THE CONTENTED POACHER
Tales and Recipes from
an Epicure in the Wilderness
Hunting for a fresh chicken in a supermarket is one thing. Bagging
a plump pheasant with nothing more than a cardboard tube and a
poncho is quite another.
Throught history, the poacher has been pigeonholed as scoundrel,
thief, and a criminal. But there exists another breed of poacher:
one who proudly hunts without a gun, using art and guile alone.
By the time she was ten years old, Elantu knew how to catch fish
with an umbrella and fell a moose without a gun. She has lived
all over North America and earned her living as a chef, cooking
instructor, garbage collector, fire-watch resident, and artist.
Besides hunting, fishing, camping, and cooking, she also enjoys
hockey, spelunking, snowshoeing, designing Celtic knotwork, reading,
bluegrass, and opera. She lives in Bighorn Canyon, Colorado, where
she is currently working on several other books.
Wily woodswoman Elantu has spent a lifetime observing animals
and cleverly coaxing them onto her plate. She shares her secrets
in The Contented Poacher, the collected
tales of her successful (and not so successful) close encounters
with the wild side. With wit and wisdom, she'll show you how to
nab a turkey using a fishnet, tap into a woodchuck psychology,
avoid meeting a bear on a mountain path, and catch catfish with
cornmeal cakes, as well as other fine points of the chase.
While chronicling her quest for cheap and savory vittles, Elantu
also shares sixty original recipes for the true do-it-yourself
gourmet, including her Lemon Roadrunner with Almonds,
Porcupine in Pomegranate Sauce, and Rattlesnake Potpie with Prickly
Pear Apples. Other recipes feature venison, buffalo,
prairie dog, armadillo, field mouse, and grasshopper (along with
store-bought substitutions for squeamish city dwellers).
A rare catch for hunting buffs, armchair survivalists, and curious
culinarians, The Contented Poacher will
satisfy your taste for all creatures great and small.
Below are some sample pages from The Contented Poacher.
