Roast pheasant

Roasted pheasant recipe

Judging by the rate the company where I work peddles grouse, partridges and venison to various posh restaurants, London's appetite for game shows no signs of abating. Inspired by observing the fringes of this celebration of ecologically clean gastronomy, I delved into the latest English edition of La Rousse Gastronomique. Here is what wise Frenchmen say.

Truss and bard a young pheasant, brush with melted butter and season with salt and pepper. Roast in a preheated oven at 240 degrees for 30-40 minutes, depending on the size of the bird, busting 2 or 3 times. Fry some croutons until golden brown. Untruss the pheasant and remove the barding fat. Place it on top of the croutons and keep warm. Deglaze the roasting pan with a liittle poultry stock and serve this gravy separately. To make it an ultimate treat, the pheasant can be stuffed with truffles before roasting and the croutons can be spread with a small amount of forcemeat with the minced liver of the pheasant. (Source: La Rousse Gastronomique, Hamlyn: London, 2009)

Photos will follow when I get around to implementing this recipe in my kitchen. Please bear with!

Roasted quail recipe (caille rôti)

hese days quails are farmed but in fact they are game. A quick sniff will confirm this: quail meat is heavier and chewier than your chicken or turkey. That is why I treat them as game, that is cook with

1. Crush a handful of juniper berries and add with freshly ground black pepper and sea salt to red wine.
   
   
2. Using a sharp knife, make incisions in each quail from the inside without piercing the skin.
   
   
3. Soak the quails in the marinade making sure that it goes into the incisions. Let stay overnight in the fridge.
   
   
4. Take out the quails out of the fridge at least one hour before cooking to get them back to the room temperature and allow the excessive marinade to drip off.
   
   
5. Heat the oven to 220 degrees. Pat the quails dry with paper towels. Warm some butter and mix with a small amount of honey, salt and pepper. Baste the quails with the mixture and place them on the oven grid.
   
   
6. Bake for 20 minutes, then reduce the temperature to 200 degrees. In the meantime sweat some chopped shallots in butter and add the marinade, allow to reduce to half.
   
   
7. Serve with sautéed wild mushrooms and double-cooked potatoes. Use the reduccion as sauce.
   

Je vous remerci pour notre pain quotidienne: springbok steaks & cresson veloute

The mind boggles just thinking about how far our food travels. For a few pieces of meat to come from South Africa to London and then end up on a dinner table in Amsterdam, we must be forever grateful for being able to enjoy such luxury.

Knowing that Floyd would hardly have juniper berries in his cupboard, I brought those from London too. They are the best to make sauce for probably any kind of game meat.

The cresson veloute is my homage to the wonderful family of French soups so rarelyy cooked outside La Belle France (from my experience an

Juniper sauce: on top of the game

There is nothing like the resiny bouquet of juniper sauce to complement the rich flavour of game. When served on top of reindeer steaks, it reminds me of my childhood in Arctic Russia where we had both reindeer and juniper, but no one was sophisticated enough to combine the two in one dish.

That does not stop me from enjoying this lovely combination now. It sounds fancy but in fact is very easy to whip up.

Once you've fried your game steaks or what you have (I use clarified butter for that), leave the juices on the pan, add a tablespoonful of juniper berries, a liberal dash of freshly ground black pepper and half a glass of red wine. Reduce it on low fire until trickly. Serve your game meat with the sauce on top and two sides: one starchy (e.g. baked potatoes) and one crunchy (e.g., steamed haricot beans). A green salad with a simple Italian dressing can be good but this time I served a veloute with grilled parmigiano bread.

And luxury for all: Marks & Spencer venison sausages

have had more venison sausages since I moved to London in 2008 than in my entire life. First I saw them at the enlightened Slow Food Festival on the Southbank: aimed at the kind of crowd that regularly hangs out at the Royal Festival Hall, with prices to match. Now the commoditification of luxury products has brought game meat to the shelves of Marks & Spencer. Mind you, marked down! Four quid fifty for two boxes, 12 venison sausages. Is the right spelling surely not Marx and Spencer? Granted, working classes don't shop at Marks and Sparks but wealth-trickling needs to starts somewhere. Now it is down to persuading the masses to stop buying the similarly priced frozen toilet-paper-and-emulsifiers Cumberland sausages and switch to game, Argentine red and silver cutlery. Next logical step perhaps would be licensing the denizens of Woolwich for fox-hunt.

Serving suggestion: grilled, with garden salad and finocchio alla griglia. If you have the patience, sauté chopped shallots in the sausage juices, add a few juniper berries and red wine, simmer until alcohol evaporates.

Venison sausages with juniper sauce

cooked the venison sausages I bought at the Southwark Slow Food Festival the best way I know how: with juniper sauce. It is a variation of the classic bourguignonne for game dishes. Juniper berries give that foresty, coniferous fragrance that goes well with the powerful flavour of venison, boar or pheasant. Potatoes boiled in jackets are there just to soak in the juices and aid the enjoyment of two major flavours.

Southbank Slow Food Festival & venison sausages

Yesterday I attended Southbank Slow Food Festival which is essentially 2 rows of tents selling organic and exotic foods: from Portuguese jams and Kentish apple juice to organic ham and pheasant supremes.

All nice stuff but a tad on the pricier side, although still cheaper and actually more interesting than Waitrose. I bought myself 6 venison sausages for 5 quid - quite a bargain actually, as you normally fork out more for chopped pig offals stuffed in plastic. The grilled bit I tasted at the stall was superbly palatable: juicy and flavourful with just two basic tastes of venison and pepper in a perfect combination.

The producer - Manor Farm Game - has a very extensive range of yummies such as duck and orange burgers or pheasant, calvados and garden vegetables pies. I will give those a try next time.

Wild boar medallions, sauce bourguignonne

Wild boar medallions with classic bourguignonne sauce, stir-fried potatoes and grilled vegetables.

I enhance the basic sauce with some Asian savvy: shiitake instead of white champignons gives it a more powerful mushroom fragrance.

Sunkissed Côte de Roussillon made a lovely accompaniment for the viande de sanglier (somehow this sounds better in French).