This hunting lodge recipe for Teal Stuffed with Mustard Greens and Sweet Potatoes combines everything I love about the glorious Cajun foodways I write about. This dish takes flight in a tough wild duck stuffed with aromatics, greens, and the sweet kiss of Louisiana yams. It’s slow-simmered in a spicy stock just long enough for the meat to yield its tenderness into a cauldron of rich, savory gravy. Now, we’re cooking Cajun.
Wild ducks bathed in an aromatic gravy are tender and tasty in this one-pot braise and a classic Teal Stuffed with Mustard Greens and Sweet Potatoes recipe using wild game. (All photos credit: George Graham)
Cajun men love to cook. I’ve often written about how the food culture of South Louisiana includes methods, techniques, and Cajun recipes that come directly from the hunting lodges, fishing camps, and oil industry outings that are mostly male-only kitchens. In these parts, men take great pride in their Cajun cooking and are eager to share their knowledge.
Now, I’m not talking about your standard kitchen fare, but when it comes to wild game, heavy beef, whole hog, seafood of any kind, or most anything cooked over fire, propane or smoking embers, Cajun men are as fluent in cooking terminology, and culinary methodology as anybody.
My friend Ted Beaullieu is one of those men. I am privileged to be a part of a group of men that get together periodically and take turns cooking up a manly spread. At one of these gatherings, Ted cooked up a wild duck dinner that was the inspiration for my Teal Stuffed with Mustard Greens and Sweet Potatoes recipe today.
Cleaned and dressed, these teal are ready for the pot.
Green-winged teal is a breed of duck that show up first in the sights of seasoned duck hunters of South Louisiana. It’s a small, fast-flying, warm-weather bird that migrates early in the coastal marshes and rice-field flyways of Acadiana. The 15-day, September teal season ensures that Louisiana duck camps have a steady stockpile of duck meat in their freezers. Although with a limited amount of all-dark meat, the feeding habits (aquatic grasses and agricultural crops) of these birds make for good eating. And Ted’s Teal Stuffed with Mustard Greens and Sweet Potatoes makes it easy to bring out that flavor. It is a unique technique, as it uses a boiling method to render the birds tender. As with most long braises, my inclination (and training) is to brown the meat in fat before adding stock, but with Ted’s method, this is not only unnecessary but gets in the way of the ultimate goal—the gravy. You see, these birds are covered in liquid, and it is the long, slow boil that reduces the stock into a thick gravy.
In my Teal Stuffed with Mustard Greens and Sweet Potatoes recipe version, I’m adding sweet potatoes in two stages. First, I like how the sweet potatoes reduce along with the birds that add a sweet, thickening to the gravy, and the final addition of diced potatoes at the end provides color and contrast to the final dish. Additionally, I add a couple of pieces of smoked meat to my braise for the flavor it gives the gravy. Oh yeah, this is duck camp cooking at its best, and an easy technique to add to your home kitchen repertoire.
In this Teal Stuffed with Mustard Greens and Sweet Potatoes recipe, a long, gentle boil tenderizes the duck and reduces to a thick, flavor-filled gravy.
- 8 teal, cleaned
- 3 cups chopped mustard greens
- 2 cups diced sweet potato
- 1 cup diced yellow onion
- 1 cup diced celery
- ½ tablespoon Acadiana Table Cajun Seasoning Blend, see recipe here
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1 teaspoon black pepper
- 2 pieces smoked meat (ham hock, smoked sausage, or smoked turkey necks), optional
- 8 cups chicken stock, plus more if needed
- 6 cups cooked white rice, such as Supreme, for serving
- Hot sauce, for serving
- Inspect the ducks and pull out any remaining pin feathers with a pair of pliers.
- Combine the greens, 1 cup of the sweet potatoes, onion, and celery in a large mixing bowl, and season with Cajun seasoning, salt, and pepper. Stuff the cavities of each duck with as much of the mixture as will fit.
- Place the stuffed teal in a pot (or Dutch oven) and add any remaining stuffing mixture along with the smoked meat. Add enough chicken stock to cover the teal. Place on a stovetop burner and bring to a boil. Lower the heat to a gentle boil and let cook uncovered, checking periodically to make sure there is still liquid in the pot.
