Page 59 - Flathead Beacon // 10.28.15

MOUNTAIN EXPOSURE
OUTDOORS IN BRIEF
FWP TO CLEAR DEBRIS, OLD BUILDINGS FROM NORTH SHORE SITE
Wildlife managers are moving forward with the cleanup and nat- ural restoration of a 70-acre sec- tion of property along the north shore of Flathead Lake.
Jim Williams, supervisor for Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks Region One, issued a final deci- sion notice Oct. 20 to clean up the Osprey View Fisheries Conserva- tion Area, an old homestead site that is open to the public but lit- tered with old debris.
The agency, which acquired the land in 2009 for public access and to preserve waterfowl habitat, will restore the floodplain to natural conditions and clean up the his- toric remnants of a homestead, including leftover debris, lumber, a dilapidated building and one col- lapsed building. The site is located near Holt Drive and is adjacent to the private property leading to Dockstader Island on one side and protected waterfowl and wildlife
management areas on the other. FWP received 12 comments during a public scoping session last month. Seven were in favor of total cleanup of the area and five were opposed to a portion of the proposed project. Those who expressed concerned requested that FWP retain the standing structure for aesthetic reasons. One of the five wanted FWP to retain the collapsed building in
addition to the standing one. FWP officials say they are removing the structures for safety
reasons.
The buildings are believed to
be former bunkhouses for an his- toric farm that operated along the agricultural lakeshore in the 1930s. A barn and homestead were also once on the property but no longer exist.
FWP is soliciting anyone inter- ested in bidding on the cleanup project.
OUT OF BOUNDS ROB BREEDING BIRD HUNTING
TIN AMERICA
imagination.
What isn’t your imagination is that the
bone-in breast tastes better than the fil- let which gets back to the insulation fac- tor. Nothing ruins game meat faster than overcooking, but that’s harder to do when the bones are in place.
Skin serves the same function on the other side of the breast, shielding the meat from too much heat. Still, I usually skin, rather than pluck, most gamebirds.
Chicken skin cooked crisp is a tasty, albeit unhealthy treat. But the gamebird skin I’ve eaten is usually either tasteless, or slightly off putting. Gamebirds don’t have the layer of fat just under the skin that domestically raised birds produce, so the skin doesn’t brown up with chick- en’s tasty crackle. And since plucking can more than double the time it takes to dress a bird, I usually don’t bother.
You still need to replace the insulative function of the skin, however. I do that with prosciutto. If you pat dry the meat with paper towels the thin ham will cling nicely to the bird meat. This works espe- cially well with breasts, but you can also wrap it around the legs.
As an added bonus, the prosciutto crisps up nicely and provides a salty accent to the meat. Even the most per- fectly browned chicken skin can’t hold a candle to prosciutto crisps.
There’s not much meat on that lone pheasant limb in my fridge. I’m thinking that once diced, the leg meat will make a nice base for a pheasant-salad sand- wich. I’ll toss in the prosciutto as well, then add a bit of diced celery and sweet onion. Pecans and sliced grapes are the final touch. Mix it with a dollop or two of mayonnaise and you’re in business.
Spread it on wheat bread with a hand- ful of arugula and eat. Even if you’ve managed to overcook the bird, the food lube makes everything moist and tasty. That’s the miracle of mayonnaise.
HERE’S A PHEASANT LEG IN MY fridge, a leftover from last week’s gamebird feast. When I ate one of
the breasts I shared a bite or two with the Elk Hunter (she loves pheasant but wasn’t hungry). It was moist and deli- cious, but as we neared the bone we noticed some of the meat was still a bit reddish and undercooked.
That was enough to put off the Elk Hunter, but I was OK with it. Under- cooked poultry, especially white meat, is generally a culinary no-no, though chicken sashimi is common enough in Japan that I once watched as Anthony Bourdain ate some on one of his travel/ foodie shows.
White meat needs to be cooked just through for me to enjoy. Dark meat birds such as duck and grouse are best medium rare, but the chicken sashimi Bourdain was wolfing down gave me the heebie-jeebies.
Still, I was fine with the undercooked pheasant breast since that explained why the rest of the meat remained juicy and tender. The undercooked meat along the bone demonstrates the main advantage of not filleting out the breasts of game- birds. While a bone-in breast is harder to cook as it doesn’t lay flat in the pan, that bone serves as an insulator to protect the flesh from overcooking. Filleting the meat off the bone leaves you less margin of error between cooked just right, and burnt.
Once I got through the properly cooked stuff to the still red meat I just stopped eating. I picked of a few undercooked chunks for the dog, but the breast meat was mostly gone at that point anyway.
What the bone doesn’t do, despite the common myth, is add flavor. That pheas- ant got a quick sear in my cast iron skil- let, followed by a short roast in a medium oven. You may imagine perceptible flavor will somehow migrate from bone to flesh in 15 minutes or so, but that’s just your
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OCTOBER 28, 2015 // FLATHEADBEACON.COM
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Keep Warm
this Winter!
with a new stove from Big John’s!