got a couple of lbs of pidgeon and pheasant breasts from a shoot yesterday.
recommend me a nice recipe for them please.

marinade with some venison and wild boar in red wine, herbs, garlic and juniper for a couple of days

make pie

salivate

not a big fan of pheasant on it's own but pigeon breasts can be cooked and used as a starter/in salad

they'll be a bit tough as they haven't hung for very long assuming they were shot yesterday

Go easy with Juniper.

They go real nice just seared in butter and olive oil carved onto a wild mushroom risotto.

Pie is good, as is game terrine with some damson chutney.

I would hang them for about 3-4 days, possibly longer if its a cock.
I'm trying a Pheasant in cider sauce when I get some birds.

Bigos is a Polish dish that really works well with game birds (as an ingredient as opposed to using it to seduce a willing female). You'll need some Polish sausage as well as tomatoes, junipers, sauerkraut and about three days of cooking, cooling, cooking etc.

Bigos

Pigeon breast – Sear in a little oil, then serve sliced as mentioned above.

Pheasant – Stuff the bird with some rice, onions, and whatever else takes your fancy. Put in to the pot. Pour a bottle of cheap red over it. Cook. Eat. Nomnomnomnomnom.

could do a sort of osso bucco recipe… flour the birds and fry, then cook with stock, onions, nice quality olives, squeeze of orange juice and zest, and a little fennel…nom nom nom…
mushroom risotto sounds good though…
or maybe wrap in prochuto or parma ham and flavour with sage or rosemary…ohh yeah…
*gets up to make a cheese tosty tosty to stop mouth watering*

we did this at the weekend(bit of a fiddle but worth it);

Rustic Pheasant Casserole (Serves 4)

I always find that casseroles are better the day after they are made and reheated, which makes this a perfect dinner party dish as everything apart from the green vegetables and potatoes you might be serving with it, is done! Potato Dauphinoise is very good with this but it is just as delicious with some good quality warm crusty bread to soak up the juices.

Ingredients:
• 8 baby onions, peeled and kept whole or halved if they are a bit larger
• 1 clove of garlic, crushed
• 4 portabella mushrooms, sliced fairly thickly
• 5 juniper berries, crushed in a pestle and mortar or with the back of a large knife
• 2 rashers of smoked streaky bacon or pancetta, chopped into lardons
• 4 pheasant breasts cut into about 4 pieces each (the thighs could be used in this too and it would feed a couple more)
• 1 bouquet garni (a parcel of thyme, parsley stalk and bay leaf)
• 2 carrots
• 2 celery stalks
• 2 large glasses of red wine
• 1 tin of chopped tomatoes
• ½ beef stock cube melted in 250ml boiling water or the same amount of fresh stock of any kind (apart from lamb or fish) if you happen to have it to hand.
• 1 tbsp Worcester sauce
• Pepper and salt
• A good handful of thyme, chopped finely
• Oven on at 170c

Method:
In a large casserole dish with a lid, heat a tbsp of olive oil and add the onions. Fry for a couple of minutes until golden and then add the crushed garlic, juniper berries and the mushrooms. Careful not to burn the garlic at this stage as it will give the dish a bitter flavour. Take the pan off the heat for a while if needs be, (casseroles retain their heat for some time). Fry for another minute and then remove everything from the pan.

Without cleaning it, add the bacon and pheasant to the pan (if you are using the thighs too, you may have to do this in batches so that everything browns nicely, you may also need to add a little more oil at this stage if the pan looks a little dry).

Fry the meat until it is golden brown but don't worry about it being cooked through at this stage.

When all the meat is brown add the onions, garlic, juniper berries and mushrooms back to the pan and turn up the heat. When the pan is hot (without burning everything!) add the red wine. It will sizzle and you need to reduce it by about half, which will take about 5-10 minutes depending on how hot your pan was when you added the wine (it doesn't have to be exact). Then add the tomatoes, stock and Worcester sauce and bring it all up to the boil.

Finally add the bouquet garni, and season with salt and pepper. Give it a stir to combine all the ingredients and then put the lid on and place in the centre of the oven for 1½ hrs. Check it after an hour and if the liquid is sufficiently reduced and the pheasant is tender then, it is ready. Just add the thyme before serving. NB: You could put the casserole in the oven for longer if the heat was lower (just adjust it accordingly).

Serve with plain boiled potatoes or mash and lightly cooked greens, such as kale or cabbage.

incidently here is a pic of 14 week old springer retrieving her first pheasant!

Gooner, that sounds utterly amazing!

Gooner, that's a much better way of saying what I was describing above!

Oh, and cracking span! Going to work properly when older?

martin
sounds ace, bit long winded tho…………
fancy the parma ham parcel type things tho, with some fruity type sauce… 8)

yes we are – beating and picking up hopefully
she's absolutely great

From a shoot?

Round my way you just pick it up while you're having a breather on a road ride – freshly killed or allowed to season (hand is over stating it) for a week or so.

See you tomorrow Ton.