Recipe Experiment: Stuffed Pheasant Thighs w/ Quince & Prosecco Red Cabbage, Leek Verbena Puree & Creamy Mash

by Simon Fernandez of ferdiesfoodlab

I fancied something a little different for a special dinner the other day so when I came across some pheasant thighs at the market I snapped them up, with no idea what I would do with them.  I wanted something tasty & comforting, so I was pretty happy when I pulled this little number together to make a lovely celebratory winter dinner!!

The cabbage is cooked in prosecco, quince and juniper berries, and the cooking liquor is the base for the sauce. Quince juniper & pheasant go very well together and when you add in the fragrance from the leek and verbena puree, it makes for a rather nice bite to eat! With a bit of bacon and creamy mash sneaked in it’s a winner!!! : )

See note at the bottom on lemon verbena.

ingredients (serves 4) 

8 stuffed pheasant thighs

200g leek verbena puree

600g  creamy mash

500g red cabbage in quince jelly sauce

300ml quince & cider reduction

for the stuffed pheasant thighs

8 pheasant thighs (skinned & boned)

120g pancetta

180g mushroom stuffing (recipe here)

~

Put a heavy gauge baking tray in the oven and turn it up to 240C.

Lay a sheet of clingfilm on the table, and a slice or two of pancetta on top.

Place a pheasant thigh on top of that and add a little stuffing.

Lift the cling film from the edge nearest you to roll the thigh and stuffing to wrap them in pancetta.

Place the meaty package to one side and repeat until they’re all done.

Take the baking tray out of the oven and place them onto it. 

They should sizzle when they touch the tray.

Put them straight back in the oven for 8 minutes. Then take them out and leave to rest for 4 minutes.

They dry out if they’re in too long!

for the leek verbena puree (makes ~500g)

500g  leek (cleaned & diced)

1 onion (diced)

50g olive oil

100g  dry white wine

1/2 lemon (juice)

3g lemon verbena (4g on the stalk)

25g butter (cubes)

~

Cook the leek and onion with the olive oil on a medium heat.

Keep the lid on, and cook them until they are soft, about 30-40 minutes. 

Remove the lid and add the wine and lemon and reduce until the liquid had gone.

Pick was and finely chop the lemon verbena and add it and the butter cubes. 

Using stick blender blend until smooth.

for the red cabbage in quince jelly sauce w/ beetroot (makes ~500g)

500g (1/2) red cabbage (coarsely  shredded)

1  large beetroot (medium dice - 1/2 to 1cm)

450ml  prosecco

150ml  OJ

8  juniper berries (crushed)

2 tbsp  quince jelly

25ml  sherry vinegar

~

Prep the ingredients, and add them all except the cabbage to a saucepan.

Stirring until the jelly is dissolved and the whole mix has come to the boil.

Set to a gentle simmer and cook with the lid on for about 15minutes, then add the cabbage. 

Cook for a further 15-20mins untli the cabbage is soft. (to taste)

Drain off the liquor, add a knob of butter and season if it needs it.

for the quince & cider reduction

liquid from the cooked cabbage

touch of lemon

weigh 1/3 weight butter

~

The liquor from the cabbage should have a syrupy consistency. Reduce it until it does if not!

Zero a small pan on a set of scales and weigh the sauce.

Weigh a third the weight of butter and cut into small cubes.

Just before serving, bring the sauce to the boil and add the butter string constantly until it’s completely dissolved and the sauce is rich and glossy.

to serve

Place a ring old off centre on each plate and fill with cabbage, pipe on the mash potato, then the lemon verbena. Slice the pheasant thighs into halves and place 4 halves inside each cabbage ring. Garnish each plate with lemon verbena. Lift the rings just before serving and serve with some sauce on the side. Don’t forget a nice red wine to go with it!!

Result!

One thing that worked particularly well with this dish was the lemon verbena puree. I’d not really used lemon verbena before so when I came across some in that garden I thought I’d give it a test run! It’s quite fragrant and has a lovely flavour with a decent amount of punch! Definitely worth a go if you can find it! (Garden centre!)

