Pheasant braised with leeks, cider & apples

Dinner with 17 ingredients.

Servings: 4

Total time: 60 minutes

Ingredients

• 300 millilitre chicken or game stock
• 2 tablespoon olive oil
• 50 gram skinless roasted hazelnuts roughly chopped
• 2 tablespoon cider vinegar
• 0.5 Bramley apple peeled, cubed
• 800 millilitre dry cider
• 2 leeks washed, trimmed and sliced
• 3 sprig thyme leaves picked
• 2 tablespoon brandy or calvados
• 2 Bramley apples thickly sliced
• 2 juniper berries crushed
• 70 millilitre double cream
• 0.5 teaspoon mace or ground nutmeg
• 1 teaspoon caster sugar
• 2 rashers of smoked streaky bacon
• 1 teaspoon sea salt
• 2 large pheasants jointed

Method

1. For the pickled apples, put the salt, sugar, vinegar and berries in a small pan and bring to the boil. Remove from the heat, add the apple cubes and set aside.
2. Heat the oil in a heavy-bottomed, high-sided casserole and season the pheasant joints with salt. Brown them all over, rendering out some of the yellow fat into the pan. Remove to a plate and season with pepper. Add the leeks, bacon and thyme to the pan along with a pinch of salt and a good grind of black pepper, and fry until the leeks have softened – about 8 mins. Add the apple slices and cook until starting to colour on both sides.
3. Spoon in the brandy and cook until evaporated, add the cider and simmer for a few more mins to cook off the alcohol. Pour in the stock and bring to the boil. Reduce to a gentle simmer and add the pheasant joints back to the pan, covering with a circle of baking parchment.
4. After 15 mins, remove the breasts from the pan to a plate and return the circle of baking parchment to the pan. Cook gently for a further 20 mins, then remove all the pheasant pieces from the pan to a plate and turn the heat up to reduce the sauce. Boil hard for a few min until reduced, then stir in the cream and mace and turn off the heat. Return the pheasant pieces to the sauce - the residual heat will warm it perfectly.
5. Divide the pheasant between plates and spoon over the sauce. Garnish with the pickled apples and hazelnuts. Serve with our celeriac colcannon.