I can think of no better way to enjoy hard earned wild duck, than by quickly pan frying the breasts and serving medium-rare alongside some crispy french fries. The dark and rich duck meat is a superb substitution for beef in the classic French steak frites. In this dish, the end result more than justifies the time it takes thoroughly pluck the breasts before butchering the birds.
Plucking a pair of North American Mallards on a cold winters dayin Maryland
In my opinion, by far the best way to enjoy duck breast is to simply pan sear and serve medium-rare with a compound butter and french fries. This treatment lets the rich flavour of the duck take centre stage.
Prep Time5 minutesmins
Cook Time10 minutesmins
Course: Main Course
Cuisine: Contemporary Australian, French
Keyword: best duck recipe, canard, duck, duck and fries, duck breast, frites
Servings: 4people
Ingredients
4Duck breastsskin on
4tbspsalted buttersoftened
2tbsoduck fator olive oil
2tbspsoft blue cheese (optional)can be replaced with additional butter
1tbspchivesvery finely sliced
frozen french fries
flakey sea salt
Instructions
Compound Butter
You can ofcourse make whatever flavour compound butter you like best. My preference for this dish is a butter with soft blue cheese (Danish Blue or even Stilton work great). However, garlic and chives or chives and parsley will also work fine.
Combine the blue cheese and soften butter and mic through the chives. If not using blue cheese use extra butter.
Form the butter into a log, roll the butter in plastic wrap and set aside in the fridge.
French Fries
You could go to the trouble of making your own. But to me the whole point of this dish is to celebrate the harvest of some ducks with a fast delicious meal. So I opt for store bought frozen french fries.
Cook the fries by your preferred method: oven, air fryer or deep frier, according to the packet instructions. Try and time this so they are ready at the same time as the duck.
Pan-seared duck breast
Heat duck fat (or olive oil) in a heavy frying pan over medium-high heat.
Lightly score the skin of each duck breast and season with salt.
Add the duck breasts skin side down to the hot pan and cook for 4 minutes. Use a weight to press the breasts down if necessary to ensure the skin is fully in contact with the surface of the pan.
Turn the breasts and cook for an additional 2 minutes. Aim for 57C/ 135F for medium, or a touch cooler for rare.
Rest the duck for 3 minutes before slicing and plating.
Serve with crispy French fries and topped with a quenelle of compound butter and finish with a sprinkle of flakey sea salt.
Pan seared duck breast with French fries, topped with blue cheese and chive compound butter
This is the simplest of simple sausages and a great place to start your home made sausage making journey. Follow my Beginners Guide to Sausage Making and you really should not go wrong.
This is also the perfect sausage to get the kids involved in helping with, there should nothing in this that could possible scare them off from tasting it. Slap one on a slice of white bread, smother it in BBQ sauce (or tomato if you have to) and it’s just like being at Bunnings on Sunday arvo.
This delicious venison, garlic, fennel and red wine sausage is a one of my all time favourites. It is great barbecued especially over coals, or even used to make meatballs and served with spaghetti and a rich tomato sauce.
A pile of venison, garlic, fennel and red wine sausages ready to be packaged and frozen
Sausages like these are great way to introduce fussy-eaters to game meat and make a fantastic gift for friends.
There’s a small investment to be made before you can throw your first venison or kangaroo sausage on the BBQ. Try to account for how many sausages you’re likely to make each session when you set your budget. Personally, I prefer to knock out 10-15 kilograms in a day and be done for six months or more, than do multiple smaller batches.
Sausage Making Equipment
Meat Grinder. A meat grinder, or mincer, is absolutely essential. For occasional small batches a grinder attachment for a bench-top mixer, like a Kitchen-Aid, will be perfectly adequate.
If you’re planning on making a lot of sausages, or even just mince and burgers, invest in a standalone grinder. Look for something with an 800 Watt, or even more powerful motor.
No matter which option you choose make sure the blades are sharp. All too often meat grinders come with pretty dull blades straight out of the box. If this is the case a professional knife sharpener can take care of blades and the plates for you.
Sausage Stuffer. Most grinders come with a sausage stuffing attachment. I’ve never had any great success with these. It is difficult to get a consistent fill, especially when doing large batches. A dedicated sausage stuffer, either a small horizontal model, or a larger vertical stuffer is an essential tool in my mind.
