Several months ago this newspaper published a review on what is probably the best cookbook on fish and game that I’ve ever seen. The book, The “Encyclopedia of Cajun And Creole Cuisine” was written by a Louisiana native, Chef John D. Folse and is (was) the most elaborately illustrated and researched cookbook that I’ve ever seen. It’s filled with some of the most mouth-watering recipes that connoisseurs of wild game cookery will ever see.

That book has just been outdone by Chef Folse’s follow-up on “The Encyclopedia” by an even larger and more elaborately illustrated cookbook called, “After The Hunt.” After having read my personal copy of “After the Hunt” I’m ordering several more copies as Christmas gifts for some of my friends who appreciate eating the fish and wildlife we harvest from our woods and waters.

It would be best to describe both of these cookbooks as being “coffee table” books. I keep them both on a table in our living room and when guest spy them they invariably begin to look through them. Cookbook aficionados are well aware that without very excellent graphics to go with the actual recipes, cookbooks are somewhat drab. The illustrations in these books alone are enough to set one’s mouth watering. Their photography and lavish illustrations are a tribute to After The Hunt’s Graphic Designer Josh Falcon and the rest of the Chef John Folse & Company’s staff.

There aren’t many duck hunters around that don’t know what a coot is. They’re those very dark blue-black birds that swim around in the water like a duck but look like a black chicken with a chicken’s white bill. Local names for this type of waterfowl are Blue Peter, Mud Hen and one of those “**%##*” coots.

While discussing the days hunt waterfowler’s conversations will invariably turn to having seen a lot of “coots” on the water but “we didn’t bother to shoot any.” Somebody always knows of yet another someone else who kills them and eats them because their mom (or somebody) has a recipe for them. The somebody is usually a local “coastie” who is rumored to welcome having a mess of coots left on his front porch. Maybe us Tar Heels have been missing something because I have yet to meet anyone who actually wants a mess of coots left on their doorstep. Obviously, other outdoorsmen consider the American coot to be a delicacy.

Apparently, there are some of the Cajuns down in Louisiana who does enjoy eating American coots. The “Coon-Asses” (A friendly nickname for the native Louisiana outdoorsmen.) from down on the bayous, in their rich old Cajun accents, call these waterfowl “poule d’eau” (pronounced “Poo-lay Doo” which literally means chicken of the water.)

THE OLD WOMAN DOWN

THE BAYOU’S POULE D’EAU

Prep Time: 4 Hours

Yields: 4 Servings

Comment:

This recipe was given to Chef Folse by Don Dubuc of Outdoors with Don Dubuc. The story behind it is almost as good as the recipe itself.

When I was a young hunter, I used to work with an elderly man of Italian-Cajun descent who loved to eat poule d’eau, but he wasn’t a hunter. Back in the early 1970s, poule d’eau were pretty easy to come by, but because I didn’t like the taste, I passed up shooting them. He asked me to shoot them for him and he would take them to “an old woman down the bayou” he knew who could make them taste delicious. He made me an offer that if I brought him some poule d’eau, he would take them to her to cook and then bring them back to share with me. He was right! They were juicy and delicious as any duck I had ever eaten. This arrangement went on for several seasons until I finally asked him to get her recipe or at least introduce her to me. He insisted that she would never give up her recipe and wanted to maintain her anonymity. Finally, he confessed that there was no “old woman” and that he had been cooking the ducks all along!

Ingredients:

4 skinless coots, gizzards reserved

1 quart milk

salt and cracked black pepper to taste

granulated garlic to taste

Creole seasoning to taste

¼ cup butter

¼ cup vegetable oil

1 cup chopped onions

1 cup chopped celery

½ cup chopped green bell peppers

¼ cup minced garlic

1 quart water or chicken stock (see recipe)

2 tbsps kitchen bouquet

Method:

Trim gizzards and cut in half. Place coot and gizzards in a large bowl and add milk. Cover and refrigerate overnight. Preheat oven to 350°F. Drain and discard the milk. Rinse birds and gizzards then pat dry with paper towels. Season to taste using salt, pepper, granulated garlic and Creole seasoning. In a large Dutch oven, melt butter in oil over medium heat. Add onions, celery, bell peppers and minced garlic and sauté until wilted. Add coot and brown well on all sides. Add enough stock to cover coot and bring to a simmer. Stir in kitchen bouquet. Roast in oven for approximately 1½ hours or until tender, adding more water or stock if necessary. Remove from oven and adjust seasonings to taste with salt, pepper and granulated garlic. Serve hot over steamed white rice.

Recipe submitted by Don Dubuc,

For years after the Pamlico Point Waterfowl Impoundments were opened to the public for hunting by the N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission, we used to go there to hunt. The impoundments represent some of the best waterfowling on the entire Atlantic Seaboard. After we’d limit-out or just plain give up because the birds were not flying, we’d shoot a few coots for “somebody local who wanted a few left on their porch.” The limit’s 15 coots per day in addition to your regular duck limit but we’d just get a few coots for friends. There were huge flocks of coots that hung around the old pumping station and it was easy shooting.

After our dogs retrieved a few we’d open up the birds up and take their gizzards out. Attaching the tough gizzards to the weight on the strings of our decoys we’d commence to catch a few blue crabs in the deeper water along the canal. The crabs were some of the biggest jimmies you could ever see and it didn’t take long to put a few dozen nice crabs in with our daily bag of ducks.

If we’d remembered to put our oyster tongs in with the boat loaded with waterfowl hunting gear, we could stop off in some of the oyster rocks we new of and collect enough oysters to supplement our duck and steamed crab dinners.

The one time I breasted-out some of the coots and cooked them I wasn’t impressed with them. I’d simply broiled them over charcoal with no special ingredients added. I was not impressed. I intend to try the recipe that’s in “After The Hunt” when I again bag a few coots. Knowing Chef John Folse and his other recipes that I’ve tried, they’ll be good.

Note: Just at press time I received a call from Josh Falcon, the Art Director for the John Folse Co. saying that yet a third book in the trilogy of books on fish and wildlife cookery will be on the shelves of the bookstores (Barnes and Noble) as of the First of December. This book should be even more elaborate than the first two and will be a “Must Have” for the outdoorsman’s library. This book will specialize in the cookery of fish and shellfish and the title will be “Hooks, Lies and Alibis.” The suggested retail price of Hooks, Lies and Alibis will be $59.95.

Information about this book and the other books from Chef Folse can be obtained by contacting the Chef John Folse & Company, Publishing Division, 2517 South Philippe Avenue, Gonzales, LA 70737, Phone (225) 644-6000. Or at www.jfolse.com