This recipe will get you gobbling in a hurry
April is a special time in the Carolinas. Spring is busting out all over, and there are numerous opportunities for freshwater and saltwater fishing, plus, it’s turkey season. The last few months have been rough, but every sportsman should be able to find several things to help relieve his outdoor cravings this month.
Fishermen have their choice of looking for fish from the budding greens of the Appalachian highlands to the deep azure blue of the Gulf Stream. Whether your fishing preference is a 3-weight buggy whip, an 80-pound class trolling outfit or just about anything in-between, the fish are biting. It’s a great time to be fishing and enjoying the outdoors.
Rise early, and you can watch the sunrise creep between the branches at the top of a rise overlooking a pristine bubbling stream while you roll a cast to a pool protected by a chunk of granite polished by years of clean mountain water. The other end of this spectrum has the sunrise bursting over the eastern horizon and shining through the outrigger lines waiting to be deployed into the cockpit.
The camo crowd has excellent opportunities to see both the sunrise and sunset. In the late afternoon, they are tromping through the woods, blowing owl calls to get wary turkeys to give away the locations of their roosts. Once the turkeys are located, they slip out of the woods as quietly as possible, taking care to make a plan for sneaking back in before daylight to be in position to intercept Mr. Tom when he takes his morning stroll.
Early April mornings might be cool, but most days blossom into beautiful days that make you appreciate the outdoors and be excited to be in it. Later in the month, the mornings just have a cool edge that helps bring on the excitement anticipated later in the day. Whether your choice is fishing or hunting, April is a great time to experience the wonders of the outdoors as they wake up from their winter slumber. There are also lots of opportunities to invite fish and turkeys home to be the guest of honor for dinner.
South Carolina already allows it, but this will be the first time that North Carolina turkey hunters can be in the woods on Sundays with weapons other than bows and arrows. Hopefully, this will help a few of them enjoy the beauty and bounty of the season, while connecting with Mr. Tom. A Sunday morning gobbler would make an excellent Sunday dinner.
This recipe is special and just the thing to celebrate taking your first turkey this year or a trophy gobbler. It’s a guest recipe from a sportsman whose name regular readers will recognize, and it is excellent. I’m pretty sure if you try it, you’ll prepare it again.
Bacon wrapped stuffed turkey breast
We’ve all got our go-to guys, and Robert Cardwell of Rockingham County, N.C., is my go-to guy for wild turkey recipes. He isn’t a guide but probably should be. He enjoys watching and fooling turkeys so much he volunteers to help lure them in for family and friends. That’s nice enough of him, but then he shows them several delicious ways to prepare it.
Cardwell doesn’t mind experimenting, either, and many of those experiments are pretty dang tasty. Perhaps you remember his Raspberry Pecan Turkey Breast recipe from last May? Well, this recipe is that good, and some folks might even like it a little better. If you somehow missed that one, you should look through your old magazines and find it. I usually run one turkey recipe each spring, but it was so good I doubled up last year, and it ran in May 2015 after my own turkey recipe in April.
Cardwell knows tastes are different and won’t be upset if you adjust his recipe a little for personal preferences. If you would like more bacon or garlic, then add it. He knows everyone doesn’t care for jalapeno peppers, but he does and knows I do, so he offered a suggestion on including them with this recipe. I like it and recommend trying it — but that’s personal tastes and the recipe is done without them.
I bagged a big, old, bragging-size, late-season gobbler last year thanks to Karl Helmkamp of Albemarle Outfitters (www.fistfulfishing.com). Jakes may act pure stupid at times, while 3- and 4-year-old turkeys get smarter almost every day, but I believe it’s something special when you outwit a cagey, old boss gobbler, and you should honor the conquest by celebrating it with a special way to prepare him. I enjoyed his raspberry-pecan recipe so much I asked Robert for a good way to prepare this particular bird, and this is what he sent.
I thought it was really good and asked to share it. He agreed, and here it is, with my compliments. I believe you’ll find it very tasty and pretty simple to prepare.
INGREDIENTS:
1 turkey breast
1 pack of bacon
1 cup of pepper jack cheese
1 pack of fresh spinach
1 pack of fresh mushrooms
1 medium sweet onion
1/2 cup walnuts (or pecans)
Fresh garlic to personal taste
Rosemary
Oregano
Fresh ground salt
Fresh ground pepper
Sliced jalapenos (optional)
PREPARATION:
Cut the turkey breast into quarters and slice a pocket in each piece of the breast. Season the turkey inside and out with rosemary, oregano, fresh ground salt and black pepper. Cook several pieces of bacon to use with the stuffing and don’t discard the grease. While the bacon is cooking, slice onions and mushrooms and chop walnuts. Sauté the spinach, mushrooms, garlic, onions and walnuts in the bacon grease. Robert Cardwell said he includes some fresh jalapeno slices in the sauté mix when fixing this for home and his friends who like jalapenos.
Stuff each breast piece with pepper jack cheese and the sauté mix (spinach, mushroom, garlic, onions, crumbled bacon and walnuts). Wrap each breast piece with bacon and secure the bacon with toothpicks. Cardwell uses a basket weave to help secure the bacon, and that it also makes it look better. Grill over indirect heat until the inside reaches 165 degrees. This reduces flare-up from the bacon drippings. Finish over direct heat. The bacon and turkey should be ready at the same time.
Cardwell suggests serving this with corn on the cob and asparagus that were also cooked on the grill. I add multi-grain bread or rolls with the meal or skip them and have bread pudding for dessert.
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