Woodcock is one of the most popular objects of sports hunting. Its tender meat is considered a gourmet product. Most often it is served in a fried or baked form. In today's article you will find the simplest recipes for woodcock cooking.
General recommendations
Many chefs consider the meat of this wild bird a universal product. It goes well with almost any sauces and side dishes. It can be prepared using several technologies. Stuffed, stewed and baked woodcock is especially popular among domestic gourmets.
Recipes for this bird involve pre-processing the carcass. First, it is carefully plucked and gutted, and then proceed to the main stage. If you decide to fry a whole bird, then it can be stuffed with lard and onions. In this case, woodcock meat will become more juicy and soft. After that, the head of the game is carefully bent under the wing and bandaged the carcass with a strong thread. It is advisable to fry the bird not in lean but in butter. During heat treatment, it is recommended to add a little beef broth to the pan.
Woodcock royal
The culinary recipe for this dish is very simple. Therefore, any housewife with elementary skills in working with products can easily cope with this task. To prepare this delicious treat you will need:
- 7 carcasses of woodcock.
- 250 milliliters of broth.
- 300 grams of champignons.
- 250 milliliters of sour cream.
- 100 grams of bacon.
- ¼ packs of butter.
- Salt.
Process description
The pinched, gutted and well-washed bird is poured with cold water mixed with a little vinegar and left for three hours. After this time, the carcasses are rinsed, blotted dry with disposable towels and rubbed with salt. Inside each of them put a piece of bacon.
The remaining fat is sent to a heated pan and melt it. Then butter and woodcocks are added there. The vessel is covered with a lid and left on low heat. After about a quarter of an hour, excess fat is carefully drained from the pan and the carcasses are fried until a brown crust appears.
In a separate bowl, greased with melted butter, spread the sliced champignons and lightly fry them. Then the mushrooms are poured with sour cream and broth and left to simmer over minimal heat. Five minutes later, the resulting sauce is sent to a pan with woodcock. Cover the vessel and simmer for a quarter of an hour. Once the meat is ready, you can turn off the fire. Serve this tasty and fragrant dish with boiled rice and homemade pickles.
Woodcock Soup
The recipe for this dish involves the use of a sufficiently large number of vegetables. Therefore, such a soup will be not only tasty and satisfying, but also very useful. They can feed not only adults, but also children. Therefore, it will be a good option for a family dinner. To cook a similar soup you will need:
- 400 grams of woodcock.
- 120 g onions.
- 100 grams of carrots.
- 100 g of parsley root.
- 120 grams of pearl barley.
- A pair of bay leaves.
- 50 grams of ghee.
- 80 milliliters of sour cream.
- A bunch of parsley greens.
- Salt and red ground pepper.
Sequencing
Plucked, gutted and washed carcasses are cut into portions, put in a pan, poured with cold water and brought to a boil. As soon as bubbles appear on the surface of the liquid, the fire is reduced to a minimum and the resulting foam is removed. The pre-soaked barley is carefully loaded into the boiling broth and boiled until tender.
In the meantime, you can tackle the remaining components. Washed and peeled vegetables finely chopped and passaged in ghee. A quarter of an hour before the soup is cooked, they are sent to a pot of boiling broth. There also add bay leaves, salt and spices. Ready soup is poured into plates, sprinkled with chopped herbs and seasoned with sour cream.
Stuffed woodcock
This dish is tender and juicy. It is prepared from simple and easily accessible ingredients, which can be purchased at any supermarket. Before you prepare a woodcock, the recipes of which will surely appear on the pages of your personal cookbook, double-check that you have everything you need on hand. This time you will need:
- A pair of woodcock carcasses.
- 70 grams of fat.
- 4 tablespoons of dry red wine.
- 50 grams of margarine.
- Bay leaf and black pepper.
Like many other woodcock recipes, this option stuffed with this option requires a filling. Therefore, you will have to stock up on additional products, among which should be:
- 100 grams of chicken liver.
- A pair of teaspoons chopped parsley.
- 100 grams of champignons.
- Egg.
- 20 grams of butter.
- ½ teaspoon of lemon juice.
- A pair of tarragon twigs, breadcrumbs and citrus zest.
Cooking algorithm
Washed and dried woodcock carcasses are rubbed with salt and pepper. Thinly sliced lard is placed inside each of them.
Now it's time for the preparation of the filling. To do this, in one bowl combine the boiled chicken liver, egg, mushrooms, butter, lemon zest and juice. There also add a little breadcrumbs. All mix well and stuff the resulting minced bird carcasses.
This dish is cooked on a hot roasting pan, periodically pouring red wine. As soon as a sufficient amount of juice is released from the bird, it is seasoned with pepper and bay leaf. The finished carcass is cut in half and laid out on a flat plate, and the filling is placed around it.
Potted baked bird
Using the technology described below, a very tasty and juicy woodcock in bacon is obtained. The recipe for this dish is good because it does not involve the use of expensive components. All the required products are sold at an affordable price in any modern hypermarket. In this case, you will need:
- 4 carcasses of woodcock.
- Large onion.
- Bacon.
- Salt, spices, vegetable oil and sour cream.
Washed and gutted carcasses are cut into four parts. Each of them is rubbed with salt and spices, and then sent to a hot pan, on the bottom of which a little vegetable oil is already poured. Fry the bird from all sides until it is browned. After that, it is transferred to a separate plate and removed to the side.
In the freed pan fry chopped bacon and half onion rings. Now you can proceed to the final stage. A layer of onion with bacon is laid on the bottom of the previously prepared pots. Fried bird is placed on top. Onion wood pieces again lay onion with bacon. All this is lubricated with sour cream and poured with boiled water. Woodcock is baked in the oven. The recipe for this dish involves sixty-minute heat treatment at standard temperature. After the above time, the bird pots are removed from the oven and served. At will, they are decorated with sprigs of fresh herbs.
Culinary reviews
According to many experienced housewives, a woodcock, the recipes for which are presented in today's article, has very tasty and healthy meat. With proper heat treatment, it turns out to be incredibly juicy, soft and delicate. But when cooking dishes from this game, you need to be very careful not to overdry the product. Otherwise, there is always a risk of getting a hard, practically non-chewing piece.