By Morgan & Mason Baseley of 2 Girls Hunting.
Some people see hunting as a way to experience the outdoors, some people see it for harvesting an animal, some want to spend time with a friend bonding over a common goal, some see it as a new challenge and experience that puts them in an environment away from their daily routine and some people see it as a way of life. When it comes to hunting, we enjoy all the reasons; the outdoors, the challenge, the family traditions, the escape from daily chores, but most of all…the way of life.
The “hunting way of life” is also to provide – provide a lifestyle with respect to traditions, respect to our environment, respect for ourselves and most of all respect for the animal. Another way to provide is by filling a freezer with protein rich, organic, fresh meat. There is nothing we love more than sitting down to a meal that we know we were greatly responsible for, whether it be duck enchiladas, pheasant pot pie, venison spaghetti, goose jerky or bacon wrapped dove (we could go on and on).
Part of the hunting way of life is passing on family traditions and one of the biggest traditions comes in the form of cooking and passing along family recipes. We love getting into the kitchen with our mom and learning some of the tricks to preparing some tasty, nutritious, healthy wild game meals. We share those meals with friends and family by inviting them over for dinner or sharing recipes. Some of our cooking experiences are “dump in this and that” because the recipe has never been written down. Other times we just sit in the kitchen looking through recipe cards and books in order to follow instructions to get it just right. Then there are the occasions where our cooking is purely experimental. (Good luck coming over for dinner on one of those experimental nights).
We have found some success with ease, flavor and appeal on a few new recipes lately and we would like to share two of them with you; Gnocchi and sausage soup being the first and duck stew being the second.
GNOCCHI & SAUSAGE SOUP
Fresh gnocchi
1 lb venison sausage / browned
4 cups chicken broth
4 big handfuls fresh spinach
1 cup shredded carrots.
1 cup cream
2 TBS butter
garlic/salt/pepper to taste
Bring chicken broth to a boil and add in butter & gnocchi for 4-5 minutes, drop to a simmer and add in carrots for 2-3 minutes, add cream, browned sausage and spinach (sausage will add a lot of flavor to soup so add other seasonings to taste with caution). Simmer for 2-3 minutes and SERVE. Simple, quick and tasty!!!
DUCK STEW
5-6 good size duck breast (or 2-3 specklebelly goose breast)
flour / olive oil
1 package dry Au Jus mix
2 cups vegetable broth
6-8 new potatoes (sliced in half)
4-5 carrots (not baby) cut into 1 inch chunks
6-8 whole cremini mushrooms
3-4 whole garlic cloves
Lightly dredge duck meat in flour and brown in olive oil/fry pan on each side for 2-3 minutes. Pour 2 cups broth into crock pot. Place duck breast on top, sprinkle dry Au Jus over meat. Cook on low 4 hours. Stir in all (raw) veggies and cook on low 2-3 hours. Remove meat and slice into cubes, add back to stew mixture.