It's Hunting Time

Hi everyone- sorry its been so long since my last post.

It's finally that time of year. I took Ike last week to Silver Springs State Park where they release pheasants for hunting in about 300 acres of prairie grasses to get a little "reacquainted" with what he is bred to do. Summer months are hard, you can only do so much bumper retrieving, and training so we both were really looking forward to doing that. I was hesitant to do that as I have heard horror stories about un safe hunters, and injuries to dogs etc., but we promised to be careful and went out. Well, Ike pointed one, and lived up to my part of the partnership and landed the bird. I suppose you were hoping to see a pic or two of the successful adventure but I kind of shot the bird up so much it really wasn't such a good pic :( Sorry. But there will be more to come... I promise.

But This is "Cooking With Ike" so in honor of the season, I will share with you a recipe of smoked pheasant breasts - (remember I promised that in an earlier blog). It really doesn't take to much work, and since the meat is SOOOOOO lean you don't need to smoke it all day like a pork roast or even 4-5 hours like a brisket... Just a couple hours and it takes on nice flavor and patina.

I cleaned and marinated the breasts in a mixture of Olive Oil, Peach Cider,Hot sauce, Sesame Oil and Garlic for about 12 hours in the fridge. The reason I used Peach Cider was because my father in law had received some as a gift for watching a neighbor's house while they visited family in Georgia.

I then wrapped them in thick bacon and smoked them over Pecan Chips soaked in a combination of water and more Peach Cider.

About 3 hours later this is what they looked like:

I then made a bourbon-cider glaze by reducing about a cup of cider and about a shot of Bourbon over medium heat until it became syrup like and then drizzled that over the breasts. They were quite good..

I saved the leftovers for some Smoked-Pheasant Ravioli with Sage Brown Butter....

Until then, "Ike Find that Bird"