I was sent this recipe by a friend last year (thanks Fiona), it sounds slightly odd with the bread but it’s amazing – I cooked it several times during last year’s shooting season and now I’ve got some more pheasants, I’ll be making it again this weekend.
Now it’s time to see if I can still remember how to skin them – I got quite good at it last year (amazing what you can learn from youtube!)
Ingredients
1 pheasant
half an onion, chopped
1 cooking apple, skinned and cored, 1/4 kept aside and the rest chopped (if using a normal apple add some lemon juice)
3-4 slices of white bread, crusts removed
1/2 a star anise, broken into pieces
1 tablespoon of honey dissolved in 3 tablespoons of boiling water
10-12 sprigs of thyme, leaves stripped from stalks
2 tablespoons dry white wine
Lashings of ground black pepper
Method
- Line the base of your casserole dish with the bread.
- Scatter over the thyme, chopped apple, chopped onion and star anise.
- Pour the wine and honey and water mixture over the top.
- Place the pheasant breast down over the top and bake for 1.5 hours at 160c degrees (140c fan oven). If it’s a big/old bird it may need a further half hour or so.
- When the pheasant is tender set aside to rest for 20 mins
- Liquidise the sauce with a stick blender and add lashings of freshly ground black pepper
- Pour the sauce over the pheasant to serve
(This is delicious served with really crispy roast potatoes)
