Roast Pheasant

[lostkat]

We bought a pheasant from Leicester Market last weekend for the bargainacious price of £2 so I thought I'd roast it this weekend.

Pheasant can be a bit tough, especially if you've got an older bird so it's generally casseroled. However, you can roast it too and it's really easy. 1 pheasant serves 2 with some left overs for a game casserole or something.

Ingredients
1 pheasant (I asked the butcher to gut/be-head/de-foot mine for me)
5 slices of good quality streaky bacon
half and onion
a few sprigs of thyme - leaves stripped off
shedload of butter
splash of olive oil
1 slice of bread

1. Put a large lump of butter and a smidge of olive oil into a roasting tin and put into an oven on GM7. Leave for 5-10 mins to warm up.
2. Take Mr Pheasant and shove the half onion, thyme leaves and a knob of butter up his cavity.
3. Lay the bacon over the breast (to keep it moist/tender)
4. Season the bird and drizzle a little olive oil over.
5. Once the oil is really hot, put the slice of bread into the roasting tin. It should brown on 1 side within 2 minutes.
6. Once it's browned, turn it over and put the pheasant on top.
7. Roast for 20 minutes, then turn down to GM 4 and roast for another 40-50 minutes, by which time the juices should run clear if you stick a skewer into the leg.
8. Take out of the oven, transfer to a carving dish and rest for 10 minutes beneath some foil.
9 Make gravy out of all the lovely pheasant juices.
10. Carve and serve with roasties, veg and your lovely gravy

Easy Gravy
1. Heat the juices in the roasting tin gently and stir in 1 tbsp plain flour.
2. Let it sizzle for a few minutes and then add 250-400ml (depending on how thick you like it) of chicken stock, a little bit at a time, whisking thoroughly.
3. Bring to the boil, whisking all the time and then pour into a serving jug.



Right, I'm off to snigger in the corner at all the pervy words I've managed to get into this recipe