We’ve teamed up with Talking Game magazine to bring you this fantastic recipe courtesy of Mount St John Sporting.
Breast of pheasant with parsnip purée, mulled blackberries, colcannon croquettes & red wine sauce. Serves 4.
Ingredients
- 4 pheasant breasts
- 50ml vegetable oil
Marinade
- 100ml rapeseed oil
- 1tbs juniper berries, crushed
- 1tbs thyme, chopped
Colcannon croquettes
- 200g mashed potato
- 75g cabbage, roughly chopped
- 2 spring onions, finely chopped
- 50g mature British cheese, grated
- 1tsp English mustard
- 3tbs plain flour
- 1 egg, beaten
- 100g panko breadcrumbs
- 1tbs rapeseed oil
Mulled blackberries
- ¼ punnet blackberries
- ¼ bottle red wine
- ½ orange, halved
- 30g demerara sugar
- 1 cinnamon stick
- grated nutmeg
- 1 dried bay leaf
Parsnip purée
- 2 parsnips, sliced
- 200ml cream
Red wine sauce
- 2tsp olive oil
- 2 shallots, finely chopped
- 150ml red wine
- 1 rosemary sprig
- 1 bay leaf
- 400ml chicken stock
- 2tbs butter
- Pinch sugar
Combine the marinade ingredients and marinate the breasts for a few hours.
Combine the mash, greens, spring onions, cheese, and mustard for the croquettes in a large bowl. Use your hands to shape the mixture into 4 croquettes. Put the flour, egg, and breadcrumbs in 3 separate shallow dishes. Dip the croquettes into the flour, then the egg, then the breadcrumbs, turning to coat. Heat the oil in a large non-stick frying pan and gently fry the croquettes for 3-4 minutes on each side until golden and heated through.
Gently heat the wine for the mulled blackberries with the orange, sugar, bay leaf and the spices until the sugar has dissolved. Taste to see if you need more sugar. Take off the heat, drop in the blackberries, and allow to cool in the liquor.
For the parsnip purée, cook the sliced parsnips, cream, and 100ml water in a covered pan until the parsnips are soft. Strain, reserving the cream, and transfer the parsnips to a blender. Add a splash of the cooking liquor and blitz until smooth and silky. Season to taste and set aside.
For the sauce, fry the shallots in the oil in a large frying pan over a medium heat and until golden and caramelised, about 10 minutes. Add the wine and herbs and simmer for 10 minutes or until reduced by half.
Pour in the stock and continue to cook until reduced by half again, then strain, discarding the shallots and herbs.
Transfer the sauce to a new pan and bring to the boil. Remove from the heat and whisk in the butter, then season to taste.
To cook the pheasant, remove the breasts from the marinade. Add the oil to a hot pan and shallow fry the breasts, skin-side down, until golden brown. Once golden, turn over the breasts and place in the oven for 5-6 minutes at 180˚C.
Rest for at least 5 minutes before serving.
Thank you very much to Mount St John Sporting and to Talking Game (@talkinggamejournal) for this tantalising recipe. For a huge range of excellent game recipes and fascinating insights & interviews with an array of chefs & game experts, pick up a copy of Talking Game.
