A versatile supper dish or special main course. Allow 1 - 2 pheasant breasts per person depending on their size and your appetite! This flavoursome dish also works perfectly with chicken or duck, but you will need more bacon for wrapping them. Ready cooked lentils can also be used - just heat through and add once the pheasant is cooked through.
Serves 4
1 tbsp olive oil
25g butter
4 large shallots, finely diced
500g fresh mixed mushrooms, sliced
1 tsp fresh thyme leaves
Salt
Freshly ground black pepper
2 good quality sausages
50g prunes, roughly chopped
4 large pheasant breasts
4 rashers unsmoked streaky bacon
8 cocktail sticks
250ml white stock
100g dried puy lentils
120g spinach leaves, washed and chopped
Salt
Freshly ground black pepper
Preparation Time: 10 minutes. Cooking Time: 35 minutes.
1. Put a 24cm AGA frying or sauté pan on the simmering plate, hotplate on simmering setting or induction on medium, add the olive oil and butter.
2. Stir in the shallots and cook until softened.
3. Add the mushrooms and thyme along with a pinch or two of salt and a grind of pepper. Cook until the mushrooms are soft and browned.
4. While the onions and mushrooms are cooking, prepare the stuffed pheasant breasts. Squeeze the sausage meat out of the sausages into a bowl and mix with the roughly chopped prunes.
5. Make an incision into each pheasant breast to create a pocket. Divide the stuffing between the pockets.
6. Lay the bacon out on a chopping board, place a stuffed pheasant breast on top of each piece and roll up. Secure with cocktail sticks.
7. Nestle the bacon-wrapped pheasant among the cooked onions and mushrooms so that the bacon is touching the bottom of the pan. Cook for about 5 minutes without moving. Once the bacon has browned, turn the parcels over.
8. Add the stock and puy lentils. Stir, scraping the bottom of the pan to loosen any browned bits. Bring to the boil then cover and simmer for 20 minutes or until the lentils are tender.
9. Remove the cooked pheasant parcels and set aside in a warm place.
10. Stir the spinach leaves into the lentils, cover and cook for 5 minutes until the spinach wilts.
11. Taste and season if necessary although the bacon usually makes the dish nicely salty without adding too much extra salt. Return the pheasant to the pan.
12. To serve, slice the pheasant parcels into 3-4 pieces and serve with creamy mashed potatoes, leafy green kale or just as a one pot with the lentils and mushrooms.
