Duck Stew

Adverse weather conditions, gear failures and forgotten equipment can quickly make a usual trip into the wilds, outrageously unusual. When these challenges don’t pose a significant hazard to safety, they become a fantastic learning opportunity and a chance for sportsmen to practice a healthy dose of Yankee ingenuity. Possessing a tool kit of skills, learned through a lifetime spent in the outdoors, the sporting brethren often embrace these opportunities.

With a wind driven rain, pouring buckets down upon us, we the members of Duck Power Incorporated, began to seriously question the sanity of our actions. Despite being “prepared”, this year’s weather forecast, for the waterfowl opener, was categorized as torrential. Mercifully saved by Mr. President’s forethought, to bring a tarp large enough to be seen from space, the three of us sat in “relative” comfort. Lacking the ability (or perhaps better said the desire) to keep a fire burning in the bucketing conditions, we pondered how to cook this year’s culinary masterpiece. Though a day of duck hunting had blessed us with one mallard apiece, we needed to harness our combined brainpower to determine a viable solution to the cooking dilemma.

The final solution had a large Dutch oven filled with seared duck breasts, turnip, potatoes, broth, carrots and a menagerie of other spices and root vegetables, perched precariously on the top of a cooking apparatus resembling a blow torch. The aroma of the simmering concoction was intoxicating and my stomach growled a loud warning to anyone foolish enough to even ponder the idea that they would be fed first.

The thick stew was belched forth from the bubbling cauldron, into my bowl. Raising it to my face, a rich steam rose and my nose drank heavily of the odor . . . Ahhhhh! Each member of the incorporation filled their bowls and in turn completed the same nose tasting ritual. Jacked up on avian protein and more vegetables then a normal man eats in a month, we proceeded to enjoy the remainder of the evening telling tall tales, down right lies and enjoying the camaraderie of the sporting brotherhood.

Duck Stew – Enough to feed 3 crazy duck hunters
3 Breasted Drake Mallards (Mergansers maybe substituted if they are first parboiled with a pine board or if you can’t shoot worth a damn, try Spam)
3 Potatoes
½ a Large Turnip
4 Large Carrots
3 Celery Stalks
4 Cloves of Garlic
1 Large Onion
½ Cup of Pabst Blue Ribbon
Beef Broth to cover all ingredients
Pinch of Salt
Dash of Black Pepper

*To be properly enjoyed, it is recommended that Duck Stew be served with a healthy dose of inclement weather and Pabst Blue Ribbon or other fine ale.