Delia Smith Pheasant Casserole Recipes

POT-ROAST PHEASANT WITH CIDER & BACON

Steps:

• Heat oven to 190C/170C fan/gas 5. Melt the butter in a large non-stick flameproof dish. Season the pheasants, add to the dish and brown on all sides. Remove from the dish and set aside.
• Add the bacon, onion, celery and sage to the dish and cook for 10 mins until the onion is soft and the bacon is crisp. Carefully pour off any excess fat.
• Return the pheasants to the dish and scatter over the apples. Pour over the cider and the chicken stock, bring to a simmer, cover with a lid and cook in the oven for 25 mins until the birds are cooked through.
• Remove the birds from the dish and keep warm. Return dish to the hob over a high heat. Let the liquid bubble until reduced by half, then add the cabbage, cover with a lid and cook for 3 mins. Add the cream, check the seasoning, and continue cooking for 1 min more. Serve the pheasant on top of the cabbage mixture with some mashed potato, if you like.

BRAISED PHEASANTS IN MADEIRA

Steps:

• Make the stock: wash the necks and giblets then place them in a medium-sized saucepan with 1 pint (570 ml) water and add all the stock ingredients. Bring everything up to the boil, skim off any scum that rises to the surface, then turn the heat down to a gentle simmer. Put a lid half on the pan and simmer for 1½-2 hours. After that, strain the stock to use for the sauce. If you haven't managed to persuade your supplier to do it for you, begin by jointing the pheasants. This you do with your very sharpest knife as follows: hold the pheasant with the breast-bone uppermost, make a small incision at the back end, then turn the pheasant up, neck end down, in a vertical position, insert the knife where you made your cut and cut right down to the neck end. Then open the bird out flat, skin side down, and cut all along the backbone. Now turn each side skin side up and pull each end, stretching the whole thing out as far as you can. This will reveal a line which naturally separates the two joints, so simply cut along this line. Do the same with the other half and you will have four joints. Begin cooking the joints of pheasant by seasoning them with salt and pepper and frying them in butter and oil until they have taken on a good golden brown colour. As they brown, transfer them to the casserole. Then, in the fat remaining in the pan, fry the shallots until golden brown and also remove them with a slotted spoon to a plate. The bacon should be de-rinded, cut into 1/3 inch (7.5 mm) cubes and browned as well. Then remove these to join the shallots and leave aside for later. Now add the thyme, bay leaves and chopped garlic to the pheasant and pour in 10 fl oz (275 ml) of the stock, the wine and Madeira. Bring everything to simmering point, then keep the heat low so that the contents just gently, almost imperceptibly bubble. Put on a tight-fitting lid and cook on top of the stove for 45 minutes. After that add the small whole mushrooms, the bacon and shallots, and spoon some of the juices over them. Then put the lid on, bring everything back to a gentle simmer and simmer for a further 45 minutes or until the pheasant is tender when tested with a small skewer. To finish the sauce, mix the softened butter and flour to a smooth paste. Then, using a slotted spoon, remove the pheasant, bacon and vegetables from the casserole to a warmed serving dish and keep warm. Bring the liquid up to a fast boil and let it bubble and reduce by about a third. Next add the butter and flour mixture, using a wire whisk to distribute it. Then, as soon as the sauce comes back to the boil and has thickened, pour it over the pheasant, bacon and vegetables and serve; or cool, refrigerate and re-heat gently the next day. Although imported new potatoes are not very flavoursome, in the winter months they are an ideal accompaniment to something very flavoursome like this and a few snipped chives sprinkled on them improves their flavour. A little steamed broccoli or tiny button sprouts would also be a good accompaniment.

POT-ROASTED PHEASANT WITH PORT AND CHESTNUTS

Steps:

• Start off by melting half the butter and olive oil in a medium-sized casserole. Season the pheasants with salt and pepper, then when the butter begins to sizzle add one of the pheasants to the casserole then brown it all over, using a spoon and fork to manoeuvre it so that all sides get a nice golden-brown. Then transfer it to a plate and repeat with the other pheasant, removing that too to a plate when it is browned. Now add the rest of the butter and oil to the casserole and when that's hot add the shallots and bacon and toss them around till nicely browned, then transfer them to a plate. Return the pheasants to the casserole, arranging them side by side (breast side up), then return the shallots and bacon, add the mushrooms and garlic, and tuck the bay leaves and sprigs of thyme in amongst them. Season well with salt and pepper at this stage, then pour in the port and wine. Bring it all up to simmering point, then reduce the heat to a very gentle simmer (but make sure it actually is simmering with faint bubbles coming to the surface), cover with a lid and let it cook for 30 minutes. After that time add the chestnuts, bring it back to simmering point, cover and cook for a further 30 minutes When the pheasants are cooked, remove them to a carving board. Mix the flour and 1 rounded tablespoon butter together then add this mixture to the other ingredients in half-teaspoon sized lumps. Whisk the sauce back up to simmering point to thicken slightly. Carve and serve half a pheasant per person, garnished with the chestnuts, bacon, shallots and mushrooms and a generous amount of sauce. Some baby sprouts and mashed potato go very well with this.

PHEASANT STEW

Steps:

• Preheat the oven 160C/140C Fan/Gas 3.
• To prepare the meat, remove the breast meat and legs from the birds. Set aside the carcasses to make stock for another time. Remove the skin from all the meat and cut the the breast meat into 3cm/1¼in cubes. Season the breast meat and legs with salt and pepper.
• Heat 1 tablespoon of the oil in a casserole dish placed over a medium heat. Add the meat and fry until brown all over. Remove with a slotted spoon and set aside.
• Add the remaining oil and fry the bacon for a few minutes until crisp. Add the onion and celery, and fry over a high heat for few minutes until softened.
• Sprinkle in the flour and stir. Gradually pour in the apple juice and stock and bring to the boil. Add the redcurrant jelly, Worcestershire sauce and bay leaves and return the meat to the pan.
• Bring everything back to the boil, stirring. Season with salt and pepper and a few drops of gravy browning, if using. Cover and cook in the oven for about 1-1½ hours, or until tender. Add the mushrooms and cook for a further 30 minutes.
• Remove the bay leaves and serve piping hot with mashed potato.

PHEASANT CASSEROLE

Steps:

• If you buy hung pheasants you will have to dress them, I don't bother plucking the birds I just skin them and remove the wing tips and feet.
• In a large saucepan heat 1 tablespoon of oil toss in the onions,carrot, celery, bacon and sweat gently for about five mins, put the joints in the saucepan and cover with the stock.
• Bring to the boil, lower the heat and simmer for 2 hours.
• Remove from the heat and cool quickly, cover and leave in the fridge overnight
• When required, skim the fat from the surface and discard, remove the meat from the stock,
• Drain and discard the stock leaving the veg, put this in a clean casserole dish,
• Remove the meat from the bones and cut into cubes put on top of the veg,
• Make up the packet of Chasseur mix and pour into the dish.
• Cover and put in a preheated oven 180c for thirty to forty mins or until piping hot.
• Thicken if required with cornflour.
• Serve with creamy mashed potatoes.