Pot Roast Pheasant

 

1 medium sized pheasant from the market
Some leftover fat
Three rashers of bacon cut into pieces
An onion peeled and roughly chopped
A carrot peeled and roughly chopped
2 sticks of celery, cleaned and roughly chopped
A chicken stock cube
A medium sized glass of dry vermouth
Some small potatoes

Heat the oven to maybe 180C. Heat a casserole, then fry the bacon with a bit of the fat. When they're starting to brown take them out, add more fat and then brown the pheasant on as many sides as possible. Then take that out, put in the rest of the fat and the onion, carrot and celery and soften them.

When softened, add the bacon, crumble in the stock cube, and pour in the vermouth, allowing it to cook off the alcohol for a minute. Then top up with boiling water to cover the vegetables. Put in the potatoes (I usually put them so they're about half covered in liquid - add a bit more water if it doesn't go high enough). Put the pheasant on top, cover with a well-fitting lid, then put in the oven for an hour.

To serve, remove the pheasant from the casserole and carve or otherwise cut up to make suitable portions. The gravy in the casserole is fine, but if you want it a bit thicker, remove potatoes and other veg, and reduce back on the hob, possibly adding some thickening agent. You can see cauliflower in the pictures; I had intended to let that steam in the casserole but didn't have enough room so cooked it separately. In the excitement I didn't take any pictures of the cooked food, so the final picture is the leftovers.

You can compare and contrast with this previous recipe.