since I'm not hunting in this cold, I'm cooking today. a few people have inquired about squirrel recipes, and this is one of my favorites. isn't too much bother, and you can throw whatever you like in it use whatever wine you like, use beef stock instead of chicken, use celery instead of or in addition to carrots. you get the idea. no set rules for veggies, herbs and liquids. use what you like or what you gots.
first I pat the parts really dry and let them come up to room temp. I dust them with seasoned flour and brown them on med-high heat in bacon fat and avocado oil(nice because it has a 500* smoke point and mild flavor) in small batches so as not to rob the skillet of too much heat. today I'm doing this all in a 5qt dutch oven. whatever vessel you cook in, make sure it has a tight fitting lid. this is very important.
while browning the squirrel parts I frenched three large yellow onions and cut up about two cups of carrots, minced three cloves of garlic, plucked a few leaves from my Bay tree and cut some fresh Rosemary, cleaned up my mushrooms. once the squirrel is all browned, I sweat the onions and carrots in same dutch oven, season with salt and pepper. preheat oven to 325*
once the onions got soft I added the minced garlic and stirred it around until the fragrance hit my nose, then added about 1cup of dry white wine (chardonnay this time) to deglaze. once that began to simmer(no need to reduce the wine) I added a can of low sodium chicken stock, brought up to a simmer, added the squirrel parts, laid the bay leaves on, seasoned with about 1 T dried oregano.
dumped the bite sized Crimini mushrooms on top and laid the rosemary on top of that. bake covered with tight fitting lid for 2-3 hours or until squirrel is fork tender. fox squirrels usually take 3 hours plus. greys only two sometimes.
not sure if I'm gonna mash potatoes or make Rosemary rice tonight. see what Nancy wants to have. either way, I'll get that together before squirrel comes out of the oven. when it's done, I'll remove the squirrel parts and vegetables with a slotted spoon, make a roux(and brown it pretty good) to thicken the liquid left behind and open a bottle of Cabernet. dang, its starting to smell good, I'm getting hungry...
first I pat the parts really dry and let them come up to room temp. I dust them with seasoned flour and brown them on med-high heat in bacon fat and avocado oil(nice because it has a 500* smoke point and mild flavor) in small batches so as not to rob the skillet of too much heat. today I'm doing this all in a 5qt dutch oven. whatever vessel you cook in, make sure it has a tight fitting lid. this is very important.
while browning the squirrel parts I frenched three large yellow onions and cut up about two cups of carrots, minced three cloves of garlic, plucked a few leaves from my Bay tree and cut some fresh Rosemary, cleaned up my mushrooms. once the squirrel is all browned, I sweat the onions and carrots in same dutch oven, season with salt and pepper. preheat oven to 325*
once the onions got soft I added the minced garlic and stirred it around until the fragrance hit my nose, then added about 1cup of dry white wine (chardonnay this time) to deglaze. once that began to simmer(no need to reduce the wine) I added a can of low sodium chicken stock, brought up to a simmer, added the squirrel parts, laid the bay leaves on, seasoned with about 1 T dried oregano.
dumped the bite sized Crimini mushrooms on top and laid the rosemary on top of that. bake covered with tight fitting lid for 2-3 hours or until squirrel is fork tender. fox squirrels usually take 3 hours plus. greys only two sometimes.
not sure if I'm gonna mash potatoes or make Rosemary rice tonight. see what Nancy wants to have. either way, I'll get that together before squirrel comes out of the oven. when it's done, I'll remove the squirrel parts and vegetables with a slotted spoon, make a roux(and brown it pretty good) to thicken the liquid left behind and open a bottle of Cabernet. dang, its starting to smell good, I'm getting hungry...
