# Duck and More...



## DeltaBoy (Mar 4, 2004)

Great Game
By RICHARD HINTON 
Bismarck Tribune 
(First of two parts on game recipes.)

What do you get when you put a group of waterfowl hunters and their significant others in a kitchen?

Magical meals and compelling conversations.

Call it a celebration of the hunting season just past, a gathering to share fantastic table fare and talk about everything from waterfowl habitat to what ingredients were in a rub to the culinary personalities on the Food Network to great hunts from the season past to great books just read.

Assembled last Thursday at the Nelsons were the hosts, Deb and Dan Nelson, who is the editor of Delta Waterfowl Foundation's quarterly magazine, Delta Waterfowl; Dr. Tom Hutchens and his wife Katie, who share time in duck blinds as well as the kitchen; Ron Reynolds, a waterfowl biologist with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in Bismarck; John Deveny, senior vice president of Delta Waterfowl, and his fiance, Carmen Zimmerman; and yours truly and my wife, Jean.

We met to sample an eclectic mix of wild-game recipes, mostly made from duck or goose of course.

The Nelsons prepared four dishes for Thursday night's bounty, and that's not counting the smoked salmon appetizer. "Unfortunately, I didn't catch the salmon," Dan Nelson said in way of an unnecessary apology. He also started preparing those meals around 11 that morning.

The Hutchenses brought two dishes, and Reynolds contributed another. Everyone else brought assortments of wine and their appetites.

Neither a buffet nor a sit-down dinner, this was an informal gathering around the breakfast counter and table in the Nelson kitchen.

Thirty-minute meals these weren't; good eats they definitely were: Goose Stew and Puff Pastry, Duck Parmesan, Duck Machaca Mix, Goose - "Bistro" Style, Crabeye Cakes, 8 Hours at 200 Degrees and Smoked Duck with Balsamic and Apricot Sauce.

"But Duck Parmesan probably could be (a 30-minute meal)," amended Katie Hutchens, who brought that dish, along with Goose - "Bistro" Style.

Katie Hutchens and Tom Hutchens, who is past president of the Delta Waterfowl Board of Directors, share cooking duties.

"But I am the head cook and bottle washer," Katie Hutchens said. "Hutch has a couple of recipes that he fixes when he is out at the farm."

Dan Nelson presented each recipe separately, allowing ample time for everyone to savor each dish ahead of the next recipe. Plating each recipe separately meant Deb Nelson put in plenty of time at the kitchen sink, keeping ahead of the parade of dirty plates and silverware.

"Preparing and eating game is an extension of the season," Dan Nelson said. "It's as much fun as calling game in."

"Dan experiments more than I do with sauces," Katie Hutchens noted. "He does a nice job."

Dan Nelson freely admits to having his share of disasters in the kitchen.

"You've got to accept those," he said. "When you find a good one, it's so much fun."

Duck Parmesan was one of those fun recipes for Katie Hutchens.

"It was a complete suprise. The first time I fixed it for a crowd of people, it was a hit," she said. "I couldn't believe how much people liked it, and it's so easy to do."

Ron Reynolds created his Machaca Mix after ordering machaca made from beef in a restaurant during a trip to Mexico.

"I liked it. It was really neat stuff," he said.

Later on the trip, he watched it being made in an open-air Mexican market and took note of the ingredients. He also researched machaca on the Internet, "to put my own touch on it."

Reynolds substituted duck for the beef because "I'm always looking for ways to cook ducks."

The evening's first three recipes appear this week, and the final four taste treats will be featured on next week's Outdoors Page.


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## KEN W (Feb 22, 2002)

So where are the recipes?Can't find them on their web site.


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