Muchin’ Moose

This season a good hunting buddy shared with me his wonderful cow moose meat. I was very excited to try this rare treat. In Washington State, a moose tag is a once in a lifetime opportunity, unless you have special drawing status for time serves as a hunter education instructor (which this man did). This large land mammal is rare in our state, so the ability to hunt said ungulate is heavily restricted. Those of you living in Alaska are chuckling I’m sure. Maine residents would have a good laugh too, but here in Washington, the moose is in decline after much of its habitat was deforested and settled by ranchers almost 100 years ago.

For this rare treat, I prepared the meat by marinating it in a citrus sauce with a little salt and garlic. Then I seared the stake before pan frying it up on a bed of my home grown winter greens. The meal was wonderful, and even Indo received a little taste of the special wild game. I still have some sausage to enjoy and I’ll be saving it for later this winter. In the mean time, there’s still a lot of pork and venison at Leafhopper Farm.

Speaking of which, the blacktail I hunted this fall is tasty! I just enjoyed some ground venison with kale, and two wild mushrooms gathered on the land after the snow last week.  Shaggy Mane (Copinus comatus) was thriving against a large cotton wood so I snagged two beautiful caps of that. Then, looking around under a cedar, I found the wonderful toothed jelly fungus (Pseudohydnum gelatinosum) which is bland, but marinates well and took on the flavor of the meat beautifully. Even with the freezing temperatures as they are, mushrooms are still out and about if you keep a sharp eye. Yummy treats in mid-December!