Pheasant Breast Stuffed With Apples In A Cider Vinegar And Prune Sauce Recipes

STUFFED PHEASANT BREAST

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
• Roast the pepper over a flame until it turns black. Remove skin, seeds and stem, and dice the pepper into 1/4-inch squares.
• Mix the goat cheese, pine nuts and herbs in a bowl.
• Cut off the breasts from the pheasant, carefully removing skin and fat. Discard carcass. Cut a small pocket into the side of the breast from end to end. Stuff the pocket of each breast with stuffing mixture. Pull some breast meat over the pocket. Wrap each breast with four slices of bacon.
• Place the pheasant breasts on a rack in a roasting tray, and roast in the oven for 20 to 25 minutes, turning them over once.
• Remove the breasts from the oven. Remove and discard the bacon and let the pheasant breasts stand for 5 minutes.
• Slice each breast into four medallions, using an angled cut. Place 4 medallions on each plate, and serve with a salad.

STUFFED PHEASANT BREASTS WITH WILD-MUSHROOM SAUCE

Steps:

• Separate legs and thighs from each bird. Remove and reserve skin, then cut meat away from the bones, being careful to remove small bones and gristle. Set aside.
• Skin, then bone the breasts. The procedure is exactly the same as for a chicken: With the bird lying on its back, use a sharp knife to make a deep incision just beside the breast bone. Then pull the meat - called the supreme - away from the carcass. Repeat the procedure for the other breast, and for remaining pheasant. On the inner side of each breast there will be a small fillet. Remove the stringy nerve from each of them. Using a broad knife blade, pound the small fillets slightly to flatten and set aside.
• Cut deep pockets into each of the supremes for stuffing, taking care not to pierce all the way through. Set aside.
• Use skin, carcass, heart, gizzard and wings to prepare a stock, as one would prepare chicken stock.
• Rinse caul fat under cold water for several minutes, then drain well.
• Prepare the stuffing. Put dark meat from legs and thighs through a meat grinder, or grind in a food processor. Add egg whites, season with salt, pepper and paprika, and pass through a fine mesh sieve, using a stiff plastic scraper, or, if available, use the fine mesh sieve attachment of an electric mixer. Combine meat and egg mixture with the creme fraiche in a mixing bowl and whip with an electric beater for several minutes, or until the mixture is very elastic.
• Saute pheasant livers in butter for about two minutes.
• Open each supreme, carefully add stuffing and in the center of each place half of a sauteed liver. Close supremes so that no stuffing seeps out, and cover the opening with the flattened fillets from Step 2. Wrap each stuffed supreme in a single layer of caul fat. This can be done several hours ahead, then refrigerated. Remove pheasant from the refrigerator about 30 minutes before cooking.
• Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
• Salt and pepper each supreme, then brown on both sides in butter. Place su-premes in a shallow, buttered pan, cover with foil and bake for 30 minutes. While pheasant is cooking, prepare sauce and figs.
• To serve, cut each packet on the bias into five or six thin slices, arrange on warm plates and serve with shallot and wildmushroom sauce. The caul fat should have cooked away, and so need not be removed for serving.

STUFFED CHICKEN BREASTS WITH APPLE CIDER VINEGAR SAUCE

Steps:

