Cooking Pheasant

[johnty greentoes]

Can anyone suggest a scrummy way of cooking pheasant. I bought a brace yesterday and they are dresed in streaky bacon.

I want to avoid them drying out too much. Would also like a nice rich sauce.

Any ideas?

[Flummery]

Red wine. Can't ruin anything except white satin with red wine!

[Birdie Wife]

The best recipe I've found for beautifully moist pheasant is the one I found on the Cottage Smallholder site:

Pot roast pheasant (gypsy style) for two

Ingredients:

1 hen pheasant (if you only have an old cock it’s worth marinating the bird in olive oil, lemon juice and white wine overnight)
2 slices of white doughy bread to line the base of the casserole (crusts removed)
1 bramley cooking apple or two eating apples and � a lemon
6 slices of streaky bacon
1 large glass of white wine (150ml)
3-4 of sprigs of thyme (9-12 seperate twigs)
1 slug of brandy
Parsley to garnish
Method:

Pre heat oven to 160c (140c fan)
Ideally you have an oval casserole and aluminium foil

Layer the base of the casserole with the slices of bread.
If using a cooking apple: Quarter the apple and remove the core (no need to peel the apple). Put half the apple, quartered again into the cavity of the pheasant. Chop the remaining half and scatter over the bread.
If using eating apples: Chop one apple and press it into the cavity. Chop the other apple and scatter over the bread base.
Chop three of the streaky bacon slices and scatter over the bread.
If using eating apples: squeeze the lemon juice over the pheasant and rub in. Halve the squeezed lemon and place in the cavity of the bird.
remove the woody bits from the thyme and scatter the leaves and soft stems onto the layer of bread. Place the three remaining slices of bacon over the breast of the bird and carefully place it breast down on the layer of bread.
Pour the glass of wine over the bird.
Put a piece of foil under the casserole lid to make a tight seal. Place in the centre of the preheated oven for 1.5 hours. Check to see how tender the bird is, using a fork. Bake for a further 15-20 minutes if necessary until very tender.
Adjust the oven temperature 180c (160c fan) and turn the bird over, breast up. Return the casserole (without lid) to the oven to brown the bird for ten minutes.
When it’s cooked splash on a glug of cooking brandy and replace the lid.
Allow to stand in a warm place whilst you prepare your vegetables: mini roast potatoes, carrots and peas are ideal.
Remove the pheasant to a warm place and stir your sauce well before serving.
Serve the bread, bacon and apple sauce on each plate with the pheasant, sprinkled with torn parsley leaves. We also serve the apple from inside the bird as an instant apple sauce.

It's really easy, uses cheap ingredients to best effect and is so tasy I can't recommend it highly enough.

[johnty greentoes]

Flummery and BW

Many thanks.

Will let you know how I get on.

[Snadger]

I was given a brace of pheasants last week. I just cut the meat into strips and stir fried it........still nearly broke a tooth on a piece of shot though!

[nelliegemini]

I had my first really succesful pheasant cooking it in a slow cooker. Make a bed of potato chunks, put on the pheasant, cover the potatoes with chicken stock and cook for 4 hours.The slow cooker was the key.

[kitchengardner]

Can anyone suggest a scrummy way of cooking pheasant. I bought a brace yesterday and they are dresed in streaky bacon.

I want to avoid them drying out too much. Would also like a nice rich sauce.

Any ideas?

The trick with any game bird is to baste regularly. Red wine sauce is great but onion gravy is a good alternative. Or you could spread damson cheese (ie jelly) over the bird before cooking and use a little port to lift the sticky juices and then work in a little chicken stock and cornflour

Another option is to finely dice a small bulb of fennel and roast that inside the bird instead of stuffing. Once the bird is cooked scoop out and puree the fennel and mix with an equal volume of passata, before adding 2 bay leaves and reducing to half the volume. Remove the bay and serve. This sauce is also good with rabbit or hare

Regards

Kitchen Gardener

[Flummery]

Red wine with shallots - especially home grown shallots, and very slow cooking is what I do. The gravy's gorgeous!

[danmon_81]

"(if you only have an old cock it’s worth marinating the bird in olive oil, lemon juice and white wine overnight)".......giggles immaturley in the corner


I bought a whole bird last week (cock) and it had lots of meat on it...although it did dry out a bit.....mine was braised with wine and root veg....it was very nice!

[cupcake]

Had pheasant one Xmas at my son's and he put stewing steak inside the cavity. The pheasant was really tender,,,,,,and the cats loved the steak!