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IN THE KITCHEN: Enjoying a genuine ‘Wild Night’ with the Wilkinsons

An annual ‘Wild Night’ dinner of gourmet fare featuring foods Matt Wilkinson ‘has personally hunted, fished, raised, grown, culled or foraged’

By Pat Tanner Special Writer
    You might call the annual dinner party at the Princeton home of Janelle and Matt Wilkinson the wildest night of the year. In fact, the Wilkinsons and their friends do.
    Each fall, Matt — an avid gardener and hunter who teaches at Princeton High — presents an elegant, multi-course gourmet dinner, complete with fine wines, centered on foods he has personally hunted, fished, raised, grown, culled or foraged. No Brunswick stew here: This year’s banquet, which I was fortunate to attend, opened with a rabbit-polenta terrine, accented with chervil and black trumpet mushrooms. It was as beautiful to behold as it was delicious. And the meal only got better from there.
    “The whole idea is to take something from its very beginnings,” says Mr. Wilkinson, who has been mounting the dinners for five years. He names his Italian-American grandfather as a major inspiration. “He had a farm in West Windsor, the sole purpose of which was to grow everything that went into his cooking. The best part for me was watching him tend and harvest, then helping him cook, the result being that the everyone came together for a family gathering.”
    Virtually every inch of open ground on the Wilkinsons’ quarter-acre lot on Hillside Avenue is covered with edible growing things, including a sour cherry tree, grapevines, and raspberry and blackberry bushes, as well as more usual garden crops (in season), such as tomatoes, lettuces and other salad greens, potatoes, spinach, and beets. He keeps bees, although due to the honeybee plague that is decimating hives nationwide, honey output plummeted this year to 10 pounds, down from a typical 250.
    Mr. Wilkinson planted a special golden beet crop last spring in anticipation of the main course he had already picked out for this year’s “Wild Night”: Salt-Encrusted Loin of Venison with Morels, Asparagus and Golden Beets. “I basically begin planning for my next ‘wild night’ the day after this year’s,” he confesses.
    The morels that graced the venison dish had been foraged in the Institute Woods during an expedition he made last spring with members of the New Jersey Mycological Association. Even the wine he chose to accompany it had been foraged, in a way. On a recent trip to Quebec, Mr. Wilkinson had picked up a local red wine, Moulin du Petit Pre. The meal ended with a truly local product: red raspberry wine from Alba Vineyards in Warren County, which accompanied molten chocolate cake with raspberry coulis.
    Matt and Janelle Wilkinson are longtime teachers at Princeton High School. He teaches physical education and driver’s ed; she teaches French and dance. “We met and romanced at the high school,” relates Ms. Wilkinson, adding with a laugh, “I made sure I had tenure before we told people and before we got married.” The Wilkinsons have two children, Eleanor (Ellie), 6, and Henry, 3. Up until Ellie’s birth, Matt had been wrestling coach at the high school. “Once Ellie was born, I felt I needed to turn my full attention to being a father to her. As a coach, you act as a father to an entire team,” he explains.
    The friendly, pajama-clad youngsters greeted guests to this year’s “Wild Night,” and then cheerfully (more or less) went off to bed as the adults finished their cosmopolitans and sat down to dinner. Before then, Henry had displayed his most prized possessions to the group, including a book on ladybugs, while Ellie divulged that she knows how to make pasta from scratch and that mangoes are her favorite food.
    “In this house we cook one meal,” Matt says. “Either the kids eat it or they don’t — we don’t force them.” Added mom Janelle: “We are beginning to find that when the kids eat at other people’s homes where there is processed or fast food, they come home with an upset stomach.”
    In addition to his grandfather, Mr. Wilkinson, who holds a degree in horticulture, cites as an influence Euell Gibbons, the proponent of natural, wild foods whose writings were popular in the 1960s. “As a kid, I read all of Gibbons,” he says. “Then, back in 2000 I came across a recipe for venison sausage that I wanted to try, but I didn’t know where to get venison.”
    The upshot is that Mr. Wilkinson became an avid and expert deer hunter, hunting on average twice a week during New Jersey’s season, which lasts from September to February. He hunts exclusively with bow and arrow, and always from a tree stand. “Non-hunters ask me where all the deer meat I harvest goes. What I don’t use in my own home goes to a local food bank,” he says. He acknowledges that while this mollifies some people, “some with preconceived ideas about ‘senseless killing’ never get beyond that.”
    One guest this year — OK, it was me — queried Mr. Wilkinson as to the provenance of the venison on the menu, since in recent days deer in Hillsborough and surrounding communities have been infected with a virus that leads to their hemorrhaging and death. Wildlife officials are advising hunters not to eat the meat of deer that appear sick. Mr. Wilkinson assured us that our entrée had been harvested last year.
    Like the best hunters, Mr. Wilkinson is steadfast in his regard and respect for his quarry. He is careful not only in the way he hunts and cooks, but has learned to butcher (or “process” in his terms) the animal, as well. Like Michael Pollen, author of “The Omnivore’s Dilemma,” he takes pride in taking over the difficult, messy process from beginning to end.
    To share his knowledge, Mr. Wilkinson has produced a DVD that instructs deer hunters on how to get the best results from their efforts. “It takes the hunter from the hunt into the meat room, so they can see where each cut comes from,” he explains. “It then shows them how to prep and cook these cuts.”
    “What’s For Dinner … Deer?” is available at hunting stores and online at www.huntdeercookvenison.com.
    In the hunt portion, Mr. Wilkinson emphasizes patience so that hunters get a good, clean shot — an objective that not only results in the best tasting meat, but also affords a quick kill. He uses a core- board cutout of the side of a deer to show the cut of meat that result from each section and discusses whether they are innately tough, tender, or in-between. The major part of the video is devoted to demonstrating three cooking techniques. He marinates and grills eye round, braises top round, and stuffs and roasts tender sirloin tip.
    Much of what Mr. Wilkinson doesn’t “harvest” himself he buys from local farms. This year that included Terhune Orchards apple cider, which went into Butternut Squash Soup with Cider Cream. He also barters with friends, so the trout for this year’s salad, Smoked Trout on Arugula and Greens with Creamy Horseradish Dressing, came from a friend, although the chef/host smoked the trout himself.
    The guest list for “Wild Night” consisted of six couples this year, counting the Wilkinsons.
    “I have a few requisites,” Matt explains. “You have to be an adventurous eater, you have to like game, and you have to be a good conversationalist. I try to assemble a bunch of people who don’t know each other for an extended evening of good food, drink and conversation.”
    While most guests live in the Princeton area, he has noticed over the years that many who meet his criteria come from outside the United States. Among those at this year’s feast were natives of Turkey, Germany and Finland.
    “It gives me both pleasure and pride,” Matt Wilkinson concludes, “to know where something came from, to work it, and to turn it into something people enjoy.”