the competition, had I known that each contestant was going to look at their oyster every twelve seconds I wouldn’t have put the pepper jack cheese on top of mine because I couldn’t get it to melt. This will cost me later.
We had to select one judge, so when Trevor and Mikey came thru the door, we chose Mikey. I knew Trevor would throw me under the bus for all the blog comments I have made about him over the years.
Mikey would not know the contestant who was affiliated with each bbq oyster. He only knew a number, he judged on taste and appearance.
Now the judges would plate their product, give it to Molly who would take it to the judge. No one could be in the house during this time, all except Big Hess, for some reason he was in the kitchen during this time. This would play out later.
One by one, the oysters were brought to the judge. He wrote down a score and gave it back to Molly to read to the rest of us.
I do not remember all of the scores but I do remember some of them, like the winner. 99.5 on taste 98.5 on presentation. Big Hess, who was also in the kitchen at the time of the judge, won the competition. I had a score of 100.00 on taste, and 97 on presentation. I think I got third.
Then the fun begins and the oyster bar opens up and ole Sharky is finally got his oysters and we all got to make and assemble each others oysters.
Three dozen oysters later, everyone is ready for some more. We ran out of oysters at 3 dozen. What a great way to spend the afternoon! The next day, Mike asked me what he won. We really did not define what the champion won, so I went out and had a shirt made for him.
I tell you what, we had a great time. How can you beat eating bbq oysters of all different flavors with friends on a deck a the beach? The only downfall was that we did not have 5 dozen oysters.
See you guys next year, this time I am going to be working all year on this project. 2014 has my name all over it.
Hunting Chef
Hunting Cape Buff’s in Tanzania Africa
It was finally happening, two years after we booked the Africa trip at the SCI convention we loaded our gear onto an aircraft for Tanzania. We would have gone the year before but Dave had to have surgery on his knee so we had to postpone the trip. When the door of the aircraft opened it was dark, and the heat of the African air hit you in the face and instantly your senses tell you that you are a long way from home, like 22 hours in the air away from home. This is one small airport, and the only thing they had been the manual stairs to walk down, then across to the tarmac to the actual airport building. What is funny is there were no fences, so if you didn’t need to retrieve your bags you could have walked into any direction to leave. There is no security in Africa.
The driver met us, and loaded us up for an hour drive to Arusha, Tanzania. The next morning our PH Mickey picked us up with the driver and we headed out into Arusha traffic. One million people, and one traffic light. I could not wait to get out of this town.
We headed out to Massailand which is about another two-hour drive from Arusha to the Rungwa Safari Camp. We arrived at camp and there were literally 17 African males, all a key member to our team of host that all had specific jobs at this camp for only Dave and I. The jobs ranged from cook, tracker, assistant tracker, assistant to assistant tracker, intern tracker, skinner, skinner assistant, hot shower specialist, waiter, and guy that walks around to make sure lions are not in camp at night.
Dave and I had our own accommodations and they were better than what we were thinking when they told us we were to live in tents.
The first night a lion had murdered a zebra behind my tent about 100 yards. I heard the attack, then the bones crunching, then the zebras standing around yelling at the lion, then….the Hyena’s came. NO SLEEP! The tents were very comfortable, and had a flushing toilet. In the morning they would bring both of us an African chai tea which was delicious. Then they would make the hot water from the fire out back and tell us when our shower was ready. Then it was off to breakfast.
The food was pretty good, every meal we ate what we harvested and since we were only there for Cape Buffalo, we were going to eat a lot of it….so we thought. We had licenses to harvest 9 species of plains game but our focus was on trophy Buffs, one of the most dangerous games in the world.
We would wake up at dark, have our breakfast then load up in a Toyota 4 banger (all nine of us) and off we went for 10-12 hours a day in hot pursuit of the Dugaboy. Now, I know I have some people who read my blog that love the food I post, but really not into hunting. However, they are going to read this blog because they cannot help themselves because they are interested. So I am going to explain to you what a Dugaboy Cape Buff is in efforts to explain hunting conservation.
A Dugaboy Buff is an old bull that is so old he has broke off the herd, either by another dominant breeding bull, or because he doesn’t want to put up with all the herd bullshit. They are the old bulls, that are not only big, and have faces full of scars and hair falling off them. They have lived most of their lives fighting and on their last chapter in the Africa. Oh yeah, they also taste like a rough old boot. Regardless, 100 percent of them gets consumed in camp. On the first day, we must have seen 500-700 Cape Buffalo. Some herds had some great bulls in them, however, we do not hunt the breeding bulls due to conservation. We must hunt for the one that is off by himself, which makes it a heck of lot harder to locate.
