I would not say that we are particularly adventurous eaters but we are not squeamish either. Even so, dinner today was a first for us. We had gnocchi topped with squirrel and bacon sauce.
Ian has begun introducing Liam and Seamus to hunting. The boys are very eager to bond with their daddy over his love of this sport even though they will be too young to hunt themselves for several more years. They are much too fidgety to sit still and silent for turkey, goose or deer but rabbit and squirrel hunting are done while walking through the forest so these are perfect hunts for the boys to accompany Ian.
While Ian takes care of bringing home the meat, it is often my job to cook it up. Squirrel meat is a relatively uncommon protein source in Canada, though not in other parts of the world. There are tons of recipes online, with preparations similar to how one might cook rabbit, frog legs, or chicken. We selected a Portugese inspired sauce made with lots of paprika and kale leaves that we snapped off the frozen plants still standing in our garden. It was fantastic.
Like hasenpfeffer (german rabbit stew), squirrel dishes contain lots of very small bones. We proposed to the boys to imagine that they were paleonologists digging for "dinosaur" bones in the "sand". It worked like a charm. They cleaned their plates and declared the squirrel and bacon sauce to be delicious.
I hope one day my boys travel the world and try all sorts of amazing and unconventional foods. They are off to a promising start. Tree rabbit just tastes like chicken, right?
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