Celebration pheasant recipe with plums and spices à la Monique
My Mum celebrated her birthday this month. As your parents get older, each birthday is a bit more special than the one before. Racking up the years is an achievement. So we wanted to make the celebration lunch a bit special. “Why don’t we create a pheasant dish for your mum?” “She loves Victoria plums and we have some in the freezer. I reckon that they’d work well with pot roast pheasant.” And they did. This is a really easy recipe that tastes as if you have slaved for hours. The sauce has loads of depth and vroom and the pheasant...
read moreBest Pheasant recipes: two winning recipes for pheasant
We are well into the pheasant shooting season in the UK. It runs from October to February. As we don’t shoot ourselves, we are either given game or swap plucking and dressing game in exchange for a brace. This gives us a reasonable supply for the last three months of the season. The first month is a bit of a desert for us – I hear the bang of guns and know that no one will knock at our door. Having waited eight months to bag the first brace this game is solely for the family tables of the guns. However there is only so much pheasant...
read moreThe slow cooker chef: Recipe for lazy, tasty Pheasant and Venison casserole à la Beastley
Sometimes I have to accept a decorating job that I don’t want. I sense on the initial visit that I will not be happy there and make my excuses. I can’t say, “I don’t like you and I don’t want to work for you.” So I explain apologetically that I have a one year waiting list at the moment. Sometimes I treble my quote. The ‘bad job’ radar blipped on my reccy visit to a couple that I will call The Beastleys. They were just a bit too charming and gushy. I trebled my hourly rate and placed them at the...
read moreBest recipes for left overs: Comforting pheasant pie recipe
Last week we ate a slow pot roast pheasant baked in a nest of spicy red cabbage. It was pretty good – an easier variation of the recipe that appeared in The Times . But I didn’t think that it was a patch on our gypsy style roast pheasant. This evening I made a pheasant pie with the remaining meat. I have be wanting to make a game pie that incorporated a thick bechamel sauce for ages and with six pints of fresh bechamel sauce at the hip now was my chance. Our recipe for thick bechamel is contained in our cauliflower cheese...
read moreBest recipes for leftovers: pot roast Pheasant and mushroom pie with cider recipe
A nibble of cold pheasant, straight from the fridge, is good if a little dry when one is grazing at lunchtime. But I never fancy a proper meal of cold game remnants.This is a hot pie that we made using up the Gypsy style pot roast pheasant leftovers (about half a pheasant) including the remains of the delicious gooey sauce from the base of the casserole (2 tablespoonfuls). You have to make the first dish to get the essential elements of the second. We love this pot roast pheasant but love the sauce more. I was surprised at how much meat was...
read moreGuest Spot: Casserole of Partridge with Savoy Cabbage and Chorizo recipe by Jocelyn Probert
Our friends Miles and Jocelyn live in England at the moment but they also have place in France. An hour’s drive from Versailles, their charming house is within driving distance of several great restaurants, markets and shops. They are gourmets and eat out at lot in both countries. Jocelyn has already contributed to our blog with her memorable starter Jocelyn’s Baked Garlic. With a barely perceptible arm twist she sent me this stunning recipe for game. If you do not pig out there is the option of a spicy game soup the following day....
read moreSunday Roast: Emma’s easy roast chicken recipe with automatic garlic sauce (also works well with roast pheasant)
My friend Emma gave me this special roast chicken recipe. Everyone loves it, including her young children and it’s quick and easy to prepare. The chicken sits in the stock as it roasts so it is succulent and full of flavour. The garlic sauce is delicious and doesn’t blow your head off. If you are looking for an easy way to cook pheasant this recipe works very well with game. Ingredients: 1 chicken (approx 1.5 kilos) 1 head of garlic 300-600 ml of hot chicken stock (depending on the size of your casserole. There needs to be enough...
read morePheasant stew with mushrooms, oven baked shallots and Puy lentils recipe
This is the first time that The Cottage Smallholder has participated in a blog event. ‘Waiter There’s Something In My…’ is hosted across three great sites. The first theme is stews. *See the bottom of this post for the link to the details. Tasty pheasant dishes needn’t be rich to be good. This stew is packed with flavour and is good to eat at this stage in the season when you might be beginning to suffer from a surfeit of rich game dishes. We call this condition Pheasantitis. The only remedy is to freeze the birds...
read morePheasant braised with grapes, clementine juice and white wine recipe
Sometimes the Cottage Smallholder game plucking service comes in very handy. We’ll pluck and draw some game in exchange for a brace of pheasant or partridge. This gives us a good supply of fresh game right through the shooting season. This is our own recipe for pheasant and grapes, braised in clementine juice and white wine. The fruit both tenderises the flesh and balances well with the rich meat of the pheasant. Loads of summery flavours. The ginger wine was an experiment that worked surprisingly well. This is quick to prepare and...
read moreDavid’s pheasant breasts sautéd in butter and marsala recipe
You will need a steak hammer for this recipe or a sturdy wooden rolling pin. This is the story of how I found mine. Many years ago, at the end of my first tumultuous love affair, my mother gave me a two week holiday on the island of Hero (one stop on from Gomera) in the Canary Islands. She booked me into a hotel that was starred in The Good Hotel Guide. She had loathed my boyfriend and probably hoped that I’d meet a new Adonis. I was happy to go along with the plan and arrived safely on the island in a small propeller plane. The spacious...
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Win £50 worth of B&Q vouchers with The Cottage Smallholder and Direct Line Grand Draw
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Update on the remaining Min Pins
It’s the little things that make the difference