• Heat the oven to 425 degrees.
• For stuffing boil enough water to soak apricots and cranberries. Let soak for 15 minutes. Let apricots cool slightly and cut into small pieces and add to bowl with tomatoes and feta cheese. Season to taste with salt and pepper.
• Using sharp knife, cut horizontal slit 3/4 way through each chicken breast. Open like a book and place on a cooking sheet. I use a cooking stone sheet with great results. Place a couple of layers of spinach on each inside side of chicken breast. No need to steam first. Place as much of the stuffing mix as you can on one side and close the breast over. I don't use string, but you can if you find it easier. I stuff as much as I can, almost to the point of overstuffing.
• Lightly brush olive oil over breasts. Cover with foil for the first 10 mins of baking and then remove foil for last 30 mins or so. Actual time depends on breast size. I remove from oven when internal temp is 175 degrees. Cover with foil while you complete the sauce. I usually let sit covered for 10 mins or so.
• For sauce melt 1 tbsp butter in sauce pan on medium heat. Add garlic and brown. Add the cider vinegar and boil 2 minutes. Add the sugar and beef stock and reduce temperature slightly and continue to boil until sauce is reduced to desired thickness and taste. About 10-15 mins should do it. You can dilute with additional stock if you boil down too much. Season to taste with salt and pepper. You can play around with sugar and vinegar amounts to get the flavor that is right for you.
• You can serve breast as is or sliced. I prefer whole as I find that it tends to fall apart. Pour sauce over and serve.

PHEASANT AND APPLE CASSEROLE

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 350°F.
• In a small bowl, combine the flour, salt and pepper.
• Cut the pheasant into serving pieces and thoroughly coat each piece with the flour mixture.
• Melt the butter in a large skillet, add the pheasant and brown on both sides.
• Remove pieces to a 3 quart baking dish or casserole and sprinkle with the salt, pepper and thyme.
• Stir in the apple slices, mix the cider and vinegar and pour over the pheasant and apples.
• Cover and bake 1 1/4 hours.

PHEASANT BRAISED WITH LEEKS, CIDER & APPLES

Steps:

• For the pickled apples, put the salt, sugar, vinegar and berries in a small pan and bring to the boil. Remove from the heat, add the apple cubes and set aside.
• Heat the oil in a heavy-bottomed, high-sided casserole and season the pheasant joints with salt. Brown them all over, rendering out some of the yellow fat into the pan. Remove to a plate and season with pepper. Add the leeks, bacon and thyme to the pan along with a pinch of salt and a good grind of black pepper, and fry until the leeks have softened - about 8 mins. Add the apple slices and cook until starting to colour on both sides.
• Spoon in the brandy and cook until evaporated, add the cider and simmer for a few more mins to cook off the alcohol. Pour in the stock and bring to the boil. Reduce to a gentle simmer and add the pheasant joints back to the pan, covering with a circle of baking parchment.
• After 15 mins, remove the breasts from the pan to a plate and return the circle of baking parchment to the pan. Cook gently for a further 20 mins, then remove all the pheasant pieces from the pan to a plate and turn the heat up to reduce the sauce. Boil hard for a few min until reduced, then stir in the cream and mace and turn off the heat. Return the pheasant pieces to the sauce - the residual heat will warm it perfectly.
• Divide the pheasant between plates and spoon over the sauce. Garnish with the pickled apples and hazelnuts. Serve with our celeriac colcannon.

PHEASANT BREAST STUFFED WITH APPLES IN A CIDER VINEGAR AND PRUNE SAUCE

Steps:

• Place the apples into a small saucepan with the water, thyme, sugar, and salt. Bring to a boil over high heat, then reduce the heat to medium and simmer until the apples have softened and cooked down to a chunky applesauce, about 15 minutes. Remove the applesauce from the heat and stir in the breadcrumbs.
• Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C).
• Prepare the pheasant breasts to be stuffed by cutting a pocket horizontally into each breast. Spoon the apple and bread crumb stuffing into each breast. Wrap each breast with two strips of bacon and place them into a baking dish with the chopped onion. Pour the chicken stock over the pheasant breasts and season with salt and pepper.
• Roast the pheasant breasts in the preheated oven until well done and the juices from the meat run clear, 30 to 35 minutes.
• Remove the breasts from the baking dish and cover with aluminum foil. Pour the juices from the baking dish into a small saucepan with the cider vinegar and prunes; bring to a boil over high heat. Stir in the cream and continue to boil until thickened.
• Slice the breasts diagonally and fan out on the serving platter, spoon the prune sauce over the slices to serve.