Oct 8, 2020
Alyssa LeBlanc is Canada-famous for her appearance in season six of MasterChef Canada. In the hunting and fishing world, she's known for her incredible wild food recipes and YouTube videos. Alyssa tells Artemis about her family's culture of hunting, why she started spending more time in the kitchen, and how making good food starts with some basic skills anyone can master.
2:00 GSP = bird-dog-speak for German Short-haired Pointer
3:00 Calling all Artemis hunters in New Mexico! Stay tuned for more info on an awesome quail hunt event coming up in February
5:30 Freezer diary of a deep-sea fisherwoman: Haddock, cod, mackerel, tuna, swordfish, etc... but low on terrestrial game coming into hunting season
6:30 A word on freezer storage - vacuum-sealing is great for fish (or a well-pressed Ziploc), the Saran/paper method is better for game
7:30 Developing wild game recipes for Hunt to Eat... dream gig, or what? Find Alyssa's work on the Hunt to Eat YouTube page
10:00 When a major life event changes the trajectory of your life... in this case, a car accident
12:00 Conventional food pushes some of us to wild food
14:30 Baking: so many rules! Cooking: a bonafide blank canvas
16:00 Recovering from a traumatic brain injury
20:00 Are you a recipe loyalist? Or a recipe renegade?
23:00 If you're truly shooting in the dark cooking with your game, start simple. Take a good recipe... sub your beef from venison. Grow from there.
25:00 Snipe: A small game bird with a big-game taste
28:20 Donair - A Nova Scotia specialty you need to add to your repertoire
30:00 Alyssa was on MasterChef Canada (season 6) - check it out!
32:00 Marcia's confession: Setting up Great British Bake-Off challenges in her own kitchen
33:00 Keeping a cooking journal - it helps when you're winging it to write down what works, especially if part of your job is writing recipes!
34:00 Game cookbooks: Hank Shaw of Hunter, Angler, Gardner, Cook and Steve Rinella's books
35:00 It helps to know the basics of cooking: Tough cut of meat? Low and slow. Tender cut? Way more options. This also goes back to good butchering.
40:00 Sharing the joy of harvest with those who taught you to hunt... it's priceless
43:00 New to bird dogs? Try groups like National Hunting Dog Association to keep you connected to birds in the off season
45:00 On being your own bird dog... those water retrievals can get cold!