Game food on menu, but strictly BYO bird

Cazador restaurant owner Tony Lolaiy holds game birds he will prepare and serve to customers who shot them. Picture / Kenny Rodger

If you want to eat some pukeko confit, quail on raisin couscous or anise-scented broth of roast mallard this hunting season, get in the maimai now because the rules at restaurants are strictly BYO bird.

Until May 28, hunters will emerge from maimai and swamps to converge on 14 restaurants around the country to see their quarry cooked with ingredients such as pomegranates, pistachio nuts, dukkah and chestnut stuffing.

Cazador in Mt Eden is the only Auckland restaurant of the 14 taking part in Fish and Game's inaugural Wild Game Bird Food Festival.

It is illegal to sell wild game birds, but Fish and Game said restaurants can charge for the service of cooking a hunter's own birds. Each restaurant takes about 15 per cent off the usual price of a dish for the hunters supplying their own meat.

Hunters deliver their fowl to the restaurant at least a day in advance. The restaurant cooks it, either by a special menu or after discussion.

Tony Lolaiy, owner of Cazador, said there had been an influx since the season started on May 5.

The breasts of about 500 birds had made their way to his restaurant's freezers and he was nearly booked out for the next three weeks. Most were paradise and mallard ducks, but there were also five Canada geese and about 15 pheasants.

"We haven't had any quail yet, because people usually spend the first couple of weeks getting ducks. After that, the ducks cotton on and fly too high to shoot so hunters go for pheasant and quail later in the season.

"I've been doing this with my own customers for the past 19 years anyway," said Mr Lolaiy.

"They bring in their own birds and I cook them."

Host of the TV3 show Gulf Harbour Outdoors Geoff Thomas is one of those customers. He acknowledges many people prefer to make an acquaintance with wild game only after it's been in the pot.

"A lot of people are almost scared of it. If someone dumps a lot of pheasants or ducks with all their clothes on at the back door, they don't know what to do. But take them a bowl of duck soup, and they love it."

So each year, usually in July, he and his hunting mates deliver their season's worth of pheasants and ducks to Tony and then invite their friends and business contacts to the restaurant for a grand banquet.

"It's the most popular meal of the year, our celebration of the season. Unless you shoot it yourself or someone gives it to you, you can't get it so we invite friends and associates who may not have access to it themselves."

A hunter himself, Mr Lolaiy's restaurant specialises in cooking wild game and Cazador is Spanish for "hunter". His regular menu included up to 12 game dishes, from wild pork to pheasant.

"Cooking a game dish is not easy. That's why you don't often get it around town. You can overcook it very easily and it gets tough and dry.

"But the flavour is much more concentrated than in birds raised on the farm. Pheasants in the wild are tastier because of the stuff they eat and because they have to be on their tip-toes all the time to survive a day, so their body, texture and taste is different."

Hans Kriek, a spokesman for Anti-hunting group Safe, said he was more concerned with stopping the hunters before the ducks made it to the table.

"Once they're dead, whether people take them home and put them in the freezer or take them to some fancy restaurant is irrelevant.

'We're more concerned with the killing of them."

Cazador pukeko breast with pesto cream sauce

Blend half an onion into a fine paste. Measure it, and then add in double the amount of olive oil. Blend again. Add a few drops of lemon juice, two cloves of garlic, and chilli flakes to taste. Blend again.

Smear 1 tsp of marinade on each pukeko breast, cover and leave in fridge for 24 hours.

Pre-heat oven to hottest temperature possible. Heat small amount of oil in frying pan until very hot and smoking. Cook each breast in pan for 30 secs each side.

Transfer breasts to hot baking dish and cook near the top of the oven for five minutes.

Rest for 7 minutes before carving into 0.5cm thick strips and serve atop a sauce of basil pesto which has been heated with cream until reduced and of sauce consistency.

Recipe supplied by Tony Lolaiy