Recipe: Mushroom Spread (Stuffing)

by Simon Fernandez of ferdiesfoodlab

We’re well into game season now, and the other I came across some pheasant thighs, so I snagged them to do some testing. There were 8 rather small skinless deboned thighs, so I decided to stuff them, and ended up making a rather passable mushroom spread!! 

ingredients (makes ~600g)

for the mushroom spread

225g chestnut mushrooms

150g stale bread (blended to a fine crumb)

10g sage (picked)

125g (1) leek (finely chopped)

40g sunflower seeds (toasted)

10g butter (for toasting)

2 large free range eggs

apparatus / equipment

food processor

method

Add a knob of butter to a frying pan on medium heat and toast the sunflower seeds.

Once golden brown put them into a mixing bowl.

Pick the sage and chop it up. 

Chop up mushroom and leek and cook them all on a medium heat in the same pan as the sunflower seeds. Cook them until they have started to brown.

Meanwhile blend the bread in a food processor until there are no large lumps left.

Add the cooked leek & mushroom mix and the eggs, and blend until smooth.

Transfer the mix to the mixing bowl and mix the nuts in. 

Season with salt & pepper, and it’s ready to spread on your toast or crackers.

thinking ahead

This will last a couple of weeks in he fridge problem! Ready for those canapés whenever you need it! 

If you’re making stuffed pheasant thighs, you can make them in the afternoon and put them in the fridge until you need them.

links

I’ll add link to pheasant thighs when I put up the post on Friday.

variations

Leftovers - Recipe: Special Fried Rice or Duck and Apple Haggis

by Simon Fernandez of ferdiesfoodlab

I use all manner of variations of special fried rice to use up leftovers!  This one came about when I was running a duck menu last summer. 

Once all the development is done comes scaling it up for a banquet. It was the first time we’d scaled it up in anger, you always have to make alterations to ingredients, quantities and the process. On this particular occasion I totally miss-judged the amount of duck we needed (always have more than you need, hungry banqueters ain’t a pretty site!), and as it happens we had a giant haggis leftover too!! Secretly thinking RESULT!! : )

The key elements in this recipe are the caramelised apple and the haggis, they make a great backdrop of the duck and the cavolo nero. After the onions, which deepen the flavour and also add some lighter notes (spring onion), the rest is completely optional!

One note I will make is that the Braeburn apples that I used weren’t quite ripe which meant they had a good bite to them so they put up well with the caramelising process, staying in chunks and adding a sharp note when they were bit into, perfect against the haggis and the duck!!! Still I don’t think I’d use cooking apples!

Unusual, minimal effort and really really good!!!

ingredients (serves 6)

for the caramelised apple 

4 Braeburn apples (3/4 cm dice)

1 lemon (juiced)

1 tbsp sugar

1/4 tsp cinnamon

for the duck and apple haggis

300g picked duck (picked form carcass)

300g caramelised apple (from above)

700g haggis (cooked and broken up)

cavolo nero (1cm slices)

1 leek (cleaned and small dice)

1 large onion (medium dice)

6 spring onion (chopped)

1 pepper (deseeded, medium dice)

2 carrots (medium dice - 1/2cm)

2 eggs

200g boiled rice

2 roast potatoes (coarse chop)

for the garnish

5g chives (chopped)

caramelised apple 

Juice the lemon into a bowl big enough to hold the apples 

Peel and dice the apples about 3/4 cm dice. Add them to the lemon juice and toss to coat them and stop them going brown.

You want them to release a burst of flavour when you bite into the chunks, smaller than this and they’ll turn to mush!

Once they’re all dice put them into a medium hot pan and allow them to release juice without moving them about too much.

Once they’ve stopped releasing juice and there’s almost none left add the cinnamon and the sugar and toss them to coat well.

Leave them until the sugar stars to caramelise the apple chunks, once done put them aside until needed.

for the duck and apple haggis

Add a little oil and the eggs to a hot pan then add the boiled rice and chopped roast potatoes and mix well, one the egg is cooked put the mix into a large mixing bowl. This step is optional, I was just using up leftovers, that is after all the point or the exercise!

The bowl is not optional!! The rice and potatoes are!! K?

