I’m not a pheasant plucker…

In an effort to economise , I had decided to try to cook some of the random things I have lurking at the bottom of my freezer, so along with some rogue frozen peas, some indefinable bags of some kind of sauce that clearly I thought was delicious enough to freeze but wasn’t efficient enough to label, there were two packs of boneless pheasant. Delighted with my booty, I decided that a pheasant casserole with chestnut mushrooms, blackberry jelly and mustard was the ideal thing, and whilst maybe not a fresh, summer recipe and more suited to a cold day, would still be delicious for dinner, maybe we could borrow some air conditioning to make it seem more wintery? This dish would work really well with chicken, venison or rabbit. You will need : Boneless pheasant thigh fillets,small packet of cubed pancetta, 1 chopped onion, handful of chopped fresh herbs, 2 cloves of garlic, crushed,2 tablespoons of bramble jelly (or redcurrant if you have no bramble), 1 tablespoon wholegrain mustard, punnet of Chestnut mushrooms and 1/4 pint strong chicken stock, glass of red wine or port., Salt and pepper to taste

The method is simple: Fry the pancetta until golden in a heavy bottomed casserole (le creuset is perfect), add chopped onion and garlic and fry until brown, add the herbs and the pheasant and mushrooms and brown for a couple of minutes. Add the mustard, bramble jelly, stock and red wine. Bring to the boil and place in a low over (Gas Mark 3 or 160C) for a minimum of  2 hours. Don’t forget when you are cooking game, that because of the low fat content, it is never going to be falling apart tender like chicken and will always have a slightly drier, firmer consistency, but I find if it is gently simmered fo a long time, that the consistency is lovely. Serve with mashed potatoes and a green vegetable and the good thing about this is you can leave it simmering away in the oven while you nip out to the shops, to buy yourself a little treat …economising, who me??