Pheasant Pate Recipes

ROASTED PHEASANT: PHEASANT ALLA FIORENTINA

Steps:

• Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.
• Heat a large saute pan over medium heat and add 1 tablespoon olive oil. Add the pancetta to the hot oil and render its fat. Once it begins to brown, add the ground pork and prosciutto and cook, while stirring, about 4 minutes. When the pork is no longer pink, add the garlic and sage and saute until fragrant, about 1 minute more. Deglaze the pan with 1/4 cup white wine, scraping up the browned bits from the bottom of the pan. Stir in the bread crumbs. Remove the stuffing mixture to a bowl and allow to cool.
• Season the cavity of the birds with salt and pepper.
• Divide the stuffing evenly between the two pheasants' cavities.
• Roast the pheasants 25 minutes. Add 1/2 cup white wine to the bottom of the pan. Turn the oven heat up to 425 degrees F and cook another 25 minutes, or until a thermometer inserted in the thickest part of breast registers 160 degrees F. Allow to rest 10 minutes before serving so the juices can redistribute.
• Remove the dressing from the bird and serve along side. Garnish the dish with fresh sage leaves.

PHEASANT PATE

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 350℉ (180℃). Sprinkle salt and pepper on outsides of birds. If they have been skinned, place bacon slices over them. Bake in a covered roasting pan in ½ inch of water for 1 to 1½ hours. You want the meat to fall from the bones. Cool: remove all meat and put through the fine blade of a meat grinder or use metal blade of food processor to mince finely. Add 1 tablespoon grated onion, egg and butter. Mix in sour cream to thoroughly moisten mixture and make it spreadable. Add salt and pepper; mix well and pack in tightly closed jars and refrigerate or freeze.

PHEASANT PATE

Steps:

• In a food processor, mix the pheasant meat, (put aside the breasts), the pork butt, the shallots, thyme, bay leaves, leeks, parsley, salt, pepper, cognac and white wine. Put the mixture into a bowl and put the breast meat, livers and the truffle on top. Cover and set aside in the refrigerator for 4 days. When you are ready to fill the terrine, chop the liver, truffles and the pheasant breasts to make it easier to spread them out into a layer in the pate. Line the mould you have chosen for the pate with a piece of plastic wrap. Press it down into the corners of the mould. Then lay your caul fat over the inside of the wrap. Fill one third of the mould with the forcemeat. Then arrange half the lard, breast meat, livers and truffle in the middle. Add one third more forcemeat, then the remainder of the lard, breast meat, livers and truffles. Cover with the remainder of the forcemeat. Fold the caul fat back over onto the pate. Cover the pate with tin foil and bake it in a Bain Marie in the oven for 2 hours, or until the internal temperature has reached 150 degrees Fahrenheit and a knife inserted in the middle comes out very hot. When the pate has cooked, remove it from the oven, place a foil-covered brick or kitchen weights on top and allow it to cool overnight. Flavours develop after a day, so if you can leave it for a day it will be even better. Remove the pate from the mould. Slice and serve with toast, pickles and chutney.

PHEASANT POT PIE

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C).
• Bring broth to a boil in a pot; add pheasant, carrots, and celery and boil until pheasant is cooked through, about 15 minutes. Add peas to broth and boil for 1 minute. Drain and reserve broth from pot.
• Melt butter in a separate pot over medium heat; cook and stir onion until translucent, about 5 minutes. Gradually stir flour into butter until smooth. Pour reserved broth and milk into flour mixture, stirring constantly. Add salt, rosemary, pepper, sage, and celery seed to broth mixture and simmer over medium-low heat until sauce is thickened, about 5 minutes.
• Lower oven temperature to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C).
• Press 1 pie crust into a pie plate and lightly brush with egg white.
• Bake crust in the oven until lightly browned, about 5 minutes.
• Spoon about 1/4 of the pheasant-vegetable mixture into the baked pie crust. Mix remaining pheasant-vegetable mixture into the sauce; pour into baked pie crust. Place second crust on top of the filling, pinching the edges together to form a seal. Cut your initials into the top crust for ventilation.
• Bake in the oven until top is golden brown, about 40 minutes.