Where I live in Northern California we have a rich supply of wild foods.
I’ve often thought to cook a meal from things that grow nearby:
- watercress and crawfish from the creek
- blackberries from the brambles
- quail
- wild radish and
- mustard from the meadow
Add a few chanterelle mushrooms collected under our grove of ancient oak trees and that would be a meal!
Well, maybe some day.
For the time being, I’ll depend on the wild bounty my cousin Danny finds when he’s out hunting.
Waterfowl season starts in late fall and is just now coming to an end. Every year the natural wetlands and rice farms of the Central Valley are crowded with ducks and geese visiting for the winter. After the rice harvest in the fall, the migrating birds arrive just in time to consume the grain that’s been left behind.
Hunters follow strict rules regarding the number and species they can shoot in a day, to maintain a healthy balance.
Some days Danny returns empty-handed. But then there are the days when skill and opportunity combine to produce a full bag.
The hunter’s reward—canvasback, pintail, mallard and widgeon.
This year I’ve plucked and cleaned my share of ducks, including mallards, pintail and wood ducks, any of which make for good eating.
Last week I roasted a mallard for dinner with a friend. I love the mallard’s plumage—particularly the males—with their dark green heads, flashes of blue and purple on the wings and their curly black tails. Mallards are relatively easy to pluck, but even when you are careful the fluffy down gets everywhere. I’m still finding “down bunnies” in odd corners of my kitchen.
The mallard we roasted had eaten its fill of rice and had a lovely layer of fat under the skin. It only needed a quick rub with some soft butter and a sprinkling of salt and pepper before going into a very hot oven for 25 minutes.
Our duck, ready for roasting.
My friend had found some fresh green chick peas at the market. We shelled out as many as we had patience for—you only get one or two in each pod—and cooked them for about ten minutes in just enough salted water to cover, with a big pinch of dried herbs.
After most of the water boiled away they were dressed with a drizzle of olive oil. The herby legumes accented the rich wild flavor of the duck. A few sautéed potatoes completed the picture.
I really should have tried to find some watercress!
Wild duck for dinner.
Alan Tangren is DooF’s Director of Food Operations
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