Digital Kitchen Scales. A scale that can measure up to 4.5-5 kilograms in 1 gram increments will be perfectly fine for fresh sausage making.
For making cured sausages and other small goods a scale capable of measuring 100ths of gram (0.01g) will also be required.
Tubs. Two large tubs each capable of holding a full batch of sausage mix will be required. They should be food-safe plastic or metal, and ideally you will want to buy something that fits into your fridge.
Vacuum Sealer. Unless you’re planning on eating the entire batch of sausages within a week you will want a a vacuum sealer. A chamber sealer would be ideal, but they’re large and expensive. Personally, I’ve managed to just fine with a Sunbeam FoodSaver, but at the rate I use it I end up needing to replace mine every few years.
Sausage Making Ratios
Sausage is an emulsification of protein, fat and liquid. Getting the ratio of lean meat, fat and liquid correct is the first step in ensuring the finished sausage is firm and juicy.
Emulsification: to combine two or more ingredients that don’t normally mix easily
After years of reading and experimentation I have settled on the following ratios for venison and kangaroo sausages, with excellent results:
Lean meat to fat ratio: 70% lean meat to 30% fat.
Liquid: 3-5% liquid, per weight of meat & fat.
Salt: 1.5-2% salt, per weight of meat & fat.
For example for 2kg of venison sausages:
Venison
1.4kg of lean venison
Beef fat
0.6kg beef fat
Liquid
60-100g
Salt
30-40g
Venison Sausage master ratios
Grinding and Mixing
The ‘chefy’ term for when the protein, fat and liquid are combined, prior to being cased or formed into sausages, is farce. The thorough emulsification of fat throughout the farce is essential to making sausages with proper texture. If the fat is not properly emulsified, it will simply render out of the sausage as it cooks, leaving you with a thoroughly unappetising dry and crumbly snag.
Keep everything cold! The first consideration to making a proper farce is to keep the meat, fat and liquid very, very cold. To do this cube the meat and fat into 1-inch cubes (or whatever will fit best through your grinder) spread it all in a single layer on a large tray and place it in the freezer until almost frozen.
Detach the feed tube, auger, blades and plate from your grinder and also put that in the freezer.
Grind, mix, grind again. Remove the meat and fat from the freezer once the surface is firm to touch, and the inside is very cold, but before it is frozen.
Assemble the grinder with a coarse plate and run all of the meat and fat through the grinder for a first-pass.
Roughly mix the salt and any herbs and spices into the ground meat by hand, and run the whole lot through the grinder for a second pass.
Tip: If at any point the fat begins to melt, return the whole mix to the freezer until the temperature drops and drop a handful of ice cubes into the grinder feed tube.
Once all of the meat/fat mixture has been ground a second time, set the grinder aside. Place the mix back in the freezer to chill down again if need be.
Knead to emulsify. The emulsification of the fat into the farce is the singular most important aspect of sausage making. Add the liquid-making sure it is also ice cold, and get ready to form the mix into farce by hand.
Get your hands in there and mix, squeeze and knead the mixture together. Mix it more than you think is necessary, once you think the mixture is fully emulsified: mix, squeeze and knead for the same length of time again.
The mixture should be that cold that your hands ache (gloves help).
Tip: Start with 3% liquid and incorporate the rest gradually if the mix is not coming together. If using wine or stock, you can give it a good shake in a cocktail shaker full of ice to make it ice-cold.
You have created farce when the everything is uniformly combined into a paste. The farce should stick to the tub, and to your hands.
Take out a small handful of farce and set it aside. Cover the surface of the farce with plastic wrap and put the tray in the fridge.
Test and adjust. Form a small patty of farce for each taste-tester. Place the patties in frypan over medium heat and cook through.
Taste test the cooked farce. If you need to add more herbs and spices, now is the time. But incorporating more seasonings uniformly through the farce now is a challenge.
To rest, or not? I rest the farce in the fridge for 24 hours before casing the sausages. Partly because I usually want a rest myself at this point, and partly because I think I get a better end-product although I don’t fully understand why.
Get Stuffed!
Prepare the sausage casings according to the directions, this usually means giving them a thorough rinse and two hour soak.
Now is the time to enlist the gang of taste-testers to earn their keep through a little manual labour.
Moisten the sausage filler attachment, and the work surface with a spray of water.
