As many of you know already, I have spent a lot of time in England over the past few years.It frequently feels like far too much time to me, but there have been some good things to come out of it, particularly when it comes to my passion for cooking and good food.
Perhaps surprisingly to some, England is a great place for feeding my passion for food. Traditional English cooking has undergone a true renaissance and can be as good, if not better than any you will find in France, Italy or Spain. Please consider making comments on this point, because I know some of you will strongly disagree with this statement and I would love to read your thoughts on the subject. You know who you are, my dear friends, expatriot Americans and fellow Twitterers cooking up a storm over there in Europe. And hey, guys, before any of you feels the need to point out, Paul was having a bad day; I did not split the skins on the pheasants you see here in the roasting pan just before they went into the oven!
I love and look forward to the pheasant hunting season, especially if I happen to be in England where the season begins October 1st each year and runs through to the end of January, but generally the comments I make here will apply to similar feathered game back home.
In England it is much easier to come by a plentiful supply of really great new season birds than in the States. Independent butcher shops are much more common than they are back home and growing number of them are licensed "Game Dealers", which allows them to sell direct to the public based on laws dating back to 1830. That sounds pretty darned good to me. Imagine how awesome that would be back home!
The pheasant is a great sporting game bird that also happens to be very good eating. It is versatile and flavorful and there are many ways to prepare and cook it through the season. I shall give you just a few of my favorites over the next couple of days or so, but I want to start out with a simple pot roast which is great if you are using older birds.
Folks over here would usually select the classic brace of a cock and a hen bird for this and other pheasant dishes. The larger cock bird has a flavorful but coarser meat which is often drier than the juicy, finer texture of the hen bird. Don't be put off by that and overlook the cock bird. The legs of the cock pheasant are larger than those of the hen and deeply flavored. This pot roast is so beautifully simple and a real treat on a cold winter day.
Take a classic brace of pheasant. Rinse and remove any remaining downy feathers and dry inside and out with paper towel. Heat a large skillet, add a generous chunk of butter and lightly brown each bird taking care not to overheat the pan and burn the butter. Set the birds aside until they are sufficiently cool to handle, then season liberally with salt and freshly ground black pepper, both inside and out. Take a couple of sprigs of fresh thyme, scrunch it up and stuff it into the cavity. Spread more softened butter over the breasts and then optionally, lay over strips of smoked bacon.
In the picture above you can tell I was in a hurry. I didn't brown the birds or spread butter and bacon over them, but since I didn't have any bacon anyway, I guess I had no option. Lucky for me these were young birds so they didn't dry out so much during cooking.
Lay the prepared birds on a bed of vegetables. In this case I used trimmed celery hearts, small whole onions and thickly sliced carrots. A half bottle of Italian pinot grigio or a light game stock around the birds, a snug fitting lid and they are ready for the oven. About an hour at 375 to 400 degrees should be about right, by which time the birds will be just nicely cooked and the vegetables will still retain a nice bite. If you are using really chunky roots you can part cook them in the roasting dish for about half an hour before adding the pheasants. Once the dish is done to your liking, strain off the cooking liquid into a saucepan, bring up to the boil, turn down the heat and simmer to reduce slightly.
Meanwhile, remove the legs and breasts from the birds and slice the breast meat separately. Cover and keep warm for a few minutes while you finish the sauce.
To finish the sauce either stir in a half cup of heavy cream as I did, or give your sauce a nice gloss with a few small chunks of ice cold butter whisked in. Adjust the seasoning if need be and you're ready to serve the slices of pheasant, the legs and the cooked vegetables with nice creamy, roasted garlic, mashed potatoes and the deliciously tasty sauce.
Of course the choice of vegetables for this dish is a matter of personal taste, but hearty seasonal roots are ideal at this time of year
Serves 4 or 2 very hungry and greedy folks like me.
Redneck Greg
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