Seared Pheasant, with wild mushrooms

Wow wie......can you believe it? We found two great cep mushrooms in our garden yesterday.....We thought the mushroom season was over, so you can imagine my shock, when we came across them. As usual, I got too excited and picked them, before I could take a picture at the location. I did take a proper picture once back at HQ - Highland Holiday Cottages . Used a plain paper white background, see below. If I don't say so myself, it's a great picture!. All I did was point and press, that's technology for you.




Decide to follow a great recipe, "Seared Pheasant with Potato and Cep Rösti". I have recently seen a large fancy supermarket also marketing this. Much better to make it yourself. It just so happened that I had a pheasant that Logan caught. (don't tell the game keeper), anyway this is what you need:

50g dried highland highland hedgehog mushrooms (see previous blog and fungi map)
2 large fresh ceps (see picture or more if you can find them)
1 onion1 leek (from our garden)
1 carrot (from our garden)
1 clove garlic
Few peppercorns
500ml red wine
500ml chicken stock (I used a two cubes)
1 sprig fresh thyme (from our garden)
75g salted butter
2 medium-sized potatoes
4 tablespoons chopped chives
2 tablespoons olive oil
A little olive oil
Sageleaves
Basil leaves
Wild Pheasant breast fillets (or partridge)
Salt and ground black pepper


This is what you need to do.....


Finely dice the onion, leek and carrot and crush the garlic. Sauté in a large, heavy-based pan for 5 minutes, then add the dried mushrooms once hydrated, peppercorns, wine and stock. Simmer for 40 minutes, skimming off any impurities. Strain through a fine sieve and return to a smaller pan. Add the thyme and reduce until about 300ml remains. Just before serving, whisk in the butter and season to taste.

For the rösti, grate the potato (not peeled, just scrubbed) and the ceps. Mix together with the chives and season. Heat a little olive oil in a 20cm non-stick pan and add half the potato and cep mixture. Spread it out evenly and cook for about 5 minutes. Turn it onto a plate, then cook the other side. The rösti should be golden-brown and crisp; if it needs further cooking, finish off in the oven. Repeat with the remaining mixture. Keep warm until required.

Place a few drops of olive oil in a frying pan and heat well. Cook the pheasant breast skin side down for 5 minutes before cooking the other side for a further 5 minutes. Sprinkle with seasoning and finish in the oven for 5 minutes at 200ºC, gas mark 6.

To serve, cut each rösti in half and slice each supreme into 4. Fan the pheasant out on top of the rösti. Spoon a little sauce over the pheasant and garnish with herbs.
Enjoy....yum yum