#my favourite recipe

[grandmaster-anne]

PRINCESS ANNE’S FAVOURITE RECIPE: The Ritz’s executive chef cooks devilled pheasant

Country Life | Published 29 July 2020

The Princess says: ‘Most people think you just roast pheasant, but there are lots of other things you can do  with game and it’s worth eating!’ 

THE pheasant may not be worth the expense of rearing from the sportsman’s point of view,’ thunders P. Morton Shand inA Book of Food. ‘But it is worth almost any sacrifice from that of an epicure.’ Shand published his trenchant tome (‘This is frankly a book of prejudices, for all food is a question of likes and dislikes’) nearly a century ago, but how times have changed.

Because, although the keen shot, standing deep in some Devon or Yorkshire valley, may marvel at birds soaring stratospherically overhead, they’re rather less thrilled by the eating. A dowdy dowager aunt, if you like, to the more glamorous grouse, teal or woodcock. Too lean, they say, too dry and—unless you favour the Victorian method of hanging the bird until the flesh decays and the maggots plop heavily to the floor—a touch too dull.

Sure, we’re happy to shoot them by the hundred. And take a brace at the end of the day. If we don’t eat the game we bring down, there’s simply no justification for the sport. Too often, however, the pheasant has been condemned to chest-freezer Siberia, lonely, lost and unloved. I’m guilty of this myself. A brace of partridge barely makes it to the fridge before being transformed into some fragrant Indian curry. A young grouse is always swiftly roasted. But the pheasant? In culinary terms, this is a bird more sinned against than sinning.

‘The correct cooking of pheasant is of paramount importance,’ declares John Williams, the quietly brilliant executive chef of The Ritz in London. ‘It’s a lean bird and you have to get it just right.’ Under normal circumstances, I’d be at his side, in those vast and gleaming kitchens that stretch out beneath Piccadilly. Today—for obvious reasons—we’re talking by telephone about The Princess Royal’s favourite recipe, devilled pheasant (see box, page 136).

‘It’s a very simple recipe,’ he continues in his soft Geordie burr. ‘Basically, a couple of whole pheasants are poached, then taken off the bone, shredded and kept warm in the poaching juices. You just add freshly whipped cream, left in the fridge for an hour to stiffen, mixed with a good amount of Green Label mango chutney. Ithas to be Sharwood’s Green Label, nothing else. I went out and found that specially.’ Mr Williams may be one of our country’s great chefs, yet it would be a brave man indeed who decided to ‘reinterpret’ a recipe from The Princess Royal. ‘Add in a little Worcestershire sauce, remove the pheasant from its juice, cover with the cream mixture and put it in the oven for 10 minutes to heat through. That’s it, very, very simple, but it tastes great.’

So this is not exactly ‘devilled’ in the traditional sense. I was expecting a sprinkle of English mustard powder, a flurry of cayenne. At the very least, a decent jig of Tabasco. However, having ventured deep into those wilder reaches of my freezer, retrieved a pheasant, defrosted it and cooked the recipe myself, I have to agree with my teacher. It’s a damned fine dish, splendidly succulent and robust in flavour. And one that has now been firmly etched onto my (admittedly short) list of pheasant classics.

Devilled pheasant

Method

Put the pheasants in a casserole with carrot, onion, garlic, parsley and herbs. Cover the birds with water and then cover the casserole. Bring to the boil and simmer gently until tender.

Remove the meat from the bones and pour back the juices in which the birds were cooked. Heat the meat very slowly in the juices, so it does not become dry. Meanwhile, whip the double cream into a stiff consistency. Leave it in the refrigerator for about an hour until it becomes quite hard, then beat the mango chutney and Worcestershire sauce into it. Keep it cool in the fridge until ready to be used. Place the flaked meat, thoroughly drained of cooking juices, into the dish in which it is to be served, cover it with the cream mixture and put it in the oven for 10 minutes to heat through.

Hint: the birds can be cooked in the morning and the rest of the preparation done about 1½ hours before dinner, but remember to keep the stock in which the birds were first cooked for reheating.

Ingredients

Mr Williams loves game ‘in every sense’. However, as we discuss the relative unpopularity of the pheasant, he does wonder why it doesn’t enjoy the adulation that other game birds enjoy. ‘Perhaps the modern, reared pheasant has lost a bit of its flavour,’ he muses. ‘I’d love to try a truly wild one. Still, I use them every now and again. If I roast one, I always bard the bird with bacon or lardo fat, cover it totally. I brown it first in the pan with lots of butter and cook it at 200˚C for 15 minutes, then rest it for another 15 minutes before carving.’

