Pheasant under glass?

Someone gave me a pheasant. Any RCP ideas?

[Jenise]

I presume it's a wild pheasant?

Roast is always good, but it's a bird with which you need to keep the moisture in. Pot roast is definitely an option.

The taste can be strong (and certainly stronger the longer it is hung for). This might influence how you cook it.

It works fine with a number of herbs, but it's a great natural match with wild mushrooms (or failing that, field mushrooms and a little truffle sauce). Tarragon would add to the flavours.

Hope you enjoy

regards

Ian

It's a wild pheasant that is frozen, waiting for an opportunity to be eaten.

I'd recommend roasting it - barded (I like using bacon, i.e. "Canadian bacon" for you I think) with plenty of butter.

I've tried a few accompaniments and really like the earthy flavours of beetroot (as a sauce) with it, braised cabbage. Higher toned roast chesnuts in a kind of mirepoix & Sherry sauce also. Of course, stuffing can be a nice thing too - sausagemeat and herbs.

HTH,

Ben

[Jenise]

Larry, okay, so it's wild. That means it's going to have less fat than a farm-raised bird and you'll need to tweak your technique a bit. Last time someone gave me one, I used the recipe below. It's an old recipe from New York's famous 21 Club which seems especially appropriate to reccomend considering your new career in crooning.

But, of course, I didn't follow it exactly.

First of all I removed the breasts (though I left them on the bone), then browned the rest and threw them in a pot to make a little stock. I used that later in combination with the other listed ingredients to make what I anticipated would be a more balanced flavored and richer sauce--used it to make a pan reduction after removing the roasted breasts. Also, I made an herb butter with fresh sage and thyme and stuffed it between the breast meat and the skin. I left out the dates. And I covered the pan in the final roasting--pheasant can be perfectly cooked in 20 minutes and dry/tough in 25. You want to really be careful not to overcook on primary heat plus allow for carry-over cooking.

With all that caveat, here's the original recipe.


Roasted Pheasant in Apricot Sauce

1/2 cup dried apricots
1/2 cup dry white wine
1/4 cup Grand Marnier or other orange liqueur
1/4 cup fresh lime juice (from about 2 large limes)
2 tablespoons sugar
two 2 1/2- to 3-pound pheasants (preferably wild Scottish)*
freshly ground black pepper to taste
2 teaspoons dried thyme, crumbled
2 bay leaves
vegetable oil for brushing pheasants
1/2 cup pitted dates, chopped

Garnish: fresh thyme sprigs
*available at some butcher shops and by mail order from D'Artagnan, tel.(800)327-8246 or (201) 792-0748
preparation
In a small heatproof bowl cover apricots with boiling water and soak 10 minutes. Drain apricots and cut into quarters. In a small saucepan simmer wine, liqueur, lime juice, and sugar 5 minutes.
Preheat oven to 375°F.

Cut off legs of pheasants and reserve for another use. Sprinkle pheasants inside and out with pepper and salt to taste. Put 1 teaspoon thyme and 1 bay leaf in cavity of each pheasant and close cavities with skewers or toothpicks so that pheasants hold their shape.

Brush pheasants with oil and in a roasting pan arrange, breast side down. Roast pheasants 20 minutes and discard any fat in roasting pan. Turn pheasants over and to pan add apricots, wine mixture, and dates. Roast pheasants, adding about 1/2 cup water if all liquid evaporates, 25 minutes more, or until thermometer inserted in thickest part of breast registers 160°F. Let pheasants stand 10 minutes.

Transfer pheasants to a cutting board and cut each in half. Serve pheasants with apricot date sauce and garnish with thyme.

Sounds good, Jenise. And, Ben, maybe I'll get a chance to use my larding needle.

Being a native Minnesotan my favorite is Pheasant with Wild Rice rather than the "classic" from the 50's using cream of mushroom, celery and chicken soup.

I recommend roasting the bird stuffed with celery, fennel, onions and carrots. Spices would be salt and pepper, maybe a little fresh rosemary. Pour left over white wine inside and out and roast it. Keep it covered for most of the time. Add water if pan is almost dry.

Once cooled, bone the bird taking only the meat and leaving all skin, fat, connective tissue and bone. Refrigerate the meat. Take the remainder and place in your crock pot with the liquid that was in to bottom of the roaster. Deglaze the roaster with white wine or cognac and add to the crockpot. Fill the crock pot with water, carrots, celery, fennel, leek greens, pepper corns, salt and bay leaf.

Cook over night. Strain the stock and refrigerate. When cold, remove fat from the stock. Sample the stock. If you find the stock too gamey, cut it with chicken or turkey stock.


Use the stock as the liquid for making wild rice. While rice is cooking soften chopped leek ( the white part), celery, fennel, and mushrooms (wild mushrooms like chanterelles are great) in a frying pan. Add some salt to hasten the result. Then add sherry, reduce and deglaze the pan.

Add the mushroom mixture to the wild rice for the ast 10 minutes of cooking. Cut up the Pheasant meat and add the last 5 minutes to the wild rice.

The final result is wonderfully flavorful wild rice containing vegetables and meat that you can taste.

This works well with left over domestic duck or goose.

C