Gone Wild

Last night I had the privilege of cooking for about 100 men at the Vineyard church in Duluth, MN for their Gone Wild game dinner. It was a blast. I enjoyed using the commercial kitchen there as I don't ever get a chance to use a flat top grill, some serious burner BTU'S or a double set of Blodgett convection ovens. Also, the vent hood is amazing. We did about 35 to 40 large Walleye fillets which we cut into 2-3 pcs and set them on sheet pans with a pat of butter on each, a generous amount of Old Bay seasoning and some lemon juice. We set the ovens at 375 and cooked them for 11 minutes; awesome! The Old Bay has a nice kick to it and, of course, we did plenty of sampling as we cooked each of these dishes.
My friend Charlie Plys was the coordinator for the event and we had some great help in the kitchen: Bob James, Joshua Herbert, Dee Charles, Charlie P, Andy (don't know last name) and Sammy Aiken as well as a young lad named Matt who is aspiring to be a chef. Matt helped us greatly by assembling Elk Burgers and delivering them to the serving tables and also helping scrub pots and pans, up to his elbows in soap suds putting in his time in the trenches.
Back to the Elk Burgers; someone donated 10 lbs of ground Elk and frankly, I was concerned it might be gamy but it was excellent. I formed the meat into balls, about 1/4 lb each and set them on pans and as we cooked them we would set them on the flat top and press them down to a thin patty. Here is where the flat top shines at making good burgers. Elk is very lean so we oiled the grill for each batch and seasoned the burgers with my smoked salt and pepper. The flat top gave them a killer crust on each side and the smoked salt and pepper was just right. They smelled great on the grill and as we sampled, they tasted not only not gamy but excellent; nothing to worry about!
Bob James brought a load of Crappie fillets and Dee helped fry them along with my Walleye Cakes and they were excellent ( we sampled these as well). Bob uses seasoned Italian bread crumbs and egg wash as a coating and it was very nice, not hiding the flavor of the Crappie.
many other guys brought some good soups and stews and Joshua Herbert had me sample his Guinness Chili. It was very good. the seasoning was just right for my taste; not too hot but hot enough to feel it, a good amount of salt and a nice texture and mouth feel. I am generally not a chili fan but that was a good one.
There was plenty of food for everyone and we had lots of leftovers. I hope we will do this event on an annual basis because I thought it was very successful in terms of numbers of people who attended and quality of food people brought. Definitely good eats!
Tim