Saturday 14 January 2012

Another easy pheasant recipe!

Here is another quickie which can be prepared the day before, ideal for the busy weekends.
Serves 4
large pheasant breasts with skin on
2 red onions, thinly sliced
2-4 garlic cloves, crushed
4 tablespoon olive oil
1 1/2 teaspoons ground allspice
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 lemon thickly sliced
200ml chicken, pheasant or veggie stock
good pinches of sea salt
and freshly ground black pepper
30g unsalted butter
55g pine nuts
4 tablespoons of chopped fresh parsley

In a large bowl, mix the pheasant or chicken with onions, garlic, oil, spices, lemon, stock and seasoning. Leave to marinate in the fridge for a few hours or overnight. Preheat the oven to 200C or GM6 and bake the pheasant in a baking dish skin side up. Sprinkle over the onions and roast until cooked through. Melt the butter in a small frying pan, add the pine nuts and pinch of salt and toast until golden.  Toss the mixture over the pheasant with the chopped parsley and serve with rice or couscous.

A change in the Pheasant repetoire!

I love this recipe because it can be prepared the day before and then cooked 1/2hr before dinner!
Serves about 4
4 large pheasant breasts or chicken
2 red or white onions, roughly chopped
4 tablespoons olive oil
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
 a good pinch of saffron strands
juice and zest of 1 lemon
4 tablespoons cold water
a couple of pinches of sea salt
and freshly ground black pepper
100g unskinned hazelnuts
70g honey or maple syrup
2 tablespoons rosewater

In a bowl mix the pheasant breasts with the onions, olive oil, ginger, cinnamon, saffron, lemon juice and zest, water, salt and pepper and leave to marinate n a cool place for at least an hour or overnight if possible.
Roast/grill the hazelnuts on a tray until golden, cool enough to chop roughly.
Arrange the breasts skin side up in a baking dish with the marinade and roast until birds are NEARLY cooked through.
 Mix the honey or maple syrup, rosewater and nuts into a paste and spread over the pheasant breasts return to oven and cook for about 2-10 minutes until nots are brown but not burnt! Serve with rice.
This is my favourite recipe out of all the ones I tried. Another one later today!

Monday 2 January 2012

Rhubarb in the Bolognese! Happy New Year!

Lurking around the fridge this bright New Year  morning, I shuffle around on automatic, make a cup of builders tea for me, fresh parsley and carrots for the guinea pigs, cold chicken for the dog and all is going well although in a slight blurr. This you may think is due to an excess of wines over the New Year celebrations, but no, this is due to leaving my glasses up on the 3rd floor and feeling that I can manage perfectly well without them. After all, you can feel your way through most things in life! Back to the fridge: I feel for the bowl of Tomato sauce, might aswell start making the Lasagne and for the bowl of mince. Grope around the darkest cupboard for a pan, chuck in the ingredients and shove it on the hob while I go and get dressed. I return in full glory of muddy jeans, back to front jumper, inside-out cardigan; so reassuringly normal... and Ahhh there are my glasses... AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH and there is a gently bubbling pan of stewed Rhubarb and best mince.. Dash to the fridge, definitely tomato sauce poised beside the jug of custard ... oops! Oh! Well... No one will ever know... just chucked in the tomato sauce but I remain firm about the custard!
We have a delivery of 20 plucked pheasants for the weekend, ready for freezing. Now the fun starts; gazing longingly at glossy photos of heavenly concoctions of feather-light whipped icing, cunning layers of fruits in glorious wrappings, dream-like cakes and pudding.... but with reality and regret I turn to the chapters on game and poultry. I whizz through the list until I reach guinea fowl, duck, chicken and turkey. On the basis that they are all pretty similar and bound to work!  Ottolenghi is top fave at the moment. So, Pheasant in saffron, honey and hazelnuts; Pheasants with sumac, za'atar and lemon; Pheasant breasts with cumin, coriander and white wine are my choices. Whichever recipe is the best I will post! Until then I wish you all a very happy new year and an abundance of all that is good in 2012.