Game meat recipes for chilly nights
Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the last week, you’ve no doubt seen the third episode of HBO’s popular “The Last of Us” show, based on the video game of the same name. The episode tells the story of a couple, Bill and Frank, who get to know each other and live their lives together after a cordycep-related zombie pandemic breaks out. The first day the couple meet, Bill cooks Frank a meal of rabbit, paired appropriately with a Beaujolais, as Frank points out. The meal comes up a second time in a more heartbreaking scene later in the episode.
Watching the episode through tears, that meal stuck out to me, not only for its significance in the show but for how game meat like rabbit, venison and wild boar have been such a big part of my own life. I grew up in a family that hunted, and when wild game was on the table, it was a special occasion. Someone didn’t just run to the grocery store to pick up a steak; they went and spent hours of their time to bring home food for our family to enjoy. We always ate those meals with reverence, knowing that the meat was such a rare treat.
At the same time, as I revealed on our Food team’s Instagram post from last week, my favorite restaurant in L.A. is Dunsmoor, chef Brian Dunsmoor’s ode to early regional American cooking in Glassell Park. Lately, while feasting on goose rillettes, country ham and bison tartare, among many other wonderful soulful dishes on the menu, I’ve been yearning for that taste of home and comfort that game meat offers me.
And while it may seem like an intimidating thing to cook for dinner during the week, meat like rabbit, duck and pheasant is just as simple to cook as chicken, even if the meat tends to be dry if overcooked. But don’t worry if it’s your first time cooking it — it’s nothing a tasty sauce can’t fix.
For rabbit, you will usually find just the legs available from your butcher or, in some cases, a whole rabbit. If that’s the case, have your butcher break it into parts, and cook them in the same way as called for for the legs, knowing they’ll just cook for a little less time.
Last summer, Martin Draluck — chef of the Hemings & Hercules dinner series — gave us his recipe for Grilled Rabbit Legs. The legs are soaked in a brine flavored with coriander, fennel seeds and thyme before being marinated in maple syrup, rosemary and onions, which offer pungency and sweetness to the meat when grilled up until lightly blistered and tender.
If you have rabbit legs or pieces left over and want to go a more conventional route, try Chicken-Fried Rabbit, which, as the name suggests, treats the rabbit as you would pieces of chicken for frying. Buttermilk tenderizes the rabbit, which is flavored with lemon zest, black pepper and thyme before being dredged in flour and fried until crisp and piping hot.
If rabbit seems like a challenge, try roasting pheasants using Cara McConnell’s recipe for Roast Pheasants With Double Cranberry Sauce. The pheasants — you could use Cornish game hens too — are brined, then roasted partially under bacon to add moistness to the birds. Once out of the oven, they’re deep golden and tender and brightened with a tart sauce made from dried cranberries and cranberry juice.
And if even pheasants aren’t calling to you just yet, there’s no easier recipe than Susan Vu’s Spatchcocked Roast Duck With Vietnamese-ish Herb Sauce. All you need to plan ahead is to allow the duck to sit with its salt-and-sugar rub for 2 to 3 days to allow the rub to dry-brine the meat and help draw out moisture from the skin so that when it roasts, the skin becomes crisp and golden. Once tender from the oven, you serve the duck with a quick, herb-packed sauce made with cilantro, scallions, lime juice, fish sauce and jalapeño that adds some welcome heat to help cut through the duck’s fatty richness.
Grilled Rabbit Legs
Coriander, fennel seeds and thyme add flavor to the brine for these rabbit legs, while maple syrup and rosemary add an earthy sweetness to the marinade.
Get the recipe.
Cook time: 1 1/2 hours, plus 1 day brining.
(Ricardo DeAratanha / Los Angeles Times)
Chicken-Fried Rabbit
Rabbit legs are given the fried chicken treatment in this simple recipe. Buttermilk provides moisture and tenderness to the rabbit meat, while lemon zest, thyme and garlic provide plenty of flavor for the mild game meat.
Get the recipe.
Cook time: 1 hour 20 minutes.
Roast Pheasants With Double Cranberry Sauce
A honey-sweetened brine and a blanket of bacon help give roast pheasants lots of flavor in this warm fall dish. If you like, stuff the cavities of the pheasants with small whole lemons, slices of onion, fresh sage or parsley. You can also season the outside of the pheasants with seasonal spices like cloves, nutmeg or cinnamon.
Get the recipe.
Cook time: 1 1/2 hours, plus 1 day to brine.
(Katrina Frederick / For The Times)
Spatchcocked Roast Duck With Vietnamese-ish Herb Sauce
When buying duck, ask your butcher for Pekin or a Pekin hybrid like the Moulard. Most likely the duck will be sold frozen, so prepare ahead and leave at least one day for it to thaw in the refrigerator.
Get the recipe.
Cook time: 2 hours, largely unattended, plus 48 hours chilling.
