Pot Roast Pheasant

 

I did this again! When you have people to feed and discover someone has had pheasants in the freezer since the autumn it makes sense.

2 pheasants
An onion, peeled and chopped
2 sticks of celery, cleaned and chopped
1 large carrot, peeled and chopped
The bottom of a fennel bulb, cleaned and chopped
9 or 10 small potatoes scrubbed
A teaspoon of fennel seeds
A wineglass of dry vermouth
A chicken stockcube
A large knob of butter

You'll need a casserole big enough to hold both pheasants, with a well fitting lid.

Heat an oven to 180C. Heat some butter in the casserole. Brown the pheasants, one at a time, on all sides, then put aside. You might need a bit more butter now, then put in the fennel seeds, the onion, the carrot, the celery and the fennel. Cook for several minutes until they are softened.

Crumble in the stock cube and pour in the dry vermouth. Let that come to the boil for a minutes or two. Put in the potatoes, and add enough water to almost cover them. Let that come to the boil. Then put the pheasants on top, cover and put in the over for an hour and a half - this is very forgiving of longer cooking times.

When cooked, take the pheasants out and carve them - for small pheasants one breast and one leg per person is a good portion. You can serve the potatoes and vegetables as they are, or fish them out and reduce the liquid for a thicker gravy. Serve with a green vegetable.

I thought I took a picture of my plate but apparently I didn't, so this last photo is just before I put the lid on to go in the oven. Anyway, this compared well with the previous version.