Fill the sausage stuffer with farce, making sure there are no air pockets. Carefully slide the casing onto the filler nozzle, and have your helpers turn that handle.
I prefer to spin the links as they fill, but you can coil the entire sausage onto the bench and spin links at the end.
Sausage Casings:I’ve only ever used natural casings. You can find them online or with bit of luck your local butcher might be happy to sell you some.
Sheep casings (24-26mm): Best for thin sausages, hot-dogs, cabana, etc. Hog casings (28-38mm): Best for thick sausages, pepperoni, etc. Hog casings (38-42mm): Best for thick sausages, salami, etc. Beef casings (40mm +): Best for cacciatore, salami and similar small goods.
Getting the fill rate correct takes some trial and error. Too full and the casing will split, not full enough and you’ll make ugly shrivelled looking sausages. Take your time and work at whatever speed and tempo is best for your team.
To make the links, spin the first sausage forwards, second backwards, third forwards, and so on.
Once all of farce is cased, inspect the sausages for air pockets. Give any airpockets a prick with a sharp sterile instrument. I’d rather use the point of filleting knife than risk incorporating whatever bacteria might be found on a wooden toothpick or bamboo skewer.
A final rest. Put all of the sausages back into a tub uncovered and place it back in the fridge overnight to dry. If you have the space it is even better to hang them in the fridge.
Drying like this allows the skins to firm up, and the meat to stick better to the skins.
Into the vacuum. I prefer to make big batches of sausages two-three times a year, and to have a fully stocked freezer.
Portion the snags out into meal sized portions, vacuum seal and freeze.
I’m sure they will keep for two years in a good deep-freezer, but I’ve never had any last that long.
Wild venison, garlic and fennel sausage.
The end result of a having the correct ratio of lean meat, fat and liquid, thoroughly combined and properly emulsified, is a firm juicy sausage.
Pheasant stir-fry inspired by the salty-sweet-sour balance of Thai cuisine.
Pheasant hunting has always fascinated me—likely a result of reading Roald Dahl’s Danny the Champion of the World as a young boy—but having spent most of my adult life in northern Australia it had not been something I’d had the opportunity to pursue. At least not until February 2023, when a fortunate series of events saw me in the United States and invited to participate in a unique pheasant hunt in Maryland. The outfitter, who I had met through gun dog circles, had space for an additional shooter at an event designed to replicate a European style driven pheasant shoot, and while this was a far cry from my long held desire to hunt the wild birds of King Island it was quite simply an opportunity too good to pass up.
The ringneck pheasant, with a native range from Asia to the Balkans, has been widely introduced across North America, Europe and Australia.
That is how I found myself atop a hill on the Maryland-Pennsylvania border, Beretta in hand and dog by my side one Saturday morning in February. To say the morning was crisp is a gross understatement—around ten o’clock the shooters were liberally dusted in snow. The conditions didn’t bother the dogs, the locals, or the birds and I pretended may hands and feet weren’t biting cold to the bone.
Over the course of the morning the shooters rotated around each ‘peg’, while the outfitter released pheasant in either singles or pairs. At the end of the day the shot birds were divided equally amongst the guns, and the missed birds were left to chance their luck in the woods.
Most of the birds were ‘breasted out’ by the outfitter’s crew while we were still in the field. As a result I left the hunting clubhouse that afternoon with several kilos of skin free breast meat, and not the number of whole birds I had expected. On one hand this greatly reduced the amount of labour required of me, but on the other it impacted my culinary ambitions. So it was with a relative abundance of pheasant breast meat and a serious hankering for quality Asian flavours—which should naturally suit ring-necked pheasant—I hit on the idea of a Thai-style pheasant stir-fry.
Much later in the year I returned for a morning of upland hunting. This I found to be much more challenging and rewarding.
1tbspPalm sugar (crushed)can substitute with brown sugar
1tbspginger paste
1 teaspoonsesame oiloptional
Instructions
Assuming you will serve this with rice, it would be best to start by preparing the rice.
Slice the pheasant breasts into bite size portions, discarding any badly blood-shot pieces.
Whisk together the marinade ingredients in a large bowl, and add the pheasant meat to the marinade. Strictly speaking we aren’t really marinating the meat, but instead employing a Chinese stir-fry technique called ‘velveting’ to produce meat that is both crisp on the outside and tender inside. Let the meat rest in the marinade while you prepare the vegetables and sauce.
