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Saturday, November 27, 2010

RE IS SQUIRREL THE PERFECT AUSTERITY DISH? EDITORIAL BBC ENTRE CHIEN ET LOUP the menu

BETTER THAN, SAY, SOMETHING ENTRE CHIEN ET LOUP!

Most Americans should read this little gem. Of course, the British are sending up their country brethren in this article, but that is nothing new, and well deserved I might add.

Of course, I have a special fondness for the little devils (both squirrels, and British).

My grandfather used to take me hunting for them in the woods of Mississippi.

Contrary to Mr. Smith, my grandfather also loved squirrel brain, too.

(Smith: "It's a quite pleasant tasting dish and I would not be afraid to offer it to the Queen," he says, before quipping, "Y'all are overrun with squirrels in England. You need to eat some of them!")

So here is a passing comment on cooking, since I got a stray request recently for some cooking commentary from an admiring reader:

we didn't stew these little gems, where I came from; we rolled them in flour and meal and some kind of binder my grandmother used, and Southern Fried them to perfection. They tasted rather like Colonel Sanders' chicken, heavily salted and peppered and crusty.

One could also grill these little rascals, or even saute them. Either would work very well.

If grilled, or on a kebab, I recommend a little smoked bacon be placed in proximity as well.

Some of the cuts of squirrel we had were suspiciously similar to certain dishes of ostensible chicken I have since eaten, especially in some Indian restaurants in London.

It seems that eating squirrel is not necessarily limited to rural America, at least among some city dwellers, even in the heart of some European capitols.

My grandfather loved fried squirrel brain! Just like Mr. Smith's mother.

He actually used to use a nutcracker, my memory is rather vague on this detail, to crack open the fried skull; he had also remarked about nuttiness, that it tasted like walnuts.

I recommend a garlic mash, green beans, turnip greens with fat back, and squirrel drippings, flour, onion, garlic, provencal herbs, and fino sherry gravy, sourdough soft dinner rolls,

and a 'dry riesling' to accompany this little delicacy!

Pecan pie a la mode, sanka (just kidding), and of course, cognac and cigars to follow.

One might also substitute rabbit, but i have never tried it like this.

One might try possum too, but again, I have not had the pleasure.

Better hurry, WWIII perhaps about to begin.

SEE ALSO PRIOR POSTS

RE FRANCO PRUSSIAN WAR

AND PARIS Paris BOULANGERIES
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