H&C

12
Jan
2010

No Comments

Game for the pot: pheasant

A male and a female pheasant

"Hi all, happy new year to everyone. Here is the next in the series of my game for the pot blogs.

Pheasants are not - as many of us think - a native of the British Isles, but were introduced into this country by the Romans who even left detailed accounts of rearing methods and cooking recipes.

Pheasants live around woodland and open farm land eating all kinds of vegetable matter and insect life.

Males - called “cocks” - have rich chestnut, golden-brown and black markings on body and tail, with a dark green head and red face wattling. Females are smaller and mottled pale brown and black.

The cock birds weigh around the 1.5kg and the hens are slightly smaller around the 1.2kg mark. You will get two portions per bird - this usually consists of breast and thigh meat as the drum stick is not served as it contains a lot of tough sinew that is inedible.

Pot Roast Pheasant with Apple, Sage and Cider cream Sauce

This is a new take on a classic recipe that I think works well. Pheasants as like other game birds do not need long hanging periods. Hanging gives the Pheasant a strong gamey flavour that if over done can ruin and sour the meat.

Pheasants have a natural flavour of their own, the flavour of a wild free range bird not dissimilar to the best farmyard chickens of old so why mask this natural flavour by hanging? Some will say to tenderize the bird but now-a-days our pheasants are more often than not young birds that do not require tenderizing.

I like to leave all my game birds in a fridge for a maximum of 3 days before I use them, this is just to allow the meat relax ready for cooking. In this recipe I have pot roasted a whole pheasant with apples and cider and then finish the dish with a sauce made from the cooking juices and cream. All the ingredients for this dish can be found at any supermarket and oven ready pheasants can be found in Waitrose, Sainsbury’s and Marks and Spencer.

Makes two portions

What you will need:

1 Whole pheasant truss for roasting
2 Cooking apples
1 Can cider
100ml cream
Sugar (if needed)
Chicken stock (if needed)
Sage
Light olive oil
salt and pepper

1) Season the Pheasant and seal with a little color in some hot oil turning the bird so that there is an even seal and colour all over.
2) Peel, core and slice the Apples.
3) Taking a deep cooking dish with a lid, place half the apples on the base of the dish. Sit the sealed Pheasant on the apples and then cover with the rest of the apples.
4) Add 4 or 5 Sage leaves to the apples and then add the cider.
5) Put lid on dish and the place in a hot 200˚ C oven for 10 min then turn down to 180 ˚C for a further 25 min.
6) Once cooked remove the Pheasant draining all cooking juices back into the cooking pot these should be slightly pink but not red if the bird is cooked. Allow the Pheasant to stand and rest for 5 min in a warm part of the kitchen. Meanwhile place the apples and cooking juices into a liquidizer to make a fine puree finish this with some double cream.
7) If the Sauce is too thick add a little chicken stock to thin it down if required. Also taste and if you find it to sharp a little sugar can take the edge off the cooking apples again if required.
8) Take the Peasant remove the trussing string and remove the legs. Cut the legs in half so that you have drumstick and thigh. Retain the thighs and discard the drumstick as they are have too many sinews. Remove the breasts from the carcass and serve a breast and thigh together as a portion.
9) Warm the sauce but do not boil.
10) Serve Pheasant with some of the Sauce.

Enjoy!"