Passport to Texas

Grilled Venison Loin, Photo by Cecilia Nasti

Cooking: Field to Plate with Chef Jesse Griffiths Hide Player | Play in Popup | Download

Food fads come and go. Currently, wild game is in the spotlight. But there’s nothing new about eating game, unless it’s how it’s gone mainstream.

Chef Jesse Griffiths is a hunter and angler living in Austin. This week his book Afield: a Chef’s Guide to Preparing and Cooking Wild Game and Fish, published by Welcome Books, hits bookstore shelves. It takes readers from field to plate. Jesse says this book is for “the 99%.”

18 – It’s mostly fishing from the shore. It’s mostly game that’s very plentiful: feral hogs and squirrels and rabbits and doves. We don’t go on pheasant hunts. We really tried to convey the point that this land is out there, and that everyone should have the ability to get out there and do this.

Jesse often hunts and fishes on Texas public lands, but stopped short of revealing his favorite places. Afield is an instructional book with stories of the outdoors that takes readers from the field to the plate.

23—I love having a connection with my own food. To sit down to a meal with vegetables that came out of our garden –and we live in a small house in town. And sit down to a meal of –what did we eat this week – a lot of venison. It’s the most important thing. I love knowing where my food comes from. I love the pride in seeing my two year old daughter eating venison, knowing that it’s really healthful for her. There’s really nothing better than that.

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

Chef Jesse Griffiths, Photo by Cecilia Nasti

Cooking: Afield with Chef Jesse Griffiths Hide Player | Play in Popup | Download

We have a culture of hunting game, but when it comes to eating it, many people pass. It’s too gamey, most say. Chef Jesse Griffiths is a hunter and angler, and eats everything he kills. He says game has a rich, unique flavor that’s perfectly palatable when properly prepared.

He chronicled a year of hunting, fishing and cooking in Afield: a Chef’s Guide to Preparing and Cooking Wild Game and Fish, published this month by Welcome Books.

24 – We just tried to present this book that was a guide to getting more out of fish and game for people. We wanted it to be a field manual, a recipe guide. And we put step-by-step photos and descriptions of how to break everything down from a crab to a deer. Just to teach people who are new to it, or maybe even more experienced with it how to utilize these animals more.

I spoke with Jesse in his Austin based commercial kitchen, where he told me the recipes in Afield are simple and recognizable.

18—There’s a lot of tacos in there, and there’s a lot of things like pot pies. Squirrel and dumplings. Things like that. very accessible. I just wanted people to see food that was recognizable and translate that into game, and then that way encourage people to get out there and have the confidence to get out there and have the confidence to do this themselves.

We’ll have more with Chef Jesse Griffiths tomorrow.

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

Roast Canvasback, Image by Holly Heyser

Cooking: Ducks for Dinner Hide Player | Play in Popup | Download

With waterfowl season on the horizon, and Chef Jesse Morris of Richardson, Texas, is here to help us enhance the flavor of these birds for the table.

14 – Typically when I harvest a duck, what I’ll do after either breasting it out, or plucking it, is I will put that in a very strong saltwater bath. And over the course of a few days, I will go from salt water to regular water.

Chef Morris alternates the saltwater with plain water for two to three cycles.

10—What that’s going to do is break down that meat – get it nice and tender – and it’s also going to help leach out any of the blood or anything like that, that may give it an off taste.

The website Killer Chefs, which Chef Morris curates, combines his love of hunting and angling with his passion for cooking. After the saltwater/plain water bath process is complete, fresh herbs help develop the flavor.

24—Sage and thyme and rosemary and oregano, using those in a marinade with olive oil, garlic, salt, black pepper – that’s going to give you some of the best flavor. It’s not going to mask [the flavor of] wild game. A lot of people start thinking ‘Oh, you know, I’m just going to put a ton of Louisiana seasoning on this so I can’t taste anything…’. You know, it’s great that you’re eating that [wild game], but you’re unable to really enjoy what you’ve done.

Find wild game recipes on the Texas Parks and Wildlife website.

The Wildlife and sport fish restoration program supports our series and celebrates 75 years of funding diverse conservation projects throughout Texas…

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

Hunter Angler Gardener Cook Facebook Photo

Cooking: Cooking Wild Critters Hide Player | Play in Popup | Download

It’s the start of hunting season in Texas – beginning with dove. So, I contacted Jesse Morris, a chef and outdoorsman I know from Richardson, Texas, and asked what he considers the most important thing a hunter can do in the field to ensure the integrity of the game.

14 – You need to get the temperature on an animal that you’ve harvested down as quickly as possible. That means taking a cooler with you, or something, that you can put those birds in. That way, they’re not sitting out in the heat spoiling You’re going to have a much better product in the end.

Some processing of the dove can take place in the field.

06—Typically, if you have dove, you can breast those out, pluck them, and gut them in the field.

Chef Morris says it’s funny how people will happily eat a rare steak from cattle raised in high stress, overcrowded and unsanitary conditions. But then overcook game that has roamed free.

17—People go out and they’ll get dove, they’ll get deer, they’ll get feral hog –something like that –and they’ll just cook it to death. Because they’re scared of where that’s been. But if you take the time that an animal’s been in the field to the time that it reaches the plate, then you know where that animal has been.

More with Chef Jesse Morris tomorrow.

The Wildlife and sport fish restoration program supports our series and celebrates 75 years of funding diverse conservation projects throughout Texas…

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

Teal Migration

Hunting: Early Teal Season, Triggers Hide Player | Play in Popup | Download

They pass through Texas heading south early, and then return north late. That’s the nature of teal — a migratory waterfowl that’s a favorite of Texas hunters. If not for early teal season, many hunters wouldn’t have a chance to harvest these birds.

04—They’re not as available during the regular duck season. A lot of times they’re already through here and gone.

Dave Morrison is waterfowl program leader for Texas Parks and Wildlife. Early teal season can last nine or sixteen days. This year’s season is 16 days, and runs from September 15th through the 30th.

07—One of the things you have to look at for September teal season is population estimates. We have triggers. The trigger for the sixteen day season is four point seven.

And while that means the season should be productive because a good population of birds, Nature may still play the wild card.

23—If we get the right weather conditions, and we get the right weather patters, we should have a good teal season. But, Mother nature is the one part of this puzzle that we never will understand. If we get an early cold front, or we get something that happens between now and then, the birds blow through early, say, it stays warm north of us, and they have more of a staggered migration, then people will say ‘well, it’s not very good,’ despite the fact that, I think, that with numbers being up, with conditions like they were, we should have pretty good production.

The Wildlife and sport fish restoration program supports our series and celebrates 75 years of funding diverse conservation projects throughout Texas…

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