Not to far from the herd, this bull stood his ground like he wanted to charge. He actually made a 20 foot charge then stopped and ran to the herd.
We came across a Dugaboy that was by himself, but really was not big enough. You can see that his posture is that ready to charge you and he stood there at 90 yards as we watched him from the truck. He was ready to brawl if he had too, but we passed and he chose to move on.
We saw just about every species of animal from this area. It was truly magnificent and gave some insight about what the world was like thousands of years ago. Day by day, hour by hour, minute by minute Africa changes you.
On our third day, the trackers in the backseat of the BVD spotted two dugaboys feeding by themselves. Dave was first up to bat, so off he went with his Heym 450./400. Nitro Express Double Rifle, and I was going to back him with the same rifle if things went wrong. I am not going into the details of the actual hunt with everything but can tell you each of the animals harvested died a quick and honorable death. The Heym rifle was perfect and the round performed flawlessly.
The next day it was my turn and I took a single buff that was feeding by himself. Again, the 450/400 Heym performed flawlessly and I harvested a very respectable Buff. Mine was not as wide as Dave’s, but was deeper and had huge bosses. They were both massive and very unique and we were both very happy to have harvested them.
After we ate everything from tongue, to the heart of the Cape Buffalo we realized that one of us would have to start bagging plains game animals to keep us from starving. Old Buff is like eating an old shoe. We would have lunch and spend a few of the hours during the day in the field because we were so far from the lodge. Mickey, Dave and I would enjoy our long conversations on world politics, economy, history, and hunting stories.
I would not say there were very many elevation changes in Massailand, but this was one of them that we sat and glassed from. Different species of animals in every direction you looked from.
Dave and I and our “Posse” kept hunting and learning about Africa and the history of hunting and most importantly what the Tanzania Government did to protect the animals of Africa. Most people think that hunting puts a huge dent in the game population. However, this is not true. Look at some of the countries that outlawed hunting, Kenya had over 100,000 male bull elephants. Five years later, they have less than 10,000. What causes this? An average African lives off an US dollar a day, a poacher can make 20,000.oo US Dollar in one kill. You do the math. This block (area in which we hunted) gets patrolled and managed every day for poachers, once the outfitter leaves the block to the photographers there is no one to patroll it. If a lion kills a Massai cow, the Massai used to poison the bait to kill any lion that ate off the bait. Now they contact the Hunting outfit that leases the land and they pay them not to poison the dead cow. My point is that it is managed for sustainability and that every where we went we had a Government official with us every step of the way. However, unlike our Government officials this guy worked. Every Buff we got down he was elbows deep helping us out.
On the second to last day I spotted a couple of Buff’s directly below our BDV. What is our BDV? Buffalo Deployment Vehicle. It fits a driver, a Government official with AK-47, Mickey our PH, Dave and I, and one spotter, and two trackers in the back.
The Buff’s spotted us two, and it was two males running together. They split up and we tracked what we thought was the larger of the two for about 4 miles. We engaged him several times but he winded us and did not provide us with perfect shot. I will not go into details, but if anyone wants to hear about these hunts in details it has to be in person with a cocktail in hand.
This was Mickey after that hunt.
Africa sort of changes you. Dave and I both felt that it was a really special place that provides you a lot of reflection on your own life. It is not just the hunting but the people you meet and see along the way. The history makes ours look like a little ball that could balance on a point of a needle, and yet their history may be vast and old the people have not really progressed with time. Perhaps that is the appeal to Africa.
Someday the photographers and liberals may take the hunting away. It all depends on the currency that is brought in on tourism and of course. I guess all I can say is that I was privilege enough to experience what Hemingway and Roosevelt did fifty years before us.
Dave and I left with a great experience and I was glad to have shared it with him because he was focused not only on hunting but having fun and soaking all of the information we could possibly take in with lots of questions to solve years and years of curiosity. We left vowing to return and with many friends that would share in our memories until our days are done.
A special shout out for our boy “Serby” the three of us shared in a lot of laughs over those two weeks. Thank you for making our trip, one to remember for the rest of our lives or until next year when we roll into Rungwa. I would hunt or fight with you anywhere in the world. Until we meet again old friend.
Hunting Chef
The Perfect Egg Sandwich
Yes, I did get this one out of the same Bon Appetite magazine. I was in Africa for a two weeks, and I really had to tell my wife I loved her and appreciated her letting me go to Tanzania on a Cape Buff hunt. I was really impressed with how the flavors exploded with multi levels. Hits you with a little tart, then sweet, and finished with some heat. The first bite, was like “What is going on in my mouth right now?”. The last bite you were craving more. For all you hunters out there that want to get out on Sunday from the honey do list. Get up early and make this for your wife on Saturday.
