Wednesday, July 21, 2010

After the Hunt

My naturalization as a Louisianan must be near complete.  With two local friends and my hawk, Ernie, we recently made an appearance on chef John Folse's cooking show, A Taste of Louisiana.

The show closed a neat loop for me that began a couple years ago with the publication of my wife's (one and only) rabbit recipe in Folse's encyclopedic volume After the Hunt.  Along with Shelly's "Breaded Rabbit Mullenix," Folse & Co. included a surprisingly complete section on falconry in Louisiana, featuring photos of Ernie as a young hawk and a few of me grinning with fresh-caught rabbits. The book was (and remains) a best seller here, and being recognized from its pages by friends is a recurring pleasure.

Early last year I received a call from the Folse company with word that John intended to focus a season of his televised cooking program on the hunting and recipes featured in his book. I was invited to participate, and despite near-zero expectation of success, offered to take Folse and film crew out to one of my local hunting spots and see if we could do any good.


Well, we did some good and in fact caught a swamp rabbit right on cue as if the hunt was scripted. What's more, the camera angles lined up, the light held, the flight was in focus and the crew was close enough to the action to catch it all on film.


This segment (which the film crew referred to as "the package") would be edited into the studio portion of the show to be filmed later. Having now filmed the kitchen segment and seen the falconry package on the big screens, I'm even more amazed.


The complete episode will air locally in late September or early October and will be the first of about 35 half-hour shows featuring Louisiana cooking and hunting---activities long honored and well paired here in Louisiana. Next year, the series will be picked up by PBS nationwide. Watch for it, and bon appetite!

16 comments:

Isaac said...

Very cool! I assume you'll post a link to the video when it comes out...

Heather Houlahan said...

Sweet!

Can we get a preview of that recipe?

The dogs are now fairly regularly bringing me cottontails, especially on days that I'm mowing the hayfields or pastures. I think they value the fuss I make over them more than eating them -- and they get the giblets and odds and ends anyway.

And I plan to buy some breeder meat rabbits at the fair.

So recipes, pleaze!

PBurns said...

As George Peppard used to say on "The A-Team": "I love it when a plan comes together."

:)

Nice!

P

mdmnm said...

Matt,

Congratulations! Please do put up a notice when the show comes out.

Matt Mullenix said...

If they post it to a video site, I certainly will link it here.

Recipes? Heather, of course I recommend you buy John's book or mine! :-) Shelly's recipe is in both. (But in truth, it's just Progresso Italian bread crumbs, eggs and olive oil.)

Patrick: youre right!

Pluvialis said...

Awesome! So happy to hear of all this1 x

Cat Urbigkit said...

Excellent! Can't wait until we can watch on PBS.

Matt Mullenix said...

Thanks Helen and Cat!

Holly Heyser said...

Can we watch the local version online, or do we have to wait for it to air nationwide?

Such a beautiful bird. And I LOVE his chef's jacket! Thought about making one like that for Hank, but just making a camo apron for him was challenging enough for me.

Connie Farmer said...

Congrats to you and the Shelly too! It must have been a lot of fun to do this piece. Reid and I will be looking for it on PBS. Please post the date as it draws nearer.

Matt Mullenix said...

Holly and Connie--I'll post dates here soon as they tell me. Not sure if they will show online, but I will suggest it. It's public broadcasting, so perhaps.

Holly, Folse gets all kinds of neat gifts from local fans. I'd bet the chef's coat is one.

Matt Mullenix said...

Forgot to mention that the studio audience was treated to all-you-can eat John Folse & Co. fare after the show. The three recipes made for television were catered in large quantity, and we ate till we couldn't eat more.

Anonymous said...

Very cool! Looking forward to seeing you on national tv and picking up some great new recipes!

Russ London said...

Matt

I didn't know you could hunt in July (or did he change his schedule)

also, the "superman" pose on the "set" is really you.

Congrats, more famous all the time,

Russ

Matt Mullenix said...

Hi Russ! Those trees in the background, they look like July in Baton Rouge to you? :-)

Doug said...

That's awesome Matt. Congrats on being famous! Rachel Ray better watch out.