Passport to Texas

Preparing red snapper at Central Market Cooking School in Austin. Image: Bruce Biermann

"Gulfstravaganza" Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

This is Passport to Texas

If something smells a little fishy, it might be the next Wild Game & Fish Cooking collaboration between Texas Parks and Wildlife and Central Market Cooking Schools. It’s coming up May 14 and features goodness from the Gulf. It’s a “Gulfstravaganza!”

Whether you’re a beginning cook or a seasoned pro, it’s always fun to learn new preparations for old favorites. And if shrimp, crab and fin fish from the Gulf top your list, then you’re in luck. Here’s what you have to look forward to in the May 14 hands-on class:

Shrimp Queso Flameado with Ranchera Salsa; Gulf Crab Enchiladas with Herbed Pumpkin Seed Mole; and Gulf Fish with Achiote Rub, Pickled Red Onions & Chipotle Mayonnaise.

A Central Market Chef Instructor will guide you as you cook, while a Texas Parks and Wildlife volunteer will fill you in on the agency’s mission as well as wildlife and fisheries management. They also fill you in on the protein gracing your plate. And if you have questions about fishing and hunting and enjoying the outdoors—they can help you there, too.

The Texas Parks and Wildlife and Central Market wild game and fish cooking collaborations offer an evening of camaraderie, learning, good food and fun. Find a link to register for the May 14 class at passporttotexas.org.

We receive support for our show from RAM Trucks: Built to Serve.

For Texas Parks and Wildlife…I’m Cecilia Nasti.

Wild turkey ready for the table. Image: Field to Table Cookbook, Susan Ebert.

Standard Podcast Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

This is Passport to Texas

If you harvest a bird during the 2019 spring turkey season, don’t wait until Thanksgiving to eat it. Yet, whenever you prepare it, be sure to save their built-in “flavor packet”.

Wild turkeys have this huge fatty deposit at the top of the chest and the base of their neck; it’s called the breast sponge.

Susan Ebert is author of The Field to Table Cookbook. She says gobblers develop this fat layer to sustain them during mating season and it can account for up to 10 percent of the bird’s body weight.

It’s very weird looking tissue. And some people will just cut it off and throw it away, and I say, oh no…no…no. Leave that breast sponge on the turkey’s breast. Because, what you have is a built-in fat blanket to keep that meat moist while it’s cooking. It will shrink substantially during the cooking process. You can discard it afterwards, before you start carving.

We have a longer segment on harvesting and preparing wild turkey with Susan Ebert, as well as a segment on turkey restoration and another on how to call turkey for hunting or nature watching, and on our podcast Under the Texas Sky.

It’s the one called “Talking Turkey”.

The podcast is available on spotify, iTunes and other places where podcasts roam.

For Texas Parks and Wildlife…I’m Cecilia Nasti.

Alvin Dedeaux

Go Fly-Fishing with a Pro Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

This is Passport to Texas

Members of the Texas Parks and Wildlife Foundation represent a diverse cross section of the population that share a passion for the outdoors. Texas Parks and Wildlife Foundation is the nonprofit arm of Texas Parks and Wildlife department  and helps to fund initiatives that conserve our wild places and wild things.

Join TPWF by April the 12th to be entered into a chance to win a half day fly fishing trip with Texas fly-fishing guide Alvin Dedeaux.

Jay Kleberg is Director of Conservation Initiatives at Texas Parks and Wildlife Foundation. The Colorado River is the staging area for this fly-fishing trip.

There are very few people who know that the Colorado River that flows through the Hill Country and to the coast has some world-class fishing because it goes through some major urban areas. And Alvin’s one of the few people who really knows that water, and has focused not just on the Hill Country, but the coast and the Colorado River, itself. So, it’s a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to go with a true expert.

Become a member of the Texas Parks and Wildlife Foundation by April 12 to be entered in a drawing for a half day of fly-fishing with celebrated fishing guide, Alvin Dedeaux. We’ll speak with him about fly-fishing next time.

People are drawn to it, and once they get into it—for most people—it becomes a lifelong passion.

Learn more about the Texas Parks and Wildlife Foundation and how to become a member at wewillnotbetamed.org.

For Texas Parks and Wildlife…I’m Cecilia Nasti.

Paddlefish

TPW TV--Progress on Paddlefish Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

This is Passport to Texas

Alongside Big Cypress Bayou seems an unusual place to perform a surgical procedure. That doesn’t stop Mike Montagne with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service from carrying out surgery on a paddlefish—a species that’s more than 300-million years old.

They are one of the most ancient fishes and species that we have on the planet. They don’t look like any other fish, and they are super cool.

Montagne  inserts an acoustic transmitter into the abdomen of a fish that’s been anesthetized before stitching it up and releasing it back into the water. Receivers along the bank track the fish. Overharvesting and manmade changes to habitat, caused the species to disappear from east Texas waters. Restocking, with an emphasis on recreating natural flows, helped the fish and habitat to rebound.

 [Laura-Ashley Overdyke] The Paddlefish were the perfect poster child to explain and test out our theory that more natural flows would help the forest as well as all these fish and other animals.

[Tim Bister] We’ve been reintroducing paddlefish since about 2014; we started out with about 50 fish that we radio-tagged and pout inside the Big Cypress and Caddo Lake, and we followed those around for about a year. One of the things we really wanted to find out is if the fish would stay in the system…

That was Laura-Ashley Overdyke with the Caddo lake Institute and Biologist Tim Bister.

Find out if the fish stayed in the system, or went over the dam, when you watch the TPW TV Series on PBS this week.

The Sport Fish Restoration Program supports our series.

For Texas Parks and Wildlife…I’m Cecilia Nasti.

Chef Jesse Griffiths.

Coveted Culinary Experience at Llano Springs Ranch Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

This is Passport to Texas

Llano Springs Ranch, an award-winning property at the headwaters of the South Llano River, is the site of a coveted culinary retreat with chef Jesse Griffiths.

We’ve partnered with Jesse and Explore Ranches to offer an opportunity to learn about foraging and preparation of wild game on the South Llano River.

Jay Kleberg is Director of Conservation Initiatives at Texas Parks and Wildlife Foundation, the non-profit arm of Texas Parks and Wildlife. Anyone who becomes a foundation member by March 8th is entered in a drawing for the retreat.

On this particular retreat we’re actually going to harvest that animal before the group comes, but it will be fresh. And then all the additional items that we’ll pair with both axis deer and with fish from the Llano River, we’ll harvest while we’re there on the property.

The culinary retreat is April 24th – 26th.

If they don’t win this particular experience, they have the opportunity to be entered into raffles for future experiences [in 2019]. The dollars that they’re contributing to become members are going to projects that benefit all Texans and wildlife and wild places.

Become a foundation member by March 8th to be entered in the drawing for a culinary retreat with Chef Jesse Griffiths. Details at wewillnotbetamed.org.

For Texas Parks and Wildlife…I’m Cecilia Nasti.