Bacon and Egg Sandwiches with pickled spring onions (makes four)
- 3 spring onions thinly sliced.
- 1/4 cup apple cider vinegar
- 2 tsp. of sugar
- 1 tsp of salt
Maple Bacon and Spicy Mayo
- 12 slices thick cut bacon
- 2 tbsp of pure maple syrup
- 1/4 cup of mayonnaise
- 1 tbsp of Sriracha hot sauce (Asian aisle at most grocery stores)
Fried Eggs and Assembly
- 8 slices of white bread (I used a loaf of sourdough bread and sliced it from the loaf).
- 1/4 cup mayonnaise
- 2 Tbsp of unsalted butter
- 4 large eggs (I get mine from The Dovenberg Farm, google it they just had a nice write-up in The Oregonian).
- kosher salt and pepper to sprinkle
- 1 cup of Arugula leaves
In a small bowl combine onions, vinegar, sugar and salt and 1 Tbsp of water and toss to combine for 30 minutes.
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Place bacon on a foil lined cookie sheet. Brush both sides of the bacon with the maple syrup.
Bake in oven until the bacon comes dark and crisp but still pliable, 20-25 minutes. Do not make it too crunchy.
Mix mayonnaise and Sriracha in a small bowl and set aside.
Spread one side of the bread slice with mayonnaise. Heat a large skillet. Working in batches cook bread, mayonnaise side down until brown and crisp. In another skillet, olive oil or a little butter to your pan and fry your egg sunny side up until the whites are set. Sprinkle with salt and pepper.
Assemble your sandwich with each piece of bread with spicy mayo. Build sandwich with bread, bacon, egg, pickled spring onions, and arugula.
Sit back and watch your wife’s face. It is going to start out slow, because your brain is trying to get its all the flavors that are coming at it. Trust me, on the second and third bite it all comes together like a Rubic’s cube in the 80s.
Have a great morning.
The Hunting Chef
Morel Mushroom Pesto Chicken Pizza
Morel Season has been off the hook. We have found them in Washington, Mt. Hood, Sisters, and McCall, Idaho. There is nothing like a fresh morel for cooking with so this month I am posting recipes specifically with morel’s in them for those of you that are interested in hunting morel’s.
Hunting Morel’s is a discipline. Sometimes you are going to get disappointed because the conditions are not right. Those are what I call a scouting mission. When the conditions all line up and the morel’s start popping that is when you know you are getting paid off for all the scouting trips and weather watching you have done the weeks before. My weekends are consumed with this activity during the season.
Stephanie, my wife, loves pizza. She would eat it every other day if she could. She also runs about 6-8 miles a day and 1/2 marathons all the time so she can get away with it. I, on the other hand, does not have that luxury. So I decided since she loves morels and pizza to make her the perfect morel pizza.
My Pizza Pesto Sauce
- 1/4 cup Olive Oil
- 1 cup fresh basil leaves
- 3 tablespoons of roasted pine nuts (roasted means brown them in the pan first)
- 4 garlic cloves (if you do not want the extra garlic taste roll with 3 cloves but everyone hates a quitter)
- 1/2 tablespoon of red pepper flakes
- 1 cup of Parmesan cheese
- Blend in processor until smooth. Add more olive oil as needed to give it smooth creamy texture
I take my pre-made pizza dough that I had to buy because my wife outlawed flour in the kitchen when I am in it. Let it rise for about 30 minutes and I start tossing it in the air like Luigi Pastorini Linguini guy.
Take a nice chicken breast and seasoned it with salt and pepper and cook it until down in a pan. Then slice it evenly. I use a monkey to put the chicken on the pizza.
I mean seriously the monkey loves it.
Take the morels, cut them length wise in half, about 15 of them. Get a hot pan ready, add butter and a tablespoon of chopped garlic. Then add the morels on high heat and flash the pan with a little Sherry. Cook for 2-3 minutes.
Here is where you can use your creative energy on what type of cheese to use. Do not use a greasy cheese like a cheddar. It produces too much oil. I used a mixture of white fontina, mozzarella, and little gouda. I used my oven, with a pizza stone that I heated at 400 degrees for 30 minutes.
Turn up the oven to 475 degrees. Here is the trick, use parchment paper under the pizza so you do not burn yourself handling the stone.
