Pheasant Gumbo with Brown Rice Pilaf
I always hated Louisiana when I lived there, but ... looking back, it's probably one of my favorite places that we ever lived and I look forward to going back there as much as I can. It's funny how perspectives change over time. The state slogan is "a sportsman's paradise" and it really is, I find myself missing the bayou and the food. I used to spend all day in a little flat bottom boat fishing the bayou behind my parents old house. I pulled some monster Large Mouth Bass out of that bayou ... and a few alligators too. It was always an adventure getting to the boat, I had to battle poisonous snakes with a boat oar on more than one occasion.
Me and my now ex brother-in-law logged many hours fishing Lake Bistineau, Black Bayou, Cross Lake, Cypress Lake and Caddo Lake. We spent a lot of time on the water, as much as we loved to spend time on the water, we also loved to be in the woods. Many a times while out scouting for places to hunt, we'd walked up on packs of wild hogs and wonder if they would be the ones to run away or if it would it be us. It was usually them, but we had some pretty close calls.
While living there I developed a taste for Cajun food. If the wife and I go out to eat, and there is something Cajun on the menu, more times than not, I'll end up ordering it. If someone were to ask me what my favorite style of food is, Cajun all the way, 100 percent. I'd love nothing more, than to put Tony Chachere's Creole seasoning on everything I eat! That being said, I've wanted to make a Cajun inspired dish to share on Gundog Central for some time now. I reached out to a few Cajun style chefs, but none of them seemed interested in helping, so I decided to make my own dishes inspired by my memories of Louisiana. I came up with two dishes, A Brown Bayou Duck Chili, that'll I'll post another time, and this Pheasant Gumbo with Wild Hog Sausage and a Brown Rice Pilaf. Like me, this dish isn't going to 100% Cajun. I doubt you'll find many wild Pheasant anywhere in Louisiana, so you'll just have to consider it a kind of Cajun Fusion dish, but if you make it, you won't be sorry.
Part of the inspiration for this recipe was a recent potluck dinner we had at work. The office manager brought in this Gumbo she had made at home. It.was.Fantastic!!! I begged her for the recipe, until she reluctantly gave it to me. Turns out it was her husband's family recipe ... probably past down from generation to generation. Being as its most likely a family secret, I'm not going to use that exact recipe here, but I did steal little pieces of it.
The wife and I attended the New Orleans Cooking School a few summers ago, it was an amazing experience that we both enjoyed, and I would recommend it to anyone. We learned some of the history behind Cajun Cooking, about the French and Spanish influences, about the "Holy Trinity" and how make a roux. In Cajun cooking the "Holy Trinity" is a combination of Onions, Bell Peppers and Celery, it's used as the foundation of most Cajun dishes. It kind of makes an appearance in this recipe, however I've chosen not to include the Celery, but you can add to your dish, if you like.
Most Gumbo's also have Okra in them, which is used as a thickening agent. Have you ever boiled Okra in the hopes of canning it? It secretes this thick clear mucus like ooze, it's extreme messy to deal with and nasty to look at. I'm not an Okra fan, unless it's fried, so I'm not going to use any in this recipe either, which brings up the question, if it doesn't have Okra in it, is it really a Gumbo? I'm sure some people will say no, but there are other thickening agents that can be used, like Cornstarch, Arrowroot and even Masa if you want, but we won't need them here, our Roux will be enough to thicken up this recipe. A roux is just flour and oil, usually equal parts, just not in this recipe, cooked on a low heat until it's dark brown in color. It'll give off a nutty kind of smell and it'll impart a lot of flavor in the sauce.
I also made a homemade pheasant stock from some left-over pheasant caresses from a previous recipe. I've included instructions on how I made it on the recipe page. It's really going help amp up the pheasant flavor, however ... . You can substitute it with equal amounts of regular unsalted chicken stock.
About the Author : Jeff Davis
Visit authors website | View more articlesYou may think cooking and recipes don’t have much to do with a website dedicated to hunting dogs ... but really, why do we hunt? Sure, we enjoy watching our dogs work in the field and being outdoors, but ultimately, hunting is about survival and feeding our families. We might as well try to do it well. I'm not a chef and definitely no food authority ... but I do like to eat and enjoy cooking. After searching for people willing to share their recipes on Gundog Central, without much success, I decided to try to do a few on my own, with my wife Tami's help. The recipes I share here are things I like to eat and have made here at home. I've tried to include step-by-step instructions with each meal describing exactly how I did it, but my method may not be best, if you decide to try a recipe posted here, please use whatever technique you think works best, I'm simply sharing how I did it. You'll see a lot of recipes where I've tried to make things from starch, when I could have just used store bought ingredients, simply because I wanted to learn how something was done. My goal is to continually update these recipes as I learn new things and techniques. These are my attempts at creating good, home cooked food, that I would like to eat! If I'm sharing it here, my family and I enjoyed it and I believe you will too.
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