Culinary Memory Number 1 of My Alaskan Adventure: Surf and Turf at It's Wildest: Backstrap of Moose, Fresh trout & Wild Raspberries

The following account of the prize winning day is from Pat, my son. (I copied it without permission from Melissa' blog!) You can see more great pictures on their blog "Alaskan Adventures and Polar-oids" if you click on the link in the side bar and go to Archives for August 31st. ) I also have more pictures of this great faire posted on October 31st. This truly was a "HALL OF FAME" meal, as Phil and I would label it! Oh, Pat failed to mention the salmon he caught was 5.5 pounds.

"Sunday afternoon Mom, Dad, Melissa and I went canoeing on the Swan Lake canoe trails. The weather was awesome and the loons were swimming about. When we neared the stream that feeds the lake we heard voices coming down the stream toward us. As the canoe floated into the lake, I recognized the paddler at the stern of the canoe as my friend Sean "Sully" Sullivan. He and a friend were paddling Sully's first moose out and they were very exited!! I cast my lure into the water as I asked Sully about the hunt. He and his friend had paddled/portaged five lakes back and shot the moose earlier in the day. As we spoke about the hunt, a huge silver salmon struck my lure. I played the fish on my ultra-light rod as we talked. When I landed the it was a 5-1/2 pound land locked silver salmon! Any more playing and our canoe would have tipped over. As we parted company, Sully handed me a large hunk of backstrap, some foil, and some black pepper. On the next lake, Dad caught two nice rainbow trout and we headed for the nearest camp site. Melissa started a fire and we cleaned the fish. After wrapping the seasoned fish in the foil and putting them in the fire, we cut the moose meat into chunks and roasted the chunks marshmellow style using green alder branches. Talk about "Surf and Turt"!for dessert we ate fresh raspberries that we picked along the trail."