Let the pizza sit for about 10 minutes, before cutting. At this point, you basically have to guard the pizza from house predators because it smells so good. Some ovens cook longer than others but keep an eye on it and once the cheese browns remove it.
Stephanie was a very happy young lady, which makes it good for me when I want to sneak off hunting morels. She encourages this activity.
I hope you give it a try, both hunting morels and this pizza.
Hunting Chef
Lamb Ravioli with Gorgonzola Sauce and Morel Mushrooms
Morel season has been spectacular this year! I have picked well over 600 this year with the numbers climbing. My daughter and I picked 190 of them outside Boise on the way to McCall in about 2 hours. We had a lot of fun together and enjoyed our talks while hunting them and breathing mountain air.
I had to fly them home in my carry on and I made pretty good friends with a TSA German Shepard named Sarge. He really liked my bag, and his handler really wanted my mushrooms but to no avail.
Last year my wife Stephanie got me an electronic pressure cooker and I was a little intimidated by it. All I do is stare at it when I walk thru my garage. So I decided I was going to bust this bad boy out and get it mastered. So I took some lamb out of the freezer, got the machine out the box and started writing on a pad of paper.
I put some lamb steaks, seasoned them with salt and pepper and tossed in 1 onion sliced, 4 garlic cloves, 2 sprigs of fresh rosemary, 1 cup of red wine, 1 cup of beef broth. I set the timer for 25 minutes and pressed the button and went outside and hid in my truck in case the thing blew up.
25 minutes later the alarm goes off and it begins to shut down, and lets you know when you can open the top.
The little monster worked perfectly. The meat was fall off the bone and had great taste. I was impressed to say the least. I removed the meat chunks and got out my food processor.
Add the lamb meat, 3 garlic cloves, 1 shallot, three green onions, sea salt and pepper to the food processor. As I mix it I add a little of the liquid from the pressure cooker, just a little like three tablespoons so it mixes well. You want the texture to still remain chunky and not liquid.
I did not make my pasta sheets, I bought them from Whole Foods fresh. Like I said, my wife does not let me make pasta or anything that uses flour in our kitchen because she has to clean it up.
Take a brush and use water around the mixture then layer the second pasta sheet over the top, and press.
Cut and remove your pasta, I had to crimp my sides with a fork to assure they held together.
Time to make the sauce, and gorgonzola goes great with lamb. So I make my favorite sauce. I add one tablespoon of butter, 1 cup of heavy cream milk, and cook on medium high for about five minutes, reduce by 2/3rds. Add about 1/4 cup of your favorite gorgonzola, reduce to warm.
Get your hot water ready, but do not boil. Bring to boil then back it off and add your pasta, you want to gently cook it for 5 minutes. Check pasta to make sure your fork can cut through it. Drain. While the pasta cooks, I take butter, then put three cloves of garlic chopped, on top. I want to carmelize the garlic so I put the morels on top of them. Then let cook for 3 minutes over medium high heat, then stir them around evenly. Once the garlic is brown remove.
Drain the pasta, plate the pasta. Then pour the sauce over the pasta, followed with the morels and garlic. Top with green onions.
I have to say I take great pride in the fact that I eat what I hunt, and when you can deliver a meal like this to the plate. It really makes you want to keep cooking. Megan and I had a great time on a successful morel hunt. That is three states now we clobbered them in.
Hope you give it a try, you will not be disappointed.
The Hunting Chef.
The Hood Canal Shrimping Frenzy
This has been on my bucket list of for me for the past decade ever since I heard about it. I just did not know very much about shrimping and the area. So when Trevor called and said he had a friend that could teach us, I jumped at the opportunity. I grabbed Big Wayne and the boat and we headed North to the Olympic Peninsula.
Trevor’s buddy Jason told us we had to have the right cat food, some Shad fish, and some herring for the “Chode”. The “Chode” is the shrimp bait and that is all they talk about up there for the shrimp season. The first thing we had to do is get the boat in the water and check into our hotel.
We found this cute little hotel right at the dock, Summertide Resort and Marina. The best place tomstaynin the Hood Canal. The rooms awes great and the people are awesome. The owner Bev is so nice thatn
Then it was time to get to work. So Jason and Trevor showed us how to rig the shrimp traps, and get the buoys correct (Washington has stupid rules like you have to all use yellow buoys? Imagine a million yellow buoys out there). You have to rig 300 feet of lead rope, then build your bait holders that will hold your magical chode. 
This takes a lot of time, but is a necessity to get it right.
