A Nice Evening And Morning In Our Swamp

The 2014-15 waterfowl season is winding down nearly as fast as I am.  It has been a pretty good season so far at Whistling Wings Duck Club, but each week the number of visiting ducks has declined pretty steadily, much as it does around this time every season.

Be assured I am not complaining.  There were ducks this morning, mainly greenwing teal with a few pintail, widgeon and spoonies included for good measure.  With just two of us hunting today we had to do a little walking around the forty acres of ponds to keep the birds moving.

My partner wound up with two pintail, a pair of green wing teal, a widgeon and a shoveler.  I finished with a pintail and three greenwing teal.  The latter went to an old friend who along with his wife relishes the ducks I provide them.  He will carefully and painstakingly pluck and clean the birds before roasting them in a hot oven until a little past rare, the traditional recipe for Hunter’s Duck.

I filleted the pinitails breast, producing two palm sized steaks that I ate this evening with some French cut green beans, Casesar salad and two glasses of Apothic Red.  After soaking the fillets in salt water for a few hours, I patted them dry, dusted them in Dixie Fry, dipped them in egg wash and then Italian bread crumbs before dropping them into a pan with hot olive oil.

Once they were well browned on both sides and had plumped up, I poured off the oil and replaced with a pat of butter and some Soyaki to create a nice finishing sauce.  Served medium rare and sliced on the bias into thin strips…. they were delicious.

The evening before the hunt, a coyote howled nearby, the gas lanterns hissed in the cabin, the stars twinkled brightly in the desert sky and the “stiffo” nightcap (heavy on the Black Velvet/light on the 7-Up) was as good as ever.