A neighbour of my Mum's gives her a brace of pheasants every Christmas. The first time she drove by and offered her some, my Mum enthusiastically agreed, peered into the car boot and was greeted by two beaks and lots of feathers. Luckily she's made of pretty stern stuff, and soon after they were plucked and drawn and had become pheasant casserole. Which has become our traditional Christmas Eve supper (probably replaced by KFC on the way back from the pub this year, as the Ewing and I are staying home. I can deal with that; as long as there's hot wings and extra gravy).
While nothing is quite the same in 2020, I didn't want to miss out on game season completely, so I turned to the late, great Gary Rhodes' New British Classics - a tome that celebrates and reinvents archetypal dishes from haggis to hotpot - in search of some inspiration.
While Rhodes' style is a little too precise for my 'chuck it in and give it a stir' philosophy, it's a great book - enthusiastically written and researched at a time when it was most needed - in 1988 Rhodes appeared on Floyd on Britain and Island, cooking his signature oxtail dish but by the time British Classics was published, a little over a decade later, British beef on the bone had been banned due to vCJD. He still included the recipe and, thankfully, it's now safely available again. Although I wonder if the boost he have it also accounts for the eye-watering cost of buying what once was a cheap cut.
Unlike my Mum, I don't live near a shoot. I'm also more than happy for someone to do the hard work for me. Luckily Waitrose came to the rescue, with the bonus that their pheasants are not only- oven ready, but are are also bacon-topped to protect the white meat that's prone to dryness. Of course you could easily use chicken in this recipe - whole or jointed - or a guinea fowl or a couple of partridge, which should be pretty easy to source at this time of year.
Gary roasts his pheasant while the barley is cooking but, in the absence of a main oven, I pot-roasted mine in the top oven with the lid on, sitting on the part-cooked barley, to keep the delicate meat stayed moist. I also used smoked bacon, not green, from the great Orchard View Farm shop, deep in the Buckinghamshire countryside, as I the smokiness matched the whisky.
Finally I chucked in some celery, a great match with pheasant. Some diced carrot or mushrooms, added to the pot with the barley, would also work well and boost the veg quota. A perfect autumnal Sunday lunch after a long walk through a misty wood. Follow with a nip of the same whisky that went into the sauce.
Pot roasted pheasant with bacon and pearl barley
Adapted from Gary Rhodes New British Classics
1 oven-ready hen pheasant
175g smoked bacon lardons
2 sticks of celery, finely chopped
1 onion, finely chopped
2tbsp vegetable oil or rapeseed oil
600ml chicken stock
1 tbsp fresh parsley, chopped
For the sauce
4 tbsp Scotch whisky
200ml chicken stock
100ml double cream
Rinse the barley under a cold tap. Heat 1tbsp of the oil in a casserole dish (with a lid) add the bacon, celery and onion and cook until onion is translucent. Add the barley, cover with stock, put the lid the pan and cook on low for 30 mins until the barley is nearly done.
Pre-heat the oven to 180c
While the barley is cooking heat a tbsp of oil in a pan and place the pheasant, breast side down, in the pan. Brown both sides and then place, breast side up, on top of the barley. Cover with a lid, place in the oven and cook for 25/30 minutes or until the juices run clear when you pierce the thigh.
While the pheasant is roasting, place the pan used to brown the pheasant back on the hob and add the whisky to deglaze. Add the chicken stock, reduce by half and add the cream. Simmer for another five minutes and then add add another splash of neat whisky.
Cut the legs off the birds and carve the breasts. Place the meat on a bed of the bacon and barley, serve with veg and the cream sauce poured over the pheasant.
Finish with chopped parsley.
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