So this afternoon was spent getting hands on with a couple of birds provided by our neighbour! No, he’s not a pimp – he’s an electrician – and the birds? Well they were of the pheasant variety!
It might not be Michelin Star pretty, but it’s damn tasty! – and perfect food for a chilly Autumn evening.
Growing up on a farm we were used to a lot of rustic cooking. Good food doesn’t need to be restaurant quality all the time, it needs to be comforting, give a feel good factor and bring a smile to those enjoying it. Besides having fresh vegetables from our garden and farm we also did a bit of shooting. Rabbits, grouse, pheasant, pigeon, partridge even Duck. We learnt from a young age how to pluck or skin them, how to clean them and how to butcher them ready for cooking or to freeze for later use. Everything we shot we ate.
We no longer go shooting ourselves, but we know a lot of people who still do and it means we often get offered pheasants, rabbits, venison and more and a lot of the time it’s free – we just have to clean and prepare it ourselves. Such was the case with the two lovely pheasants given to us by our neighbour. He stopped us as we were driving home a few days ago, told us to wait a minute and pulled two beautiful pheasants from the back of his Land Rover and handed them to us. Next time we have our smoker fired up we’ll drop some smoked salmon in to him as way of thanks!
Birds for the pot – Year old Pheasants. These only hung for 3 days before we plucked, gutted, cleaned and prepped them.
We let the pheasants hang in the cold air of our garage for a few days before cleaning them ready to use today. We wanted something simple, pheasant has a lovely gamey flavour, it’s easy to add too much and it’s really easy to over cook it and make it really dry. So we opted to pot roast the two birds, that way the meat was going to be so juicy with maximum flavour for minimum effort.
So here is our Beer Braised Pot Roasted Pheasant.
Ingredients (Serves 4)
- 2 pheasants (young hens are best)
- 2 tbsp Rapeseed Oil
- 100g Smoked Pancetta Lardons
- 2 Red Onions, peeled and cut into thin rings
- 3 Cloves Garlic, peeled and crushed
- Sea salt and crushed black pepper
- 3 Juniper berries crushed with ½ tsp Black Peppercorns
- ½ tsp fresh chopped thyme
- 800g waxy potatoes, peeled and cut into diagonal slices
- 2 Carrots, peeled and sliced
- 1 Parsnip, peeled and sliced
- ½ Small Swede, peeled cut into cubes
- 200g Pancetta or good quality Smoked Streaky Bacon
- 1 500ml bottle of India Pale Ale (we used St Andrews Brewery Oatmeal Pale)
Method
Preheat the oven to 200°C. Season the pheasants with a little salt and pepper.
In the bottom of a large, cast-iron casserole, heat the rapeseed oil over a medium/high heat then adding one pheasant at a time brown the pheasants all over. Once a golden colour remove the pheasants and set aside.
Tip in the lardons and fry until nearly crisp on a high heat. Turn the heat down and then add the onion. Cook for a few minutes, stirring continuously, until the onion is soft. Add the garlic, a pinch of sea salt and the crushed juniper berries and peppercorns mix and then cook for a further minute. Add the potatoes, the carrots and the swede and stir it all together.
Sit the pheasants on top and cover the breasts with the pancetta rashers or streaky bacon. Pour over the beer, put the lid on and place the casserole in the oven for an hour. After the time is up, remove and serve!
To serve we simply carefully remove the two pheasants to a chopping board to carve. Place some of the vegetables on a plate, a leg and some breast meat and then spoon over some of the lovely gravy from the pot. The only thing that would make it even better is eat next to a roaring coal fire while listening to the rain battering off the window, and maybe washing it down with a malt whisky!
The pheasant is so tasty and moist – this isn’t one portion though! solely for photography purposes. This bird was then carved and shared between two.
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