Slice the onion, capsicum, garlic and shallots.
Combine all of the sauce ingredients and mix well.
Over a medium-high heat, heat 2-3cm of oil in the bottom of a wok.
While the oil heats, add 1/3 cup of corn flour to a plate or bowl and toss the meat through the cornflour until it is evenly coated.
Once the oil has reached around 175-180C, cook the meat in small batches without overcrowding the wok. If you don’t have a suitable thermometer, you can test the oil by adding a small piece of the meat, if the oil immediately bubbles it is hot enough.
Once all of the meat is cooked carefully drain most of the hot oil, leaving about 1 tablespoon of oil in the bottom of the wok.
Add the onion to the hot wok and continually stir for sixty seconds, then add the capsicum garlic and ¾ of the shallots. Continue to stir fry until the vegetables are cooked but still retain some crunch. Add the cashews (if using them).
Add all of the sauce and heat through. Once the sauce is heated return the meat to the wok, and toss or stir everything together until it is evenly coated. Remove from the heat and serve on a bed of rice. Garnish with the remaining shallots.
Kangaroo burger with bacon, lettuce, burger sauce, blue cheese and onion jam.
This kangaroo burger recipe makes the most of the trimmings from the prime roo fillets and the tougher cuts. It’s a great summer-time alternative to using those tougher cuts in stews and curries. While I’ve used kangaroo meat in this particular recipe, venison is equally suitable too.
Kangaroo is virtually fat free, and fat is really necessary for a tasty burger. When making burgers and sausages I aim for 80 percent lean meat to 20 percent fat. I also normally use beef fat rather than pork fat. I can usually get beef fat free of charge and I think the flavour suits kangaroo and venison well.
If at all possible separate the metal components from your mincer and place them in the freezer for1-2 hours before begging to mince the kangaroo and fat together. And keep both the ingredients and your other equipment as cold as possible. The last thing you want is for the fat to warm up and start rendering.
Prepare the roo meat by cutting into two centimetre cubes, removing as much tendon, sinew and muscle sheath as possible.
Spread the cubed meat across a tray and place this in the freezer. Cube the beef fat and add this to the freezer separately. Remove the meat once the outside feels hard, but before the meat has frozen solid. You want the mincer, meat and fat to be as cold as possible. Keeping the temperature as low as possible will prevent the fat from rendering as you run it through the mincer and reduce the likelihood of clogging the mincer too. If the fat does render you end up with a greasy mess that is not much good for anything.
Mix the nearly frozen meat and fat together evenly and run through the mincer. I prefer to use the coarse plate for burger mince.
Form the minced meat into patties with medium pressure, too soft and they fall apart. A burger mould is helpful but not necessary. Do not add salt or seasoning before forming into patties, salt will start denaturing the proteins and you will end up with a sausage patty not a burger patty.
When it comes to cooking the burgers, season them immediately before placing them on a smokingly hot plate. A generous sprinkle of salt is sufficient seasoning in my view, but steak seasoning or garlic herb mix will impart a little extra flavour. Slap the burgers firmly onto the hot plate to ensure maximum contact and surface caramelisation. Resist the urge to turn them until they are cooked half way through.Serve with whatever burger toppings you like best. Personally I enjoy, lettuce, bacon, blue cheese and caramelised onion chutney.
Fly fishing for trout is one of my absolute favourite ways of relaxing in the outdoors. Recently it seems to have become somewhat taboo for fishers, fly fishers especially, to take trout from the water. For me responsibly ‘harvesting’ fish within the bag limit and size restrictions to turn into delicious meals for my family adds considerably to outdoors experience.
My favourite trout to eat, brook trout, aren’t even really a trout but are a char
This is my go to method for smoking whole trout. Eat this warm from the smoker, or use it as the star ingredient in other dishes
Prep Time15 minutesmins
Cook Time2 hourshrs
Brining time2 daysd
Total Time2 daysd2 hourshrs15 minutesmins
Course: Main Course
Cuisine: smoked
Keyword: smoked, trout
Servings: 4
Equipment
smoker I use an upright Pro-Q (for now)
Ingredients
2troutmy favourite are brook trout (which aren't a trout at all but a char)
4½litreswater
50gramsbrown sugar
65gramssaltflossy, sea, kosher or any other foodgrade salt without anti-caking agent
Instructions
Place the water, salt and brown sugar in a large saucepan. Stir, over a medium-high heat, until the sugar and brown salt are throughly dissolved. Take off the heat and allow to cool to room temperature.