2 pheasants

1 large carrot

1 large onion

1 clove garlic

1 sprig parsley

1 sprig thyme

2 bay leaves

250ml (½ pint) double cream

1 large jar Green Label mango chutney

4tbspn Worcestershire sauce

He pauses, lost in gamey reverie. ‘Oh, and when you make the gravy, add a good lump ofbeurre noisette [‘hazelnut’ or browned butter] to the hot pan. It makes all the difference.’ He serves it with sauerkraut or cabbage studded with crisp bacon lardons.

Are there any other recipes he loves? ‘My favourite dish is when you stuff truffle andfoie gras under the pheasant’s skin.’ Now we’re talking. ‘Then flambé it with Cognac, Madeira and more truffle. Then add a truffle sauce, seal it in a dough cocotte and cook for 15 minutes, no more.’ It’s not exactly the most simple of kitchen supper dishes. Or the cheapest. But this is the sort of feast that would make most serious eaters (Shand included) weep tears of greedy glee.

My children will happily devour the breasts, battered thin and breaded like a schnitzel, although I do have to admit I pass it off as chicken. In this case, ignorance (and an empty plate) is bliss. Thighs and breast make a decent curry, too, and I’ve finely chopped the meat to use in a fiery Northern Thailarb , although it does need a handful of minced pork for extra fat. A classic Frenchsalmi is another reliable standby, albeit one that requires a little work.

My friend and fellow food writer Matthew Fort has adapted a classic Michel Guérard duck-ham recipe, using pheasant breasts instead. Simply bury in salt—spiced with coriander seeds, allspice, juniper berries, black pepper and star anise, crushed in the pestle and mortar—for 36 hours. Rinse off the salt and slice thinly. They’re a revelation. The rest of the carcass is used for stock.

If cooking seems too much of a chore, worry not. I was lately dazzled by a pheasant sausage roll from Wild & Game (www.wildandgame. co.uk), the pastry burnished, the filling rich and gently gamey. Their pheasant and venison sausages are pretty fine, too. It’s time to give these cheap, lean and sadly under-rated birds a second chance. Come shooting season, there’s an awful lot of pheasant about. The very least we can do is enjoy them.

[crabussy]

hey. don’t cry. crush four cloves of garlic into a pot with a dollop of olive oil and stir until golden then add one can of crushed tomatoes a bit of balsamic vinegar half a tablespoon of brown sugar and stir for a few minutes adding a handful of fresh spinach until wilted and mix in half a cup of grated parmesan cheese and pasta of your choice ok?

[littlecutiexox]

I’m so happy with how much I’ve improved my relationship with food

[aetherixs]

*through gritted teeth* gRaNDpAPi’s ReCipE

[derangedfujoshi]

The odds of two of your favourite mangas having extremely similar panels are low

But never zero.

[m1kyweeds]

theyre baking a gte well soon cake for mitsukuni:)

[artifour]

doodles from some weeks ago because ive been artfighting so i dont have anything else to put here

[vegance]

not me being peak vegan by asking my sign language teacher how to say tofu, soy milk and vegan meat when we were learning our food vocab

[monty-glasses-roxy]

Ya know, I said it offhandedly in the tags of the last post but I'm wondering what a Chica themed cookbook would include now. Pizza is the obvious one, same with cake and cupcakes. She has some canon stuff with something about chowder, Chica chug, Chica bites, uhhhh the uhhh skinny taco from Help Wanted 2, lemon Chicabars, the blendee, and whatever else she normally has I dunno. Her Fizzy Faz flavour is pink lemonade so there's that too...

She's then got the whole mazercise thing, so fruit smoothies and just general stuff with fruit is probably gonna work. Obviously she's a chicken, so there's that too.

Honestly, I can see her having a cake section where she tells the recipes to her friend's favourite cakes. So the obvious would be carrot cake for Bonnie then I dunno a lemon lime cheesecake for Monty or something?

I think the thing about a Chica cookbook is that it's just so easy to visualise and work with that it would be kind of hard to get it wrong, and yet, this isn't a real thing that exists for some reason??

[lab-gr0wn-lambs]

I'd never be one of those people to go around repping my univeristy with T-shirts and hats or whatever, but I have unironically been wearing my prof's weird unreleased merch for his obscure early 2000s animated show for like 2 years

[c0nes]

[bitchkovsky]

if you want to know what im thinking abