Pot roast pheasant
Cooking game comes with the risk of drying the meat out. Pot roasting is a very easy way to avoid this and I always get great results with pheasant this way, with the super-rich gravy an excellent by-product! Ideal for a Christmas day for one. Or for two if you can get one of the larger birds from a game dealer.
Step 1 - The pheasant
Preheat the oven to 200°C.
In an ovenproof dish with a lid, load with the onions, carrots, celery and chorizo.
Nestle the pheasant in the vegetable mix, add the herbs and season.
Pour over the wine and enough stock to half cover the bird.
Roast with the lid on for 45 - 60 minutes until the meat is cooked and tender.
Step 2 - The gravy
Remove the bird from the pot and drain the contents through a sieve into a clean saucepan.
Heat the saucepan and thicken using your preferred method
Top tip: Bisto powder will give the gravy and nice dark colour, or use cornflour to keep the lighter appearance - in both cases mix a tablespoon of powder with a little cold water and drizzle the resulting paste into the bubbling gravy. Alternatively, concentrate the liquid with a squeeze of tomato paste.While the gravy thickens, carve the pheasant and plate up.
Serve with all the trimmings!
Ingredients
1 onion, chopped
2 carrots, peeled and cut into chunks
3 sticks celery, chopped into chunks
100g Chorizo, chopped into chunks
1 whole pheasant, prepared
3 sprigs rosemary
4 bay leaves
1 tsp black peppercorns
250ml red wine
Chicken stock (up to 500ml)
Bisto or cornflower to thicken
