Roasted Stuffed Pheasant With Fresh Corn Sauce Recipes

PAN ROASTED PHEASANT WITH SHIITAKE MUSHROOMS AND FIGS IN A CHAMBOURCIN GLACE

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Heat canola oil in a saute pan over medium high heat. Season pheasant with salt and pepper. Brown legs and thighs evenly and place in oven for 20 minutes. Bring figs and wine to a low boil in a heavy saucepan. Reduce and simmer to 1/3 of original volume. Remove pan from oven, removing leg and thigh. Return to burner for 45 seconds. Sear skin side of pheasant breast for 1 minute. Flip and return thigh and leg. Finish in oven for 5 to 6 minutes. Remove pheasant from pan and plate. Add 1/2 of the butter to pan and saute shallots until light brown. Add Shiitakes and cook to tender, about 1 minute. Add figs and wine to pan with stock, rosemary, reduce to thicken. Season and whisk in remaining butter and serve.

ROAST PHEASANT

Steps:

• Sprinkle the inside of each pheasant with salt and pepper. The breast of each pheasant should be covered with 2 slices of fatback. The birds should then be trussed, with the string anchoring the fatback neatly in place. It is probably best in most cases that this be done by the butcher.
• Preheat the oven to 450 degrees.
• Heat the oil in a large roasting pan and brown the pheasants lightly on all sides. Arrange them, on their sides, in the roasting pan. Place in the oven and bake 10 minutes. Turn each pheasant on its other side and continue roasting 10 minutes.
• Place the pheasants on their backs and continue roasting, basting often, about 15 minutes. Untruss the pheasants. Discard the strings and fatback. Continue roasting, with the pheasants resting on their backs, about 20 minutes or until the cavity liquid runs clear when one of the pheasants is held, tail side down, over the roasting pan.

STUFFED PHEASANT BREASTS WITH WILD-MUSHROOM SAUCE

Steps:

• Separate legs and thighs from each bird. Remove and reserve skin, then cut meat away from the bones, being careful to remove small bones and gristle. Set aside.
• Skin, then bone the breasts. The procedure is exactly the same as for a chicken: With the bird lying on its back, use a sharp knife to make a deep incision just beside the breast bone. Then pull the meat - called the supreme - away from the carcass. Repeat the procedure for the other breast, and for remaining pheasant. On the inner side of each breast there will be a small fillet. Remove the stringy nerve from each of them. Using a broad knife blade, pound the small fillets slightly to flatten and set aside.
• Cut deep pockets into each of the supremes for stuffing, taking care not to pierce all the way through. Set aside.
• Use skin, carcass, heart, gizzard and wings to prepare a stock, as one would prepare chicken stock.
• Rinse caul fat under cold water for several minutes, then drain well.
• Prepare the stuffing. Put dark meat from legs and thighs through a meat grinder, or grind in a food processor. Add egg whites, season with salt, pepper and paprika, and pass through a fine mesh sieve, using a stiff plastic scraper, or, if available, use the fine mesh sieve attachment of an electric mixer. Combine meat and egg mixture with the creme fraiche in a mixing bowl and whip with an electric beater for several minutes, or until the mixture is very elastic.
• Saute pheasant livers in butter for about two minutes.
• Open each supreme, carefully add stuffing and in the center of each place half of a sauteed liver. Close supremes so that no stuffing seeps out, and cover the opening with the flattened fillets from Step 2. Wrap each stuffed supreme in a single layer of caul fat. This can be done several hours ahead, then refrigerated. Remove pheasant from the refrigerator about 30 minutes before cooking.
• Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
• Salt and pepper each supreme, then brown on both sides in butter. Place su-premes in a shallow, buttered pan, cover with foil and bake for 30 minutes. While pheasant is cooking, prepare sauce and figs.
• To serve, cut each packet on the bias into five or six thin slices, arrange on warm plates and serve with shallot and wildmushroom sauce. The caul fat should have cooked away, and so need not be removed for serving.

EMERIL'S FAVORITE ROAST PHEASANT

Steps:

