Henry Miller

Statesman Journal

It didn't take much coaxing to get Meizhen Roylance into the spirit of the third annual Eradication by Mastication event.

"I like the nutria. It was crunchy," the Corvallis 7-year-old said with a big grin, adding of the smoked salmon and sorrel stuffed pastry hors d'oeuvre, "I liked the cream puff. I shoved it in my mouth."

Eradication by Mastication, a fund-raiser for the Institute for Applied Ecology in Corvallis, is both an educational and gastronomical approach to dealing with invasive species. The theme is "can't beat 'em, eat 'em."

Participants paid $75 a head, $25 for kids, to sample and dine on nasties turned into niceties such as Asian carp, nutria, bullfrogs, dandelion leaves, wild boar (feral pig), wild turkey, invasive crayfish, sorrel and blackberries prepared by some of Oregon's top-flight chefs.

All to the accompaniment of live music under sunny, warm skies at Zenith Vineyards northwest of Salem where the view was of rolling trellised grape vine-covered hills.

If there was a proselytizer in chief and head cheerleader for chewing our way out of the problem of edible invasive species it was Philippe Parola, a chef and food consultant from Baton Rouge, La., who did the cooking demonstration for both Asian carp (dubbed "Silverfin") and the nutria (think "water rabbit").

He kept up a string of patter in his heavy French accent as he de-boned the nutria, carved off bite sized chunks of dark meat.

"You can feed four or six people (with the meat from a nutria)...with a potato," Parola said to laughter from the audience. "That would be $35 in my restaurant. I'm turning the beast into some serious money."

After making a quick marinade – the wine of choice with aquatic rodent was White Veil pinot noir – he sent the bowl of nutria chunks up the stairs to the main kitchen be tempura-battered and deep-fried.

Next up, with the help of a volunteer assistant, Parola pulled a massive, bug-eyed, massive-mouthed Asian carp out of a bag

"We'll call him Joe Jackson," the demo chef said. "Joe Jackson was in the water laughing two days ago. He's not laughing now."

Parola said that he caught, the huge carp in the Atchafalaya River near his home.

When asked how he caught it, Parola said "it jumped in the boat, just jumped in the boat."

After the brown, and crunchy, tempura nutria returned to the outdoor kitchen stadium, samples quickly disappeared.

Ellen Watrous of Corvallis, who has intimate knowledge of the large orange-toothed, rat-tailed rodent through battling them for years, said she's going to get cooking.

"They live in the creek behind my house," she said about her battles with the burrowing invasives, adding that in the future she will cooking rather than discarding the carcasses.

"I absolutely will," Watrous said. "It has a very mild flavor."

Her sister, Barb, agreed.

"Delicious," she proclaimed. "The meat tasted like chicken, white-meat chicken."

The themes at Eradication by Mastication are flavorful fun, but the bottom-line message was that invasive critters and plants are one of the biggest threats to the environment, costing $120 billion annually in the U.S. and threatening to eat out and crowd out native species

Parola asked the question that is the central theme: Why not market and sell the invasives that are edible, and leave the inedible to the government and scientists to control?

The afternoon began with hors d'oeuvres such as crayfish stuffed peppers and wild boar bratwurst cooked in beer and accompanied by a blackberry mustard sauce.

Next up were the cooking demonstrations and sampling of nutria and carp followed by and a "Chopped"-style cooking competition featuring a mystery basket of invasive ingredients.

That was followed by the buffet-style banquet featuring dishes such as deep-fried bullfrog legs with fiery guajillo adobo sauce, braised wild boar and brined, smoked wild turkey, all accompanied by sautéed dandelion greens with pears prepared by Joshua Green of Bon Appetit at Willamette University.

The evening wrapped up with desserts and preserves featuring invasive Himalayan blackberries that were prepared by Amelia Lane of Perfect Bake App and Anna Henricks of Sweetheart Bakery.

The entire affair was judged to be, "a delectable palate of invasive tastes," by Mary Turner of Salem, who added that her favorite dish was the wild boar.

"I've had it before," she said. "I lived in Italy for a year, and this was comparable."

Her companion, Bill Warnacke, was equally impressed.

"Fantastic," he said. "I loved it. It was delicious; it was fun.

"I liked the wild boar. It was delectable and savory. The frog legs were surprising, and the sauce was amazing."

Both said they will be back in 2015.

hemiller@StatesmanJournal.com, (503) 399-6725 or follow at twitter.com/henrymillersj and friend or facebook.com/hmillersj

Eat 'em to beat 'em

Institute for Applied ecology:http://appliedeco.org/

Chef Philippe Parola:http://www.chefphilippe.com

Eradication Cook-off

Format: "Chopped"-style competition at Eradication by Mastication featuring a time limit and a "mystery basket" of invasive ingredients that proved to be wild boar chops on the bone, dandelion greens, sorrel and blackberries.

The chefs:

Dave Bodi, executive chef, Willaby's Catering in Salem.

Ryan Morgan, executive chef at Theory at the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry and the Bon Appetit Management Company.

Hamid Serdani, owner of Chef Serdani Services in Corvallis and chef at Gathering Together Farm in Philomath.

Cody Utzman, owner and executive chef at Frankie's in Albany

The judges:

Dhef Philippe Parola

Matt Korfhage of Willamette Week

Allison Jones of Portland Monthly

Winner (based on points): Tie between Morgan and Serdani.

Taste Category: Tie Morgan and Serdani

Creativity Category: Morgan

Presentation Category: Serdani