A BYOD Duck Dinner

Some people bring a bottle of wine with them to dinner when celebrating a special occasion, Kele’s family brings duck. So last weekend we hauled it up to Sacramento to partake in the annual family Duck Dinner, marking the end of this year’s duck hunting season.  The dinner consists of going to a local Chinese spot where the chef has prepared a meal using YOUR duck in a variety of ways. The first one I went to featured everything from duck lettuce wraps to crispy duck atop salad. This recent meal featured orange-infused duck breast as the main course, accompanied by various Chinese side dishes.

Where might the duck be coming from you may be wondering? From a hunting ranch just north of Sacramento owned by Kele’s family, where he and kin go duck hunting all winter long. In the beginning, I wasn’t sure I was a big fan of Kele being a duck hunter (and having a rifle live at our house). But then I realized if I were to continue to be a modest meat eater, it would be hypocritical not to approve. Talk about knowing where your food comes from!  The guys hunt with a deep respect for the land and for the birds they are hunting, they treat each bird humanely in its death, and only shoot what they can eat so nothing is being over hunted.

Wild duck tastes different depending on where it is hunted. Around the Bay Area, most ducks feed on marshlands so they have a saltier taste, whereas up north near Sacramento – and near the ranch – most ducks feed off rice fields, which leads to plumper, (and in my opinion) tastier ducks. While Kele finds everything from Spoonies to Widgeon to Pintail, most of the ducks he brings home are Mallards and Teal, which are the best tasting and least gamey of the bunch. How they know which ones to shoot is beyond me, I think I missed the trained-hunting-eye in my gene pool.

Cooking wild duck is very different than using what you’ll find at your local market, so beware of using any ole’ duck recipe online as they ALWAYS over-extend cooking times. If you ever find yourself cooking wild duck, prepare it very rarely, keeping it redder than you would normally think. Often we breast out the ducks and pan-sear them for just a few minutes on each side, then I make a port-shallot reduction or another equally delicious sauce to serve over the breasts. Let me know if anyone has any stellar wild duck recipes, I’m always looking for new ones to try!!

*The picture is a view from the blind (where you hide to shoot the sucker) at the ranch.

Tagged as: dinner, duck, game, hunting