pheasants

[allium]

Can anyone give me a recipe on how to cook pheasants without them being dry.

[Sarah]

Delia's Braised Pheasants in Madeira, from her Christmas book is excellent.

[Gilly C]

surely they are not in season now ?
I cook the breast by marinading in olive oil then frying and serve with a red wine sauce , I use the rest of the carcass to make soup

[Tigger]

They make a lovely curry, or a lightly cooked casserole or braise. Good on a barbecue too.

Basically - don't overcook them. They have very little fat so they don't do well in stew.

[Johnboy]

I feed them and admire them and never ever eat them!
They are shot in great numbers on the estate behind my place and the amount of injured birds that I have to put down is more than a few. I give those to a friend to eat but do so very reluctantly.
Although I own a shotgun I never shoot any game bird only in cases where they are badly maimed by people who should never be in charge of a shotgun or any other gun.
It could be said that I am against Game shooting altogether.
I know that I am a miserable sod but I am a principled miserable sod!
JB.

[PLUMPUDDING]

I also like them caseroled, and our local butcher sells them. I have once or twice used fresh "road kill" as it seemed a shame to waste them.

Last year we were going walking in Derbyshire, but couldn't go on our planned walk as the valley was closed for local shooting party to use. They were all parked up ready to go, downing plenty of booze from hip flasks and straight from the bottle to prepare themselves - always a good idea to get tanked up before blasting away with a shotgun!!! Anyway, we could go through the woods in the opposite direction and guess what - all the pheasants had gone that way too, there were dozens of them keeping their heads down on the quiet side of the valley. So they weren't as dumb as they look.

[vivienz]

I had some gorgeous pheasant in a restaurant a couple of months ago. The supreme, i.e. a part boned breast with the thick end of the wing still attached, had been gently poached in wine & stock with herbs (at a guess I would say mostly thyme and bay), then the legs had been done 'confit' style, i.e. salted for a few hours then slowly cooked in a low oven, immersed in duck or goose fat. The confit legs were served in the poaching broth with wilted greens, and the supreme on top of all that. Had it with smooth, creamy mashed potatoes. Fantastic! Incidentally, this works really well with wood pigeon too.
Let me know if you want a method for the confit.
Vivien