(Silvia Razgova / Los Angeles Times)
Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the last week, you’ve no doubt seen the third episode of HBO’s popular “The Last of Us” show, based on the video game of the same name. The episode tells the story of a couple, Bill and Frank, who get to know each other and live their lives together after a cordycep-related zombie pandemic breaks out. The first day the couple meet, Bill cooks Frank a meal of rabbit, paired appropriately with a Beaujolais, as Frank points out. The meal comes up a second time in a more heartbreaking scene later in the episode.
Watching the episode through tears, that meal stuck out to me, not only for its significance in the show but for how game meat like rabbit, venison and wild boar have been such a big part of my own life. I grew up in a family that hunted, and when wild game was on the table, it was a special occasion. Someone didn’t just run to the grocery store to pick up a steak; they went and spent hours of their time to bring home food for our family to enjoy. We always ate those meals with reverence, knowing that the meat was such a rare treat.
At the same time, as I revealed on our Food team’s Instagram post from last week, my favorite restaurant in L.A. is Dunsmoor, chef Brian Dunsmoor’s ode to early regional American cooking in Glassell Park. Lately, while feasting on goose rillettes, country ham and bison tartare, among many other wonderful soulful dishes on the menu, I’ve been yearning for that taste of home and comfort that game meat offers me.
And while it may seem like an intimidating thing to cook for dinner during the week, meat like rabbit, duck and pheasant is just as simple to cook as chicken, even if the meat tends to be dry if overcooked. But don’t worry if it’s your first time cooking it — it’s nothing a tasty sauce can’t fix.
For rabbit, you will usually find just the legs available from your butcher or, in some cases, a whole rabbit. If that’s the case, have your butcher break it into parts, and cook them in the same way as called for for the legs, knowing they’ll just cook for a little less time.
Last summer, Martin Draluck — chef of the Hemings & Hercules dinner series — gave us his recipe for Grilled Rabbit Legs. The legs are soaked in a brine flavored with coriander, fennel seeds and thyme before being marinated in maple syrup, rosemary and onions, which offer pungency and sweetness to the meat when grilled up until lightly blistered and tender.
If you have rabbit legs or pieces left over and want to go a more conventional route, try Chicken-Fried Rabbit, which, as the name suggests, treats the rabbit as you would pieces of chicken for frying. Buttermilk tenderizes the rabbit, which is flavored with lemon zest, black pepper and thyme before being dredged in flour and fried until crisp and piping hot.
If rabbit seems like a challenge, try roasting pheasants using Cara McConnell’s recipe for Roast Pheasants With Double Cranberry Sauce. The pheasants — you could use Cornish game hens too — are brined, then roasted partially under bacon to add moistness to the birds. Once out of the oven, they’re deep golden and tender and brightened with a tart sauce made from dried cranberries and cranberry juice.
And if even pheasants aren’t calling to you just yet, there’s no easier recipe than Susan Vu’s Spatchcocked Roast Duck With Vietnamese-ish Herb Sauce. All you need to plan ahead is to allow the duck to sit with its salt-and-sugar rub for 2 to 3 days to allow the rub to dry-brine the meat and help draw out moisture from the skin so that when it roasts, the skin becomes crisp and golden. Once tender from the oven, you serve the duck with a quick, herb-packed sauce made with cilantro, scallions, lime juice, fish sauce and jalapeño that adds some welcome heat to help cut through the duck’s fatty richness.
Grilled Rabbit Legs
Coriander, fennel seeds and thyme add flavor to the brine for these rabbit legs, while maple syrup and rosemary add an earthy sweetness to the marinade.
Get the recipe.
Cook time: 1 1/2 hours, plus 1 day brining.
(Ricardo DeAratanha / Los Angeles Times)
Chicken-Fried Rabbit
Rabbit legs are given the fried chicken treatment in this simple recipe. Buttermilk provides moisture and tenderness to the rabbit meat, while lemon zest, thyme and garlic provide plenty of flavor for the mild game meat.
Get the recipe.
Cook time: 1 hour 20 minutes.
Roast Pheasants With Double Cranberry Sauce
A honey-sweetened brine and a blanket of bacon help give roast pheasants lots of flavor in this warm fall dish. If you like, stuff the cavities of the pheasants with small whole lemons, slices of onion, fresh sage or parsley. You can also season the outside of the pheasants with seasonal spices like cloves, nutmeg or cinnamon.
Get the recipe.
Cook time: 1 1/2 hours, plus 1 day to brine.
(Katrina Frederick / For The Times)
Spatchcocked Roast Duck With Vietnamese-ish Herb Sauce
When buying duck, ask your butcher for Pekin or a Pekin hybrid like the Moulard. Most likely the duck will be sold frozen, so prepare ahead and leave at least one day for it to thaw in the refrigerator.
Get the recipe.
Cook time: 2 hours, largely unattended, plus 48 hours chilling.
(Silvia Razgova / Los Angeles Times)
Denial of responsibility! Techno Blender is an automatic aggregator of the all world’s media. In each content, the hyperlink to the primary source is specified. All trademarks belong to their rightful owners, all materials to their authors. If you are the owner of the content and do not want us to publish your materials, please contact us by email – [email protected]. The content will be deleted within 24 hours.