Stuffedbreastofpheasantencroute Recipes

MUSHROOM STUFFED BRIE EN CROUTE

Steps:

• In a 9- to 10-inch heavy skillet, cook onion in butter over moderate heat, stirring, until softened.
• Add mushrooms, sherry, nutmeg, and salt and pepper, to taste, and saute over moderately high heat, stirring, until the liquid that the mushrooms give off is evaporated.
• Cool mushroom mixture.
• On a lightly floured surface roll out 1 sheet of pastry into a 13-inch square and, using Brie as a guide, cut out 1 round the size of the Brie.
• Cut out a mushroom shape from scraps for decoration, or use any cookie cutter shape.
• Horizontally halve Brie.
• Roll out remaining sheet of pastry into a 13-inch square and transfer to a shallow baking pan.
• Center the bottom half of Brie, cut side up, on pastry square and spread mushroom mixture on top.
• Cover mushroom mixture with remaining half of Brie, cut side down.
• Without stretching pastry, wrap it snugly up over Brie and trim excess to leave a 1-inch border of pastry on top of Brie.
• In a small bowl, lightly beat egg and brush onto border.
• Top Brie with pastry round, pressing edges of dough together gently but firmly to seal.
• Brush the top of pastry with some egg and arrange pastry mushroom on it.
• Lightly brush mushroom with some egg, being careful not to let egg drip over edge of mushroom (which would prevent it from rising).
• With back of a sharp small knife, gently score side of pastry with vertical marks, being careful not to cut through dough.
• Chill Brie, uncovered, 30 minutes.
• Brie may be made up to this point 1 day ahead and chilled, loosely covered.
• Preheat oven to 425 degrees F.
• Bake Brie in middle of oven until pastry is puffed and golden, about 20 minutes.
• Let Brie stand in pan on a rack 15 minutes and transfer with a spatula to a serving plate.
• Serve Brie with French baguettes or crackers.

ROASTED STUFFED PHEASANT WITH FRESH CORN SAUCE

Steps:

• To prepare the stuffing: Melt the butter in a saute pan over low heat. Add the onion and celery and cook for 20 minutes, or until the onion is cooked through but not brown. Set aside. Put the crackers in a large bowl, add the egg, the cooked onion and celery, the sage, roasted corn, chicken stock, salt, and pepper and mix well. To stuff and roast the pheasant: Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Season the pheasant cavity with some of the salt and pepper, then put the stuffing inside. Truss with skewers or tie with butcher's twine. Season the bird with the remaining salt and pepper. Lay the bacon over the breast. Place the pheasant on a metal roasting rack set inside a roasting pan and place on the middle rack of the oven. Roast for 25 minutes, basting the legs once or twice with the pan juices. After 25 minutes raise the temperature to 450 degrees and finish the bird for 10 minutes more, or until golden brown with an internal temperature of about 140 degrees near the thigh. To prepare the sauce: While the pheasant is roasting, puree the corn kernels in a food processor. You should have about 2 cups of pure. Place in a small saucepan with the habanero. Bring the juice to 200 degrees. Do not boil or the sauce will break. Add the lime juice and salt. To serve: Let the bird rest for 5 minutes before carving. Take the bacon off the breast and carve the bird, dividing the breast and thighs. Serve with the corn sauce and sauteed leeks.

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.

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.

STUFFED PHEASANT BREAST

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
• Roast the pepper over a flame until it turns black. Remove skin, seeds and stem, and dice the pepper into 1/4-inch squares.
• Mix the goat cheese, pine nuts and herbs in a bowl.
• Cut off the breasts from the pheasant, carefully removing skin and fat. Discard carcass. Cut a small pocket into the side of the breast from end to end. Stuff the pocket of each breast with stuffing mixture. Pull some breast meat over the pocket. Wrap each breast with four slices of bacon.
• Place the pheasant breasts on a rack in a roasting tray, and roast in the oven for 20 to 25 minutes, turning them over once.
• Remove the breasts from the oven. Remove and discard the bacon and let the pheasant breasts stand for 5 minutes.
• Slice each breast into four medallions, using an angled cut. Place 4 medallions on each plate, and serve with a salad.

PAN ROASTED BREAST OF PHEASANT WITH VANILLA AND PEARS

Steps:

• To cure the pheasant: In a large bowl combine the water, 1/4 cup each of sugar and salt, mixing to dissolve. Add the pheasant breasts, cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight.
• To make sauces: In a large, non-stick skillet, heat 1 tablespoon of the butter over medium to medium-high heat. Add the shallots cooking until tender, about 3 minutes. Add the vanilla bean and seeds, white wine, cider, and cream. Bring to a simmer cooking until the liquids are reduced and thickened to sauce consistency, about 10 minutes. Add the ginger. Season with salt and pepper. Keep warm.
• In another saucepan, combine the red wine and the honey. Bring to a simmer over high heat cooking until reduced to coat the back of a spoon, about 15 minutes. Reserve.
• To cook the pheasants: Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.
• In a large non-stick ovenproof skillet, add 2 tablespoons butter and melt over high heat. Season the pheasant with salt, pepper, and coriander. Add the pheasant skin side down, cooking until browned and well-seared, about 5 minutes. Turn over and transfer the pan to the lower rack of the oven. Cook until just about medium, about 6 to 8 minutes depending on the size of the pheasant breast. Carefully remove the hot pan from the oven. Allow to rest a couple of minutes before cutting.
• In another large, non-stick, skillet heat 1 tablespoon of the butter over high heat. Add the Anjou pears cooking until they just begin to soften slightly, about 2 minutes. Add two tablespoons of the sugar cooking while occasionally stirring until browned on the edges, about 4 minutes. Remove the pears and keep warm.
• To Serve: Position the rice pilaf mixture in a cylinder form in the center of each hot serving plate. Position the pear slices around the rice cylinder. Slice the pheasant on a bias to yield 4 or 6 thin broad slices. Stack the slices on top of the rice cylinder. Spoon the vanilla-ginger and red wine sauce artistically over and around the pheasant and on the plate. Sprinkle the dish with freshly ground black pepper and chives. Garnish with the vanilla bean and sprigs of chive over the pheasant. Serve immediately.

STUFFED BREAST OF PHEASANT EN CROUTE

Steps:

• Season breast with salt and pepper.
• Sear well in a pan with butter and let cool.
• Mix Brie, shallots, garlic, tomato, onion, mushrooms and sage.
• Season to taste.
• Stuff ¼ of cheese mixture under the skin of each cooled breast.
• Wrap each with a slice of bacon.
• Wrap with puff pastry.
• Brush top with beaten egg.
• Bake at 425 degrees for 12-15 minutes.