I cannot divulge the Chode Recipe because I was sworn to secrecy. I can tell you that it had cat food in it as one of the many ingredients and that it smelled really really bad. However, with that being said, we seemed to be slamming the shrimp with 80-100 per pull and others had 10-20 shrimp in it.
Trevor does not know that Wayne took this picture, but he is so close to puking in this photo it is not even funny.
These guys are deep, and having a power puller is essential to getting them up off the bottom of the sea. My job was to make sure we did not float into another buoy or boat. There are a lot of them, trust me.
Each person has a legal limit of 80 shrimp. This seems like a simple task counting and recounting shrimp to make sure you do not exceed the limit.
They are pretty good size in the Hood Canal.
After we limited out in about an hour (one series of pulls). We headed to our friends private property to go get some oysters. I have never seen this before, It was like I died and went to Oyster Heaven. The oyster beds I have seen are muddy and under sort of nasty.
We picked a cooler full of prime oysters.
We got about 30 each, which we later ate in two days. They were amazing.
We packed up and headed home that day. It was a long day of cleaning the boat, driving home, cleaning the shrimp, etc. However, all I could think about is how I wanted to go back. 
There is no better oyster in the world I found to be as good as these, and I have had them all.
Always train and recruit a good shucker, it saves your fingernails and gouges to your hands.
I learned this technique from Grover for BBQ Oysters. Butter, Garlic, and a slice of pepper jack cheese. BBQ until the cheese is melted, and let cool so your mouth does not burn and get ready for the taste rocket ship.
A wonderful search and destroy mission in the Hood Canal. I learned a lot and packed a lot of information into the brain learning the system. Thank you Jason for the 30 years of Intel packed into a 24 hour system.
I want to finish off with saying, the best tasting product I have had from the wild in a long time. I really enjoyed the experience. We learned the code and broke the code in the kitchen. I hope the place I go when my heart stops beating is a place like this. The Hunting Chef.
Morel Mushroom Season is on like DONKEY KONG
The War has begun for the Morel King Title and the holder of “Precious”. The Morels just started to pop with this burst of warm weather and I am predicting a great season for 2013. Yesterday, April 25th 2013 I took the day off work to go enjoy a full day of walking in the woods with my good buddy and competitor Trevor Storlie. We had a nice drive up to Trout Lake, Washington where I knew a prime spot for Morels. We first had to stop at the gas station so I could fill up and Trevor could get a magazine with his picture in it. SO VAIN!
The morning hike in started with a first strike out of the gate for me, with one on the trail. We get up into a clearing I knew about where the sun hits it perfect. I checked the ground temperature at 58 degrees and which is excellent news. It was on, Trevor slithered off one way I went the other and the hollering “Found one” begins.
What we like to see in the woods as a good indicator is false morels. You do not eat these, but it does tell you that the ground temperature is good, and there is moisture in the ground. They always grow before the actual morel, I think they need about 52 degrees before they start popping. But do not eat these they will make you sick.
We take a little break because Trevor likes to use his son’s little sand bucket. So we have to take a break to dump his bucket.
After about a solid hour of picking one area we both produced about 90-100 morels, but still had a few hours left and a couple more areas to check out.
We didn’t have as much success in the other areas, but still found some. The temperatures in the soil were still to cold to produce, and we are looking for that magical minimum of 56 degrees. We counted both piles and he came up with 180-179. I lost by one mushroom and this was my honey hole. I could have pointed him into another direction and scallywagged him, but I didn’t. I lost round one of many to come, keep in mind he had really, really small mushrooms.
I wash my mushrooms very well, to get the bugs out I use salt in the water, and I rinse and drain several times, then soak them for an hour before putting them on the cookie sheet to dry.
Once they are dried I put them in the refrigerator. I keep about 30 for meals for the next few days and dehydrate the rest for the remainder of the year. I know I will have lots of morels to eat fresh this year.
I chop two garlic cloves, I take a handful of small morels that Trevor likes to pick. I add them to the pan with butter and saute them until the garlic is brown. I add sliced tenderloin to the pan and brown both sides, do not over cook. Salt and pepper.
I take 1/2 cup of white wine and reduce it to half, add about 4 tables spoons of good blue cheese and melt and mix. The key here is the Sourdough bread. Toast it.
Take the meat and put it on bread, along with mushrooms and garlic. Pour a little fo the blue cheese sauce, and top with Arugula.
I tell you its MOUNTAIN MONEY!!!
I dehydrate the others and add them to the closet stash. I will probably have five of these for the rest of the year to cook with, that is my goal. Plus eat about 300 more while the season last.
Get out there and find some.
The Hunting Chef
huntingchef.com 
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