Moose Droppings

Well after work today I’m off to hunt camp for the weekend. In the morning we have plans to hunt ducks and geese I’m hopeful the geese will show up. A goose for Christmas for some is a holiday tradition and one I started a few years back. I like to cook a Apple Hickory BBQ Goose breast for our family gathering on Christmas night. I didn’t have one last year to cook despite my effort to get one so I’m hopeful that the cloudy misty weather forecast for in the morning will aid me in my endeavor.

I enjoy creating recipes and presenting wild game for folks in a unique ways and to get past the standard objection of “I don’t like wild game”. Try this recipe out and I’m sure folks will have a hard time even guessing it is goose never mind wild game.

My recipe for Apple Hickory BBQ Goose
First off we do not pluck the geese we skin and breast the meat out as a boneless cut. Geese come in a wide variety of sizes so you’ll have to adjust cooking times to the size of the geese you have.
Take the boneless skinless goose breasts and put them in a roasting pan with about ¼ inch of apple cider vinegar in the bottom of the pan. Then cover the tops of the skinless goose with strips of bacon. Put the goose in a pre heated oven (375) and let cook till done but not overly down. For me this is usually about 45 minutes (internal temp of 165’f)
BBQ Sauce
Jar of Apple Jelly
Bottle of Hickory BBQ Sauce
½ cup of Apple cider vinegar
Mix all together in saucepan heat slowly stirring often till all the jelly is melted and everything blends together.
Take cooked goose out of oven drain off greases remove bacon and discard. You’ll still have small amount of grease in the pan but that’s fine you just want to dump the majority out. Allow the goose to rest for about 15 minutes and to begin to cool so it is easier to slice. Then slice it up like a roast and then return the slices to the roasting pan. Pour the BBQ sauce over the meat cover the pan with tin foil and return to the oven. Turn the oven down to 300 and leave it in for an hour. I’ve served this and people swear its beef roast or deer roast. No one guesses its Canadian goose.

I so enjoy hunting geese, we have a surplus of them, and we need to kill a lot to keep the population in check and I needed for others to help eat them. I got to admit just plain old goose meat was not my favorite thing so I had to find a way to cook them. Another way that I bet would be good is to use goose instead of Tundra Swan in my Tundra Swan Pot Pie.
If you get a chance maybe you’ll try to add a Christmas Goose to the holiday table.

Well I hope everyone caught my first radio show this past Friday. If not check out the Pod Cast that is now available. My first show we covered the opening of Dove Season as well as the residential goose season. I promised to post up my Apple BBQ Goose Recipe so here goes.

First off we do not pluck the geese we skin and breast the meat out as a boneless cut. Geese come in a wide variety of sizes so you’ll have to adjust cooking times to the size of the geese you have.

Take the boneless skinless goose breasts and put them in a roasting pan with about ¼ inch of apple cider vinegar in the bottom of the pan. Then cover the tops of the skinless goose with strips of bacon. Put the goose in a pre heated oven (375) and let cook till done but not overly down. For me this is usually about 45 minutes.

BBQ Sauce
Jar of Apple Jelly
Bottle of Hickory BBQ Sauce
½ cup of Apple cider vinegar

Mix all together in sauce pan heat slowly stirring often till all the jelly is melted and everything blends together.

Take cooked goose out of oven drain off greases remove bacon and discard. You’ll still have small amount of grease in the pan but that’s fine you just want to dump the majority out. Allow the goose to rest for about 15 minutes and to begin to cool so it is easier to slice. Then slice it up like a roast and then return the slices to the roasting pan. Pour the BBQ sauce over the meat cover the pan with tin foil and return to the oven. Turn the oven down to 300 and leave it in for an hour. I’ve served this and people swear its beef roast or deer roast. No one guess its Canadian goose.

I hope everyone had a safe Labor Day Weekend and be sure to tune in Friday at 1pm for Moose Droppings the Radio Show.

I discovered this product about a month or so ago when I decided to try to grill some fish I caught. I saw Timber Creek Smoking Tray in the grocery store near the charcoal and the grilling supplies and I was a bit skeptical but figured what the heck lets give it a shot. Wow did this product ever deliver and I was surprised at how well it worked. That day I smoked some amber jacks but since then I have experimented on a few other things with excellent results.

My latest try was some rainbow trout and they turned out fabulous you don’t put anything else in the tray I dry seasoned the fish a bit and got the grill fired up. Then popped it on and just watched them to make sure they didn’t overcook. The smoke adds a good flavor with out overpowering or drying the meat out.

If you like stronger smoke flavors cover the tray with tin foil which is what I did. I think that also helps keep the moisture in so it doesn’t dry out. Some fresh grilled vegetables and some fresh field peas with some ham and what a meal you have.

The thing I really want to try this on is geese. I’ve had smoked goose before and that was pretty good I’m curious to see how well this product works with that. I have stocked pile a few of these for just that purpose because about the time fall rolls around a lot of stores stop carrying these types of products.

If you like smoked food and don’t have a smoker or you don’t want to drag it out give this product a try.

I sit here writing this post after a great dinner of Smoked Amber Jack & Ginger Citrus Glazed Grilled Wahoo. These are both fish I’ve never eaten before but I can attest they are fine eating fish. Many people consider the Amber Jack to be not a good fish to eat but I found it to pretty good, it’s kind of strong flavored like a blue fish but I grilled it in the “Timber Creek” Mesquite Wood Smoking Tray. It was the first time I ever tried this product and it worked great. It gave a great smoky flavor to the fish. I took the Amber Jack and sprinkled some lemon pepper as well as some of Buck Gardner’s Smokey Mountain seasoning on both sides of the filet and then put it in the smoking tray and put it on the grill and just kept checking on it so it didn’t get over cooked. Once it was done I took it off the grill squeezed a little fresh lime & lemon juice on it and served.

The Wahoo I sprinkled with lemon pepper and laid the filet skin side down on the grill. When it was just about done I brushed on some Ginger & Citrus Sauce from Harris Teeter and left it on the grill for another 90 seconds. Pulled that off squeezed a little fresh lime and lemon juice on and served. A salad and some wild rice and that was dinner.

I vacuumed sealed & froze the Tile Fish, sea bass and some additional Amber Jack to use latter. Tile & Bass both freeze well but we’ll see how the Amber Jack does.

This was the third year of our annual fishing trip my buddies and I take and we always go out on the Risky Business out of Oregon Inlet. Capt’n Jamie is great and he and Andy the mate always seem to find the fish and make sure we have an enjoyable time. The tile fish was a bit harder then the past few years but the size of the fish were much bigger on average then last year. We got some sea bass and one Wahoo. We then hit a spot where the Amber Jacks were and what a blast it wasn’t unusual for 3 or 4 of us to be fighting one at the same time. We caught and released a mess of them and held a few to eat. By the time quitting time came in we were relieved to give our arms a break.

Once again another great fishing trip and we are booked for our 4th trip in June 2008. If your looking for a spectacular fishing experience there is nothing risky about booking a trip with the “Risky Business”

Me with My Amber Jack

Wahoo

John Fighting One

John with a Nice Amber Jack

Mike

The Deadliest Catch Photos