Next make a kind of mirepoix from the onion, leek, pepper, carrots and cavolo nero, season and once cooked add this to the mixing bowl.

Add a little more oil to the pan and ad the picked duck pieces toss to coat them (a smidgen of hoisin sauce at this point doesn’t hurt but it’s optional) and then leave them a few minutes to crisp up a little. Add them to the mix.

Right, time to release the Haggis! Add some more oil to the pan and add the crumbled (already cooked haggis) and warm through. Add this to the mix and mix in well.

Then mix in the raw chopped spring onion and lastly gently fold in the caramelised apple

to serve

Chuck some chopped chives over the top and serve immediately!! I served this with some larger duck pieces and hoisin sauce and some soused cucumber and mange tout.

variations

It really doesn’t need the rice or roast potatoes! The haggis is a good stogy substance and will put up with being loaded with quite a lot of vegetable! Pick what every you want! Pork goes well with this too instead of duck. . . 

It ain’t going to get any Michelin Stars but it’s a good feed if there are a few of you!! : )

Experiment Recipe: Shin of Veal

by Simon Fernandez of ferdiesfoodlab

After 6 months being bounced around from one place to another, I've finally found somewhere I can cook!! You have no idea how much that means to me!! I didn't until this week! To be able to cook in a kitchen without being frowned at for one reason or another, gorgeous aromas emanating form my sauce pan or stock pot . . . hmmmmm; I have to say, it's nice to be able to get back to experimenting in the kitchen, vey nice indeed!! 

On that note here's and experiment I did the other day, with what looked like a rather large lamb shank, actually veal.

As you can see from the components (carrots, cabbage, potatoes), there's lots of very standard things in this experiment. It's is really about the veal shin, and how is comes out after braising. I've treated the rest of the accompaniments very simply. So if worst come to the worst, we've got some nice veggies and things to eat, think I might make a giant yorkshire pudding too, you know, just in case!! He he . . . 

Now that's a yorkshire pudding!! (The pyrex dish is 12" long)

ingredients (serves 4) 

for the veal & gravy

2 shin of veal (seasoned and seared brown)

3 onions (charred)

1 leek (cleaned and cut unto 2cm lengths)

2 star anise

2 chicken stock cubes

2L water

4g flavoured salt

for the carrots

4 carrots (pealed, and cut into 1/3's)

50g butter

1 tsp flavoured salt 

2 star anise

flavoured salt

300g salt

1 tsp smoked paprika

1/2 tsp garlic powder

for the savoy cabbage

1 savoy cabbage (outer leaves off, but into 1/4's)

for the potatoes

8 medium desiree potatoes (cleaned, 1/4's skin on)

or jersey royals at this time of year

apparatus / equipment

Frying pan.

Large braising pot.

method

veal

Coat the meat in a thin film of oil - so the salt sticks - then sear it in a pan to brown the outside.

Once browned put it in the pot where it will be braised.

Peal and halve the onions, then add a little olive oil to the same pan and put the onions in flat side down, cook on a medium high heat until the flat sides are charred, then add them to the pot.

Add 2L water, bring to the boil and set to simmer 3hrs

carrots

Put all the ingredients in to a small pan, bring to the boil then set to simmer for 30-40mins

flavoured salt

Measure the ingredients and then mix well until a evenly distributed seasoning is created! Job done!

savoy cabbage

Boil in salted water, drain, leaving it as dry as possible, allow it to let off steam on a tea towel. The leaves of  a savoy cabbage will are all crinkly and will carry a lot of water, you want that to be lovely gravy instead of water, so get them as dry as possible.

You don't want lots of water diluting the gravy . . . . eeeeuuuwh!!

potatoes

Boil them in salted water, a 1.5inch diced potatoes take approx. 6-8mins (after the water starts boiling) to cook. Depending on the size of course!

thinking ahead

Put it on at lunch time, it'll be ready for tea time with very little effort!

to serve

Put each thing into serving trays and let people help themselves!!

verdict - ahem I mean conclusion:

Gorgeous!! The the meat falling off the bone and the tendon was super soft and unctuous! I bought 1 shin to experiment with, but 2 would be better for 4 people. 

RECOMMENDED!!