Blackened Porcupine with Wild Forest Salad

“Blackened” is just a fancy way of saying “I burned it”. This time Art really did mean to blacken the porcupine, we swear! The marinade for this dish even includes dandelion syrup plus a fresh garden salad. If the porcupine wasn’t a part of this dish we’re sure it would order seconds.

Ingredients

(quantities for 2 servings)

Porcupine Ingredients:
2 smoked porcupine quarters

Marinade Ingredients:
• 2 tbsp. olive oil
• ¼ cup dandelion syrup
• 1/2 cup red wine
• 1 tbsp. liquid smoke
• 1 tbsp. Worcestershire Sauce

Salad Ingredients:
• Whatever wild greens and fruits are in season in the forest : dandelion greens, sorrel, blackberries, crab-apples, wild leeks etc.

Dressing Ingredients:
• 1 lemon
• 4 tbsp. olive oil

Sea salt to taste.

Instructions

Marinade Instructions:

• Pour the marinade ingredients into a large zip-lock bag.
• Add the porcupine quarters, massage the marinade into the meat.
• Marinate for a minimum of 3 hours. Preferable over night.

Porcupine Instructions:

• Brown the porcupine in a pre-heated skillet. Make sure to brown all over – the edges as well. Season to taste.
• Slow roast in the over at 300 degrees for a minimum of 1 ½ hours.

Salad Instructions:

• Roughly shred the greens.
• Core and quarter the carb-apples.
• Make the dressing by adding the oil and lemon is a small lidded mason jar and shaking the heck out if it!
• Drizzle over the greens, toss the salad and add the blackberries.

Assembly:

• Serve the blackened porcupine with the salad. Simple but oh so good!