Hunters are always asked if they eat the animals that they hunt.  Bear is one of the most asked about animals. After I accomplished my grand slam, I offered to host a wild game dinner for people to try some of the meat that I had hunted.  My friend, Candace agreed to be my chef.  The result was some of the best wild game dishes I have ever eaten.

Candace and I picked out the cuts that I had and built our menu around that.  It was an incredibly hot day here in Maine, so that altered a few of our plans.

Here was our menu:

Apps – Cheese, crackers, pickled fiddleheads, sauteed moose heart with onions, BBQ moose heart flatbread topped with mushrooms, garlic scrapes and chive blossoms, smoked Alaskan salmon and spicy black bear queso dip.

Second Course: Alaksan Halibut chowder and caesar salad with homemade croutons

Main Course: Ginger-garlic moose steak stir fry over jasmine rice with bread and chive-blossom butter

Dessert: Strawberry-rhubard crumble with vanilla ice cream

  I watched Candace intently, trying to pick up tips and tricks for each dish.  She made homemade crutons.  She had dish after dish coming out of the over looking better than the last one. Each dish was unique and delicous – and eaten very quickly by all 8 of us.  Everyone raved about the bear dip and inhaled the moose heart pizza.

We enjoyed an incredible wild game dinner with lots of laughs and stories!  The people who sat around my table are not hunters but they could understand and appreciate why we do hunt and how delicious it can be.  Which was my goal — more people understanding and supporting hunters.   Breaking bread creates an important bond between hunters and nonhunters and a better understanding of how important conservation is to the health of the animals we hunt.

I am anxious for the next dinner I can host!