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Slave to the Stove
Pheasant Pate
I was having a look through the freezer and noticed that I still had a couple of braces of pheasant in there. The season for pheasant ended on the 1st of February, but as it’s still wintery out, it’s nice to have another taste of game even when it’s out of season.
I love to roast game birds or pan fry their breasts for starters or salads, but as these have been frozen I thought poaching them would be best.
Poaching the birds will keep the meat moist, and leave you with a delicious stock you can use to make soups, or just in the gravy for Sunday roast.
This paté is similar to a French country paté just with the pheasant running through it. It is all cooked in a terrine, but a loaf tin would work just as well. This can be made a few days before you want it, and is as easy to serve as slicing bread.
So come on, get your game on!
Pheasant Paté
Ingredients
To poach the pheasant
- 2 carrots
- 2 sticks of celery
- 1 onion
- 1 tsp pepper corns
- 1 handful parsley stalks
For the paté
- 1 poached pheasant
- 500g pork mince
- 250g chicken livers
- 125g butter
- 2 shallots
- 4 cloves of garlic
- 10g salt
- 2g black pepper
- 50ml port
- 1 tsp rosemary, chopped
- 1 egg
- 250g streaky bacon
- Method
- Start by poaching the pheasant. Put the bird in a pan with the other ingredients, and cover with water. Bring to the simmer then turn down and poach for 40 minutes.
- Now lift the bird out, and when cool enough to handle strip all the flesh from the bones. The poaching liqueur can be strained and reserved for another use. Do not pour it down the sink as it’s very tasty!
- Pre-heat the oven to 170°c
- Now for the paté – into a food processor put the livers, butter, shallot, garlic, egg, salt and pepper. Now whizz it all up til smooth. Scrape out into a mixing bowl then add the pork mince, port, rosemary and pheasant, and mix it all together.
- Take the terrine and line it with rashers of the streaky bacon. These need to overhang both sides as when filled they need to fold over the top.
- Next, pour in the paté mix and fold the bacon over. Cover with a greased piece of kitchen foil and then the terrine lid (if you have one).
- Place the terrine in a roasting tin on top of a folded tea towel, then pour a kettle of boiling water in until it comes to half-way up the terrine.
- Put the tin in the oven for 2 ½ hours, then remove and allow to cool down in the terrine. Refrigerate in the terrine overnight then it can be turned out and enjoyed – it’s extra good with our Perfect Picallili and a green salad.
Eggs en Concotte
Happy Easter all!
Over the last few weeks we have had some unseasonably warm weather, making me think that spring has finally sprung. The daffodils are out, the lambs are leaping, and the chicks are chirping.
What could be more fitting for an Easter breakfast than eggs? I love a full English, but you need to save room for your roast spring lamb for lunch – and not forgetting all the chocolate that needs to be eaten.
We’ve used Clarence Court eggs, because we love the colour of the yolks and think they taste amazing – we picked the Cotswolds Legbar eggs because the Photographer loved the colour. http://www.clarencecourt.co.uk/our-range/cotswolds-legbar/
These Eggs en Concotte are just warm and filling enough to get you through to lunch, with a nice spring walk and a chocolate egg in-between.
We’ve decided to use hollowed out rolls for our en Concotte, as opposed to the traditional method of using a ramekin, baked in the oven in a bain-marie – the beauty of this, firstly, less washing up, secondly, when you cut them open, the hot, runny yolk runs out over the salty bacon and onto the crusty roll – a delicious fork-full of eggs and bacon on toast!
Phil, is that you in there?
Eggs en Cocotte
Serves 4
Ingredients
- 4 bread rolls
- 4 eggs
- 100g bacon lardons
- 50ml double cream
- 1Tbsp chives, chopped
- Black pepper
Method
- Pre heat the oven to 200’c.
- Sauté the bacon for a few minutes until crisp, then place on kitchen paper to drain the fat off.
- Cut the lids off the rolls, and scoop out the filling – making a deeper indent in the centre so the eggs sit in the middle.
- Scatter ½ of the bacon and chives into the bottom of the rolls.
- Crack the eggs into the indents.
- Pour the cream over the eggs.
- Scatter the remaining bacon and chives over the eggs.
- Bake in the oven for about 10 minutes until the egg whites are set.
We like to use the lids from the rolls to dip into the yolk – we think you’ll agree that these are just eggcellent!
