What happens when a classically trained New York chef and fearless omnivore heads out of the city and into the wild to track down the ingredients for her meals? After abandoning Wall Street to embrace her lifelong love of cooking, Georgia Pellegrini comes face to face with her first kill. From honoring that first turkey to realizing that the only way we truly know where our meat comes from is if we hunt it ourselves, Pellegrini embarks on a wild ride into the real world of local, organic, and sustainable food.
Teaming up with veteran hunters, she trav¬?els over field and stream in search of the main course - from quail to venison and wild boar, from elk to javelina and squirrel. Pellegrini's road trip careens from the back of an ATV chasing wild hogs along the banks of the Mississippi to a dove hunt with beer and barbeque, to the birthplace of the Delta Blues.
Along the way, she meets an array of unexpected characters - from the Commish, a venerated lifelong hunter, to the lawyer-by-day, duck-hunting Bayou philosopher at dawn - who offer surprising lessons about food and life. Pellegrini also discovers the dangerous underbelly of hunting when an outing turns illegal - and dangerous. More than a food-laden hunting narrative, Girl Hunter also teaches you how to be a self-sufficient eater. Each chapter offers recipes for finger-licking dishes such as
- Wild turkey and oyster stew
- Stuffed quail
- Pheasant tagine
- Venison sausage
- Fundamental stocks
- Brines
- Sauces and rubs
- Suggestions for interchanging proteins within each recipe
Each dish, like each story, is an adventure from begin¬?ning to end. An inspiring, illuminating, and often funny jour¬?ney into unexplored territories of haute cuisine, Girl Hunter captures the joy of rolling up your sleeves and getting to the heart of where the food you eat comes from.