Pheasant and mushroom stroganoff
It's cold and wet out but that doesn't stop the regular shoots on the estate and I am lucky enough to be offered a few birds from time to time. I love coming up with new recipes for this meat that I don't cook regularly, less keen on butchering the birds in the garden in the freezing cold though, but because our kitchen is not particularly spacious I prefer not to do it in here as I always end up with a house full of feathers.
Unless it's a particularly big bird I tend to take the breast meat off for our use rather than plucking the whole bird neatly for a roast, any other meat I can take off I put aside for cooking up for Floyd and cats, so nothing goes to waste.
In this recipe I have been deliberately vague on the volume of chicken stock and creme fraice that you will want to use, I prefer heavy on the cream and a thick sauce so use about 75ml of stock, but if you are serving with pasta you might want to make it a lighter sauce. So long as you don't add it all at once you can stop when you reach a perfect consistency for your recipe.
Pheasant and mushroom stroganoff
Serves 2
Ingredients
2 tbsp olive oil
1 large onion, finely chopped
3 garlic cloves, finely chopped
1/2 tbsp thyme
200g button mushrooms
1 tsp butter
2 pheasant breasts, approx 250g, sliced
150 ml chicken stock
1 tbsp brandy, optional
3-4 tsp creme fraice
Salt & black pepper
Method
Heat 1 tsp of the oil in a large pan, add the onions and saute for about 5 minutes on a low heat, they want to be translucent.
While the onions are cooking heat a frying pan with the rest of the oil and a small knob of butter. I used the butter to help caramelise the meat as pheasant does not have much fat on it. Brown the pheasant and then remove from the pan, keep the frying pan on the stove to deglaze, very carefully as it will spit at first add a dash of the chicken stock and the brandy. Cook for about 1 minute scraping any meaty bits left in the pan and reducing the alcohol to a sauce, adding more stock as required, you might find you do not need it all. Remove the pan from the heat.
To the onions add the garlic and thyme stir in and then add the mushrooms, cook for another 5 minutes. Add the meat and the sauce and bring up to a simmer, again topping up with chicken stock to your liking, before adding the creme fraice, salt and plenty of black pepper. Cook gently for 5-10 minutes.
Serve with wild and basmati rice.