Fresh Winter Bird

Fresh Winter Bird

On the way to the cabin

     “Oh my God, what is that?”, I thought. I reached into the icy water to pull the trap upwards and suddenly it was clear; I had caught a duck.  The underwater trap destined for otter was baited with freezer-burned salmon.  Who knew that a large green-head mallard would be enticed by such an offering.  The cold, clearwater stream trickled-by releasing steam near its edges.  It was 10 below zero and the flow of the stream was keeping it from freezing.  I took a good look at the duck. “Trapper of the year.” I joked.

    I pried the 330 conibear apart with Bryan’s help and handed him the duck.  “Wow, nice work.” he said.  This year, like most years, I had purchased a state and federal duck stamp allowing me to legally shoot waterfowl including ducks, geese, and even cranes.  They were all safe from me though; This year I had killed exactly zero....until now.   Who needs a shotgun?

      Trapping season has been slow but  I have managed to catch three beautiful crossfoxes and a mink for all of my efforts. One thing is for sure; I have a lot to learn.  
    “Hey Dad, see if you can guess what I caught in my otter trap yesterday.”  Bryan and I had joined Dad at the cabin a few days after the duck by-catch incident and were looking forward to a good weekend.
    “Otter?”
    “Nope, its something we are going to eat.”
    “Pike?”
    “Nope.” The guessing went on like this for a while.  After a few more hints he finally guessed duck.  At this point, I produced a ziplock bag containing the breasts of the duck that I had butchered with the skin on.  I had it marinading in a balsamic vinegrette for the last day.  Duck is notorious for having a gamy flavor.  I assumed that a mid-winter fish eating duck might be especially so.   
    “Hey Steve, come here!”  Bryan was facing the shed.  “There’s a grouse in the shed.”  I scurried over to my snowmachine to fetch my pistol.  To my delight, sure enough he was right;  a plump grouse was milling around inside the shed.  It felt a little wrong shooting a firearm into the shed but my aim was true and suddenly we were up to two birds for dinner.  
      Later in the day Bryan pulled around the cabin on his snowmachine and another grouse flushed up behind him.“Hey Bryan, freeze right there!”   It darted straight up into a high spruce tree.  “Your turn.”, I said.  I fished out the pistol and handed it over.  The bird was perched some 50 feet high in a tall spruce tree.
    Side note: Last weekend Bryan and I spent some time honing our pistol shooting skills at the cabin. I’ve got a series of old cooking pans dangling from an overhanging birch tree.  We shot over 70 rounds of .22 shells.  I’m a firm believer that if you want to be an accurate pistol shooter then you have to shoot a lot.
     Bryan steadied his arm and slowly squeezed the trigger.  The bird twitched and twirled as it took off from it’s branch.  As it flew, it was easy to see that it was wounded and it soon took perch on a different tree.  We watched as it flopped and dropped down to lower branches until finally it fell to the ground; Tonight we would dine on 3 birds for dinner.  

Grouse and Duck in Red Wine Vinegar  

(Original recipe was taken from geniouskitchen.com but uses chicken....  bo-ring!)    

Ingredients:

1 free-range mallard duck (breast meat diced with skin on)
2 free-range spruce grouse (breast meat diced without skin)
1 cup red wine vinegar
1 cup chicken stock
2  red ripe tomatoes
2 spoons olive oil
1 tbsp fresh parsley
4 tablespoons butter

Directions:

1) Brown the marinated duck and grouse in the butter with a bit of oil as well to stop it burning.
2) Drain fat from skillet and return the poultry to skillet.
3) Slowly pour the vinegar into the hot pan to deglaze. Stand back from fumes!
4) Over med-high heat, reduce the vinegar by about half, turning the poultry periodically to bathe it.
5) Add tomatoes and stock, cover and simmer gently until flavors have melded and mingled, about 20 minutes.  Remove the pan from heat, set aside the poultry and keep warm.
6) In the pan, whisk in a knob of butter for a beautiful shiny sauce.
Pour the sauce over the poultry and then strew with herbs.
7) Enjoy with egg noodles.