- Over the course of 1 to 2 hours (depending on the size of the pot and the amount of liquid), the stock will reduce, and the teal are done when most of the liquid cooks off and thickens to a gravy consistency.
- At this point, finish the dish by adding the remaining 1 cup of diced sweet potatoes and 2 cups of water (or remaining stock) to the pot. Cover and bring to a simmer. Cook until the potatoes are tender and the liquid reduces down to a gravy consistency, 10 to 15 minutes.
- Serve each guest a couple of teal with a double spoonful of gravy over a mound of cooked white rice. And be sure to have some ice-cold beer and a loaf of hot French bread nearby. Serve with hot sauce on the side.
Teal Stuffed with Mustard Greens and Sweet Potatoes: Rich and hearty, this is comfort food at its best.
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Hey Gary – Thanks for the comments and the invite (I’ll be in touch). You are now on our list to receive our weekly email update. All the best.
WOW George! I harvested some of my home-grown mustard greens and prepared this duck dish. I had to share not only with Linda but our neighbors. Boy, was it a HOME RUN. Thanks Chris.
Hey Chris – Thanks for the great review. All the best.
Hi, George.
No local access to teal, so I think I’ll try this with a game hen, probably keeping to the shorter end of the cooking time, since there’s no toughness.
Any thoughts/caveat?
Hey Joe- Great thinking on this variation; the shorter cooking time should be the only adjustment. Let us know how it works.
Well, in dim light, and squinting a lot, you could say that I made this recipe.
I made it using a game hen, about 2 pounds, and collard greens. No mustard greens available. California.
The flavor is excellent. I added a big slice of smoked ham hock, which contributed greatly to that excellence.
The sauce never thickened up, though it reduced by half. I think that the problem was the result of the physics of simmering the hen in chicken stock. The hen was much taller than the teal appeared from your pictures. Probably 3x taller, making the amount of stock required to cover it much greater. Since I wanted to be as frugal with the stock as possible, I chose a tall pot. Cooked it for 2 full hours (so much for shortened cooking time!). The hen was perfect at that point, so I didn’t want to cook it further, concerned that the white meat would dry out. Served it the way it was, over rice and leftover pasta. Was much more of a soup than a sauce.
I’m now reducing the remaining “stew”, without the leftover hen, to try for the proper consistency. The stock was homemade, with an insane amount of collagen (chicken feet), so I don’t know if that had anything to do with the failure to reduce.
I’ll try this again at some point, cooking the hen until done, removing it from the liquid, and reducing the liquid as necessary. Pretty much what I’m doing now, but on purpose.
Made a fresh batch of your Cajun seasoning, just for this recipe. Have you ever ground 1/4 cup of black pepper using a pepper grinder? I’m pretty sure that my wrists are 1/2 inch bigger around.
Thanks for sharing the recipe, George.
Regards,
Joe
Hey Joe- Excellent recap. Stock will reduce and thicken only so much; try using a cornstarch slurry to achieve your desired consistency–it shouldn’t alter the taste. Glad you made the seasoning blend, it is an excellent all-purpose spice. As for hand-grinding, years ago, I bought a cheap coffee grinder and use it exclusively for grinding spices and seeds. Just be sure to clearly label it as such, or you might accidentally make an exotic cup of coffee. All the best!
Thanks for the advice. I didn’t realize that there was a point of diminishing returns with stock thickening, so the slurry didn’t occur to me, though I’ve used it countless times before. Getting old. I’ll keep an eye out for old wooden coffee grinders. If I can convince my wife to allow yet another “thing” on the kitchen counters. Take care.
Joe- Stock is like water: it never reduces but just simply evaporates into steam. Even with collagen from pig’s feet, it will only get as thick as when the collagen has rendered out. Mixing equal parts cornstarch with “cold” water creates a slurry that when added to liquid will thicken immediately after it comes to a boil. As for the grinder, look for the small electric grinders that you can compactly toss in a kitchen implement drawer. You should be able to pick one up at Walmart for little money. You will find that grinding dried herb, seeds, and pods is a flavor-enhancing trick that the pros use. Happy cooking!