Once the brine has cold to room temperature, place the trout in a large non-metallic container, and pour over the brine. Ensure the trout are fully submerged. Cover the container and place in the fridge for at least 24 hours. I often leave trout for as long as 72 hours and believe the longer brining time results in a more moist fish.
Remove fish from the brine, wipe dry with paper towel, and place back in the fridge on a cooling rack to fully dry for a couple of hours.
Prepare your smoker to run at 95°C (200°F) while soaking two handfuls of wood chips in water.
With the smoker stable at 95°C (200°F), hang the fish or lay on the grate, and add a handful of wood chips to the fire. If laying your fish on a grate, prop the stomach cavity open, with toothpicks or the woody part of rosemary srigs.
Smoke for two hours, adding more wood chips as necessary, while resisting the urge to open the lid and look at them.
Eat warm from the smoker on a bagel, or toasted bread, with a smear of cream cheese and capers. Or allow to cool before refrigerating for later on.
Smoked trout bagels make a fantastic brunch, especially if the trout is still warm from the smoker. But most of the smoke trout in the house gets eaten in pasta in a variation on the classic carbonara.
This is a meal so simple that it does not really warrant a recipe, but I do feel the need to share a ‘secret’ ingredient. The small batch, Australian made, Hohnke Outdoors ‘Double Shot’ spice blend.
‘Double shot’ includes all the spices I would generally pair with red meat: garlic, paprika, onion and cumin. But the addition of ground coffee (Sambar blend from Dog & Gun) and a little brown sugar complements venison amazingly well.
‘Double Shot’ from Hohnke Outdoors, the secret ingredient
As you can see, there is really nothing special to this recipe. It uses only a handful of ingredients and is perfect for camping, even in the rain.
Canberra Fried Rabbit (CFR) is tastier than the chicken from any fast food joint, and the deep-fried meat of choice for the environmentally conscious.
Following a couple of wet years the rabbit population in the Australian Capital Territory has exploded. The introduced pests are everywhere, even as I type there is a brace of rabbits gnawing away in our suburban front garden.
Tastier than chicken and better for the environment
Deep fried rabbit that is tastier than any chicken from a fast-food joint
Prep Time10 minutesmins
Cook Time35 minutesmins
Marinade1 dayd
Course: Main Course
Cuisine: Contemporary Australian
Keyword: deep fried, fried, fried rabbit, Rabbit
Servings: 4
Equipment
large cast iron frypan or dutch oven
Ingredients
1rabbitJointed into 8 parts. 2 x front legs and shoulders, 2 x hind legs and thighs, 4 x loin or saddle sections
Canola oilor any flavourless oil with a high smoke point
2 cupsbuttermilk
1tbspItalian herbs
1tbspgarlic powder
1tbsppaprika
1tbspgarlic and herb seasoning
½tbspfreshly cracked pepper
¼tbspsalt
1½cupsflour
½cuppanko breadcrumbs
½cupcornflour
Srirarcha hot sauceoptional
sesame seedsoptional
Instructions
Prepartation
Cut the rabbit into 6-8 joints of meat depending on the size of the animal. Remove tendons and as much silver skin as possible.
With a sharp fork or pointy knife, prick the pieces of meat all over.
Place the meat in a plastic container, add buttermilk to cover the meat, seal the container and place in the fridge overnight.
Frying
Start heating 3-4cm (1-1½in) of oil in a large heavy frypan or dutch oven until the oil reached 175°C (350°F)
Mix the herbs, salt, flour and cornflour together in a large bowel until combined well. Add the Panko breadcrumbs and mix gently until combined.
One at time remove pieced of rabbit from the buttermilk, allowing most of the buttermilk to drip off. While some buttermilk still remains dredge the rabbit in the seasoned flour and place in the hot oil 2-3 pieces at a time.
Cook for 3-4 minutes each side, until golden brown. Place on a wire rack over paper towel to drain and cool a little before serving.If you have a meat thermometer test the thickest section of one piece. You're aiming for an internal temperature of 70-75°C (160-165°F)
Serve the fried rabbit as is, or dressed with hot sauce and sesame seeds alongside a robust pale ale.
Canberra Fried Rabbit – slow ‘fast-food’ fit for conservationists
