By David Draper

The middle of winter might not seem like the right season for trout fishing, but don’t tell Wild Chef readers that. Two faithful Food Fight contestants submitted some delightful photos of freshly caught trout, proving to the rest of us that January is the perfect time to get out and do some fishing.

By David Draper

If you want a smoky whiskey, you could just buy a bottle of scotch, right? While that’s true, sometimes life calls for brown liquor with a smoke flavor, but not the aggressive earthiness of a single-malt—particularly if you’re going to be using it to bake cookies. Now you should know me well enough to realize I wouldn’t be making cookies, but my girlfriend T. Rebel was in busy-baking mode just before the holidays and she came to me with a smoked whiskey request for this modified bourbon ball recipe from our friends over at Saveur.

We did a bit of research, scoured our local liquor purveyors and then contacted a friend over in Utah who hooked us up with a bottle of High West Distillery’s Campfire Whiskey. (As a sidenote, the folks at High West are turning out some amazing small-batch libations. I fell in love with the complex spiciness of their Rendezvous Rye this past fall.) The problem, it’s just too darn good to sacrifice even two tablespoons of it for cookies. In fact, the day it came in the mail, addressed to T. Rebel, she let me have one sip then promptly hid the bottle from me. (The girl really likes her Old Fashioneds.)

By David Draper

Back in the late 1980s, I was wearing flannel before anyone even heard of Pearl Jam, so it shouldn’t come as a surprise that I’m at the forefront of food fashion as well, at least according to the Food Channel list of what food trends will be hot in 2013. In fact, I’m betting most Wild Chef readers are ahead of the trend that says smoking will be the next big thing in the restaurant scene. Firing up the smoker is just one of the many techniques we regularly rely on.
 
Over at Epicurious, it’s more of the same with their claim that the white-hot focus on all things below of the Mason-Dixon line will push even further south to Brazil, where churrascaria reigns. I will admit I was getting tired of food media hitting me with yet another recipe for the world’s best fried chicken and waffles, so reading about meat-centric Brazilian barbecue is definitely something to look forward to.

By David Draper

This week’s reader submissions for Food Fight Friday have given me the fishing bug, which can be a bit hard to cure at the turn of year. Luckily, a recent cold snap has put a fishable layer of ice on the local lakes and the auger is tuned up and ready to go. Now if I can just pull myself away from this toasty warm fire, I might have my own fishy food fight photo next week. Until then, here are a couple of great pics from loyal Wild Chef readers Steve P. and Koldkut.