_roast Coot Recipes

ROASTED CARROTS

Steps:

• Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.
• If the carrots are thick, cut them in half lengthwise; if not, leave whole. Slice the carrots diagonally in 1 1/2-inch-thick slices. (The carrots will shrink while cooking so make the slices big.) Toss them in a bowl with the olive oil, salt, and pepper. Transfer to a sheet pan in 1 layer and roast in the oven for 20 minutes, until browned and tender.
• Toss the carrots with minced dill or parsley, season to taste, and serve.

_ROAST COOT

Steps:

• Dress out as many coots as you can find folks (fools) who will accept an invitation for a coot dinner. i.e. allow one coot per fool or one fool per coot! Birds should be dressed out within one month of being shot. Soak birds for 2 - 3 days in salt water. (Use 2 - 3 lbs. salt per gallon of water)Rinse birds and pat dry. Place each bird on a cedar shingle which you've seasoned to taste.Place coots and shingles in a preheated oven, 450 - 500°F for eight hours. (Smoke usually clears out in 3 - 4 hrs.)Allow to cool about thirty minutes. Scrape the coots off of the shingles into a steel drum for transport to a "Hazardous Materials Disposal Center."Serve shingles garnished with crab apples!A Back Country Guide to Outdoor Cooking Spiced with Tall Tales - Fowl & Fish

_HOW TO COOK A COOT

Steps:

• If you're not a duck hunter or married to a duck hunter, just skip this recipe. Personally, I've never tried to cook a coot, primarily because I've never even shot at an "Ivory Billed Mallard". Remember, this is the guy who will eat every thing except grits and green lima beans. In this modern age, it seems to me, too many people blame events in their childhood for the mistakes or failures they make as adults. Some rightly so, but I can't help but feel a lot of it is over done!So where is all this leading, you ask yourself? Yup! you guessed it, my childhood. Since my dad first took me duck hunting at age three, the list of things I've done in life longer than I've duck hunted is fairly short. Memories of those first duck hunts are still vivid. Back in that distant past, I learned that the preferred duck of those who wait at home while others duck hunt, to be mallards. Those of the green headed variety! My dad, being a pretty fair hand with a shotgun, seldom got skunked in those days. He'd been there before, but it was a new experience for me, just four years old. About the only thing flying in the marsh that day were coots, which Dad had several different adjectives to describe. I didn't understand why dad didn't shoot them as they patterned by. At that time I obviously thought-ducks are ducks! Wrong! How long I pestered Dad to shoot them, I can't remember. What I do remember is him saying, "Mother didn't like any kind of ducks except those with green heads" and it wouldn't be very smart to take something home she didn't like. Though I was just four years old, that part I understood! I'm sure Dad first passed this recipe on that day. Over the years, Dad repeated this recipe so many times I've memorized it without ever having cooked it.A Back Country Guide to Outdoor Cooking Spiced with Tall Tales - Fowl & Fish