• Preheat the oven to 500 degrees F and position the oven rack in the bottom third of the oven.
• Season the cavities and the outside of each pheasant liberally with salt and pepper. Divide the chopped onion and carrot equally among the cavities of the pheasants. Squeeze the juice from both halves of the orange and set aside. Cut 1 of the squeezed halves into 3 pieces, and tuck inside of the cavities along with the veggies. Insert 1sprig of thyme into the cavity of each pheasant.
• Arrange the pheasants in a large roasting pan, breast sides up. Lay 2 strips of bacon over the top of each pheasant, cutting the bacon into pieces if necessary to cover as much of the pheasant as possible. Roast for 15 minutes, then remove the bacon strips and continue roasting for approximately 30 to 40 minutes, or until the juices run clear. (It is important to not overcook the pheasants, as they are very lean birds.) Remove the pheasants from the oven and transfer to a serving platter, loosely tented, while you make the sauce.
• Using a spoon, carefully remove as much extra fat from the pan as possible. Place the roasting pan over high heat and, when hot, deglaze with the reserved orange juice and Madeira, using a wooden spoon to scrape any brown bits from the bottom of the pan. When the orange juice and Madeira have reduced by half, add the chicken stock and continue to cook until sauce has reduced enough to coat the back of a spoon, about 3 to 4 minutes. Swirl in the butter and remove from the heat. Season, to taste, with salt and pepper.
• Remove the back bone from each pheasant, then cut along the breast bone to divide the birds into two halves. Serve 1/2 pheasant per person, napped with some of the sauce and with some of the Wild Mushroom Bread Pudding.
• Heat the oil in a large, deep skillet over high heat. Add the onions and cook until golden brown and tender, 5 minutes. Add the mushrooms, 1/2 teaspoon of the garlic, 1 1/2 teaspoons of the Essence, 1 teaspoon of the salt, and 3/4 teaspoon of the pepper, and cook, stirring, until the mushrooms are tender and have given off their liquid, about 5 minutes. Add the beer and cook, stirring, to deglaze the pan and until the mixture is almost dry, 1 to 2 minutes. Remove from the heat and let cool.
• In a large bowl, combine the eggs, cream, molasses, Worcestershire sauce, thyme, remaining 1 1/2 teaspoons of Essence, remaining 1/2 teaspoon of salt, and remaining 1/4 teaspoon of pepper, and whisk well to combine. Add the mushroom mixture and cheeses and stir well. Add the bread cubes and let sit until the bread has absorbed the liquid, 2 hours, stirring occasionally.
• Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
• Butter a 9 by 13-inch baking dish with the butter. Add the bread crumbs, shaking to cover the bottom evenly. Pour the bread pudding mixture into the prepared pan and cover with aluminum foil. Bake for 1 hour and uncover. Continue baking until risen and firm in the center, and golden brown, 20 to 30 minutes. Remove from the oven and cool slightly before serving.
• Combine all ingredients thoroughly and store in an airtight jar or container.
• Recipe from "New New Orleans Cooking", by Emeril Lagasse and Jessie Tirsch. Published by William and Morrow, 1993.

ROAST PHEASANT WITH ANCHO CHILI PESTO AND CORN BREAD STUFFING

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Heat the olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add the onion and celery and saute until softened, about 5 minutes. Transfer to a medium-size bowl. Add the corn bread crumbs and toss to combine. Add the cumin, teaspoon of salt, pepper, chicken broth and egg and stir well. Set aside.
• To make the pesto, place the chilies in a small saucepan and cover with water. Simmer over medium heat until peppers are softened, about 10 minutes. Drain. Stem and seed the peppers. Chop the peppers with the garlic and 1/4 teaspoon of salt and chop until they form a paste.
• Use your fingers to carefully loosen the skin over the breasts on each pheasant. Place some of the ancho pesto under the skin on each bird. Fill the cavity of each bird with the stuffing. Do not overstuff them; if extra stuffing remains, place it in a small dish, cover and bake it with the pheasant.
• Rub the olive oil over the skin of the pheasants and season them with salt and pepper. Tie the legs together to close the cavity. Place the birds in a large roasting pan.
• Roast for 15 minutes, stopping to run a spatula under the pheasants to prevent sticking. Lower the oven to 350 degrees. Roast until the juices run slightly pink when pricked with a fork in the thickest part of the leg, about 30 minutes longer. Let stand for 10 minutes. Remove the string. Cut the pheasants in half and serve with the stuffing.

ROASTED PHEASANT: PHEASANT ALLA FIORENTINA

Steps:

• Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.
• Heat a large saute pan over medium heat and add 1 tablespoon olive oil. Add the pancetta to the hot oil and render its fat. Once it begins to brown, add the ground pork and prosciutto and cook, while stirring, about 4 minutes. When the pork is no longer pink, add the garlic and sage and saute until fragrant, about 1 minute more. Deglaze the pan with 1/4 cup white wine, scraping up the browned bits from the bottom of the pan. Stir in the bread crumbs. Remove the stuffing mixture to a bowl and allow to cool.
• Season the cavity of the birds with salt and pepper.
• Divide the stuffing evenly between the two pheasants' cavities.
• Roast the pheasants 25 minutes. Add 1/2 cup white wine to the bottom of the pan. Turn the oven heat up to 425 degrees F and cook another 25 minutes, or until a thermometer inserted in the thickest part of breast registers 160 degrees F. Allow to rest 10 minutes before serving so the juices can redistribute.
• Remove the dressing from the bird and serve along side. Garnish the dish with fresh sage leaves.

ROAST PHEASANT STUFFED WITH CHESTNUT BREAD DRESSING

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Combine all ingredients except butter and pheasants with 1/2 cup of broth in a large bowl. Add 6 tablespoons of the butter. Stir until mixture is well combined.
• Clean the insides of the birds well with a damp cloth. Fill each bird with as much of the dressing as it will comfortably hold. Pin or stitch the cavity closed. Place the remaining dressing in a casserole. Set aside.
• Brush the remaining butter over the skin of each pheasant. Place pheasants in a large, deep roasting pan, breast side down. Cover. Roast for 30 minutes. Meanwhile, stir enough chicken broth into the remaining dressing to moisten it to your taste.
• Reduce heat to 350 degrees. Uncover. Place dressing in oven with pheasants. Roast pheasants until juices run clear when pricked with a fork in the thickest part, about 30 additional minutes. Remove pheasants and dressing from oven.
• Remove the birds from the pan. Let stand for 10 minutes. Cut each bird in half lengthwise. Serve, passing additional dressing separately.