Taking the best meat from a pheasant - the quick no-pluck, no-smell method

Required:

• One pheasant
• Very sharp knife

 

Doing this on newspaper is a great idea because when you've finished you can simply wrap up the remains and pop it in the wheelie bin.

 

part the feathers at the breast bone and expose the skin as best you can. Gently cut the skin for an inch or two down the breast bone. Pull it apart with your fingers, tearing it all the way down and away from the meat.

 

slide your knife down one side of the breast bone. Cut the meat from the bone using the breast bone and wishbone as a guide. There is a very thin membrane separating you from the body cavity (you can see it in the picture below), and if you are very careful not to pierce this, there will be no smell at all. If you do break through into the body cavity it will make your kitchen smell a bit unpleasant for a while. Do this both sides to get the breast fillets off.

Now the legs. I think this is the tastiest meat. pull the skin away, just like taking off its PJ bottoms. Gently cut the meat away from the body and break the joint where the leg joins the body. Also break the knee joint to get the foot off (or is it the ankle? You know what I mean). There are some seriously hard tendons there that will need cutting.

That's it. It is possible to delve into the bird to get out the heart, kidneys and liver, but for today we'll just wrap up the remains and cook the meat.

Wrap the breast fillets in bacon and grill everything for a couple of minutes to seal it.

Put the meat in a casserole dish, pour on white wine and sprinkle with rosemary. Cover and cook in the oven.

When the meat is tender, pour off the juice, reduce / add some cornflour to thicken. Pour back over the meat and serve with roasties and lots of veg. That's just the way the bird would have wanted it. [edit - I can't believe I couldn't manage to pick matching plates after all that effort.]

Lime Cheesecake

I've finally managed to perfect my cheesecake recipe. I like to make the English-style cheesecake, which is unbaked. I've never been very successful folding in whipped egg-white, and so I leave that out. Some recipes simply use whipped cream and soft cheese, but I find that it doesn't really set, and so serving it gets messy. Some recipes use gelatine, but I've found that too much makes the cheesecake set like a jelly. I've settled on using a very small amount of gelatine, which makes the top of the cake firm but still creamy.

Ingredients

• Digestive biscuits - 175g
• Butter - 75g
• lime - 1 (cut a slice or two and reserve for decoration)
• full-fat soft cheese - 350g (one and a half 8oz tubs if using 'Philadelphia' type cheese)
• Whipping cream (whipped until stiff) - 150ml
• Gelatine - I use the granulated type. 1/4 of a sachet dissolved in a very small amount of hot water and allowed to cool

Method

1. Put the biscuits into a small plastic bag and get brutal with a rolling pin until they're crumbs
2. Melt the butter gently until all liquid, then stir the butter and biscuit crumbs together. Press this into the bottom of an 8" flan dish.
3. Mix the whipped cream, cheese and the lime juice and gelatin together in a food blender.
4. pour / spread this over the biscuit base. Arrange a slice or two of lime on top
5. Leave in the fridge overnight to set
6. Enjoy!!

Yurt Cake

Thanks to Helen for passing on this recipe for a cake which her friend Alex used to make. "still does, I suppose, in his yurt, so I'll call it Yurt Cake", she says.

Similar to Han's Freestyle Breakfast Biscuits, in that you can improvise as much as you want.

My first attempt wasn't entirely successful - I don't think it cooked long enough, and it only made a half-hearted attempt at rising. Next time I'll try making it drier and rolling it out into a flat tin like flapjacks.

It's still very tasty. A little bit bland, as it has no sugar (I'll try adding some honey next time), but strangely addictive.

Apologies to anyone English - this one's in volume rather than weight - but Americans will feel at home with cups.

Ingredients

• 1 cup of s/r flour
• 1 oats
• 1/2 of oil
• 1/2 raisins
• 1/2 seeds / nuts / dried fruit / ad lib
• Add fruit juice to moisten

Onion Bhajis

I'm accident-prone, and so deep-frying is quite a scary experience, but worth it for these.


