The Bunnies of Balyang

https://youtu.be/s0D2TkQNupc?si=zfyutSKXlwWl__4X
Amazing as usual guys 👍 TGS Outdoors

The German Duck Hunt with Ed Solomons Most countries have their own bird-hunting traditions, and Germany is no different. I joined a team of Hunters from Kreighoff on a Driven Duck Day in a huge ...

A few weeks ago I spent a day taking and out rabbiting. Ro made the most delicious braised rabbit dish with white wine and Dijon mustard over the campfire using the hindquarters of 4 of the rabbits we shot. I had a few left over rabbit backstraps in the freezer which became tonight’s simple Friday night dinner. Pan roasted bunny backstrap on purée parsnip with a red wine, honey and thyme jus.

Our new 50% IPSC Torso target Is finally ready and up on the website. Designed to be mounted on standard steel star pickets without any tools at all.

It can also be mounted as a regular gong target with chains or straps.

To reduce costs we’ve added a raw steel un-painted option to save you $20. Let us know what you think?

Had a great day out rabbiting with and on the weekend up in Meredith. Vintage rifles, incredible rabbit stew cooked on the campfire, and Negronis to finish off were all part of the fun.

Finally finished bluing the bolt to my 1915 Ma**er. I began by slowly rust bluing it which consisted of applying bluing solution, letting it rust, then boiling the metal in water, then scrubbing with super fine steel wool. I did 12 applications of this and it sort of worked, but looked a bit transparent, patchy and brown rather than black. gave me a bit of advice which worked a treat. If you look closely, you’ll notice that the extractor is slightly brownish (from the original rust blue) and looks slightly different to the blue/black of the rest of the bolt.

I had a chance to make some jerky with one of my deer legs on the weekend. Pretty happy with the result and it’s really very easy. Just takes a little time to dry out properly. Well worth the effort though.

Vietnamese style (Kho Bo Curry) Venison Jerky

1kg of venison leg
1 stalk of lemongrass
5 garlic cloves
2 shallots
1 teaspoon of annatto powder
2 teaspoons of turmeric powder
1 tablespoon of Chinese 5 spice
1 tablespoon of dried chilli flakes
2 tablespoons of brown sugar
2 tablespoons of oyster sauce
2 tablespoons of fish sauce
1 tablespoon of salt

Finely slice lemon grass and then mince thoroughly in a food processor or blender. Add all the other ingredients and mince to a fine pulp.

Slice the venison leg across the grain in around 4mm thick slices and add to the marinade. Mix the meat well but gently with the marinade and refrigerate overnight. Lay out on oven racks and dry in the oven at 75 degrees for about 6 to 8 hours. Leave the oven door very slightly open to allow steam and moisture to escape. Check to see if the jerky has properly dried out and cool before putting in bags or jars. Enjoy

Lots of venison on the table this week!

About 10 years ago I was at ‘s great little restaurant, Bar Lourinha in Melbourne and ordered his incredible lambs tongue dish. Inspired by that dish, I’ve done something similar with the fallow deer tongue that gave me a couple of weeks ago from his deer at deer camp. Here’s the recipe if you’re game!

Grilled Fallow Deer Tongue with Garlic Aioli, Kipfler potatoes, Anchovies and a Sherry Vinegar Herb Salad.

The tongue has to be boiled gently in salted water for 2-3 hours until it’s tender and the skin is easy to peel off. Once it’s peeled, wrap the tongue in cling film and refrigerate until required. The dish is made up from a smear of garlic aioli at the base and some cold sliced, boiled kipfler (or other waxy potatoes) on top of the aioli.

To grill the tongue, slice into 6mm slices and season well with salt. Grill on a very hot grill pan or over charcoal for a couple of minutes each side.

Lay the grilled tongue slices on top of the potato, top with 3 thinly sliced good quality anchovy fillets. To finish the dish, make up a little herb salad from dill, coriander, mint and red onion, dressed with a little lemon, sherry vinegar, salt, pepper and olive oil. To finish, sprinkle with some deep fried salted capers.

Enjoy with a glass of chilled Spanish fino sherry.

What did I make for lunch up at this week?

Rosemary, Garlic, Anchovy and Lemon Grilled wild shot Quail. Paired with a fresh herbed cabbage salad and some roast rosemary potatoes.

20 Stubble Quail cleaned and plucked
3 cloves of garlic
Juice of half a lemon
3 sprigs of rosemary
3 good quality Anchovy fillets (not the grey hairy fish that you find on cheap pizza)
1/3 cup of olive oil
Salt and freshly ground black pepper.

Smash the garlic cloves with the flat of a heavy kitchen knife, chop and bruise the rosemary and add to a bowl. Smear anchovies into the mixture and combine with olive oil, lemon juice, salt and pepper.

To prepare the birds-
Cut down each side of the quail with heavy scissors or poultry shears and remove the spine. With the spine removed, carefully remove the ribs and breast bone taking care not to cut through the skin. Once complete, the quail should lay out flat.

Add the spatchcocked quail to the marinade and toss through. Leave for about an hour before cooking.

Grill on a barbecue or charcoal grill for a couple of minutes per side until the skin is seared and the meat just cooked. Set aside for a couple of minutes to rest. Serve with a fresh salad or just as they are. Enjoy

May 2024 Deer
Camp. Got to see a stunningly beautiful part of the state and hunt fallow deer on public land with a 109 year old Ma**er. Great company shared, good times had and great memories created.

Bush camp breakfast- Huevos Rancheros with Mountain Duck and pork belly sausages. Perfect fuel for a long day out in the field.

Cooking a few Grey Teal for the crew at today

I got a chance to test this little guy out yesterday. Like all our other fox targets, this one is also thermal capable as well as being a regular steel target. It will be up on the website soon.

Perfect camping spot on the river with our Field Rack

Stanley Tucci cooks wild boar that he hunts in Umbria in the heart of Italy on his latest episode of Stanley Tucci:Searching For Italy on SBS . Here game meat is revered and used in a multitude of different dishes. Hunters and hunting is respected as a traditional means of gathering some of the best meat available.

Umbria Stanley Tucci visits Umbria, nicknamed `The Green Heart of Italy', which has the highest consumption of pork per capita. From wild boar hunts to black truffle farms, Stanley explores all Umbria has to offer.

This is going to be a great night. Come and see us and many other great vendors on Friday night at the Geelong Racecourse

After many requests, I’ve finally begun putting some of my little videos on YouTube. Planning to make some longer videos in the coming months. I’ll keep you posted. Cheers, Anthony

Do you really know your point of impact at various distances? There’s only one way to really know!

Did a bit of a freezer clean out yesterday and realized that I had a lot of rabbit meat from a productive summer. Now it’s beginning to cool off a bit, sausage rolls are back on the menu! Here’s my recipe for rabbit and rosemary sausage rolls. It’s an adaptation from a recipe that I learned while working as a chef at Babka in Melbourne in the early 2000s.

Rabbit, Apple & Rosemary Sausage Rolls

For the Filling
500g Pork mince or diced pork. Preferably shoulder or leg
500g B***d Rabbit meat
1 medium sized Brown Onion
2 Tablespoons of Dijon Mustard
1 Tablespoon of finely cut fresh rosemary
2 cups of day old bread with the crusts removed
½ cup of milk to soak the bread
1 grated green apple
1 teaspoon of sea salt
½ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
Peel the onion and pulse in the food processor until it becomes small 3-5mm chunks.
Soak the bread after the crusts have been removed in the milk for a minute or two and then squeeze the bulk of the moisture out of the bread.
Use the food processor (or mincer) to mince the rabbit and pork meat.
Combine all the filling ingredients together by hand. Cook a little portion in a pan to check that you have enough rosemary, salt, mustard etc.

The Pastry
In a small bowl whisk an egg with a splash of milk to make an egg-wash pastry glaze.
Use either frozen puff pastry or ask your local bakery if they will sell you a portion of theirs. Cut sheets of frozen puff pastry in half and lay some sausage roll mix on the outside edge.
Roll the pastry whilst keeping pressure on the filling to keep the roll tight. Brush the overlapping join with the egg-wash. Cut the long rolls into desired lengths.

Place on baking paper on an oven proof tray. Use kitchen scissors to nip birds-mouths into the top of the sausage rolls and then glaze with egg-wash.
Bake in a moderate oven (180 degrees C) for 30 minutes or until pastry is sufficiently golden.

Enjoy

Protecting native marsupials and birds requires removing feral predators such as foxes and feral cats. Environmentalism doesn’t always come from those who make the most noise about it.

Want to know more about where you can legally hunt in Victoria? Then download DEECA’s free More to Explore app for maps: https://bit.ly/30YKXhn

The app shows public land available for hunters, and the species that can be hunted in specific areas.

When using the maps, apply the filter for the specific species you wish to hunt so you don’t find yourself hunting in an area that is prohibited.

The app also allows you to download maps to use offline when you are out of mobile range.

May 10, 1991

I remember painting this at high school the week after coming home from my first duck season away at Lake Buloke. As a 16 year old, I had never seen or experienced anything quite like it. I didn’t get much school work done that week. All I could do was think of being waist deep in a swamp, watching the sky above me.

How canned rabbit, once a dinnertime delicacy, was consigned to the burrows of history Long since vanished from dinner plates, Australia's canned rabbit was once popular fare as far away as London.