Ingredients (makes 4 big ones or 6 small ones)

• gram flour (chick-pea flour) - 6oz
• onion - 1 chopped
• chillie - chopped, powder or paste
• cumin - a little
• corriander - a little
• yoghurt - 1 or 2 tbs

Method

1. mix together the above ingredients. Most are optional - I've made some delicious ones using just onion, chillie and gram flour
2. add just enough water so that the mixture binds together
3. drop into hot oil and fry until cooked through (deep golden brown)
4. Enjoy with a dollop of natural yoghurt!!

Pears poached in red wine

OK, presentation has never been a strong point of mine, but what these pears lack in presentation, they more than make up for in flavour.

There's no need for an ingredients list here, it's so simple. Other recipes add cinamon and other spices, then require you to strain and reduce the sauce. I prefer the lazy way!

Peel and halve the pears, scoop and cut out the core and stem, then place in an open cooking dish. sprinke with sugar to taste (I don't use too much), pour red wine into the scooped-out-core and allow to overflow into the dish. Add a little water, maybe half the quantity of wine.

Place in the oven on medium heat and leave until the pears are soft, and the wine / sugar / pear juice has started to thicken a little, but not dried out.

I like to serve them this way up, with the sauce poured into the middles.

I've been making these recently using last year's home-made elderberry wine; the result is heavenly.

Banana custard

I heard once that custard was a favourite dessert of ex-pm Margaret Thatcher. I don't know how true that is, but if so, she would have known it as creme anglais, and I'm sure she wouldn't have accepted the stuff if made from tinned custard powder. Check out the ingredients on a tin and you'll see that it's cornflour plus flavourings and colourings.

Try making it with egg yolk and real vanilla, and you won't buy another tin! The recipe below adds banana to make a delicious standalone dessert, but you can leave out the banana and pour it over any pie or crumble.

'Real' creme anglais recipes use a large number of egg yolks, which I find a little uneconomical. I've also never managed to get the stuff to thicken properly without using some flour. My recipe below is essentially a standard white sauce, with egg yolk, sugar and vanilla.

Ingredients

• flour (wheat flour) - 2 tsps per serving
• sugar to taste
• knob of butter per serving (approx equal volume to flour)
• egg yolks - one or two per serving
• milk - approx 1/4 pt per serving
• vanilla extract (the real stuff, not vanilla flavouring or vanillin)
• banana - 1 per serving

Method

1. put the sugar, butter and flour in a pan over a gentle heat, and blend together, allowing to cook for a minute or two
2. gradually add milk, just the right amount to get a thick, creamy consistency, with lots of stirring to avoid lumps forming
3. remove from heat and stir in vanilla and egg yolk
4. slice banana and add to the sauce.
5. put back on a very gentle heat. The aim is to cook the banana until soft, without allowing the sauce to get hot enough to start bubbling - this will cause the egg to cook and change the texture.
6. Enjoy!!

Bread and Butter Pud

Another for Dive. Easy to make and uses up the last half of a loaf of bread which is past its best.

Ingredients

• Bread - 4-6 slices - nice and thick
• Butter - some
• Milk - 1/4 pt
• Single Cream - 1/4 pt
• Eggs - 2 of
• Vanilla extract (the real stuff!) - 1 tsp
• Nutmeg - a pinch
• Brown Sugar - a little
• Sultanas - some

Method

1. Cut the crusts off the bread, or leave on if they're fairly soft
2. Butter the bread heavily on both sides and make 'sandwiches'.
3. Cut the sandwiches up and arrange in the baking dish (as pictured)
   
   
   
   
   
4. Add the fruit between the layers
5. Warm the milk, cream, vanilla and sugar in a pan - go up to but not above the temperature that will start to cook the egg
6. Remove from the heat and beat in the eggs
7. Sprinkle in a little nutmeg.
8. Pour the milk mixture over the bread and let it soak for a little while.
9. I like to squeeze the bread a bit to help it absorb the warm milk.
10. Bake in a preheated hot oven for about half an hour. There should be no liquid left, it should be golden brown on top, but still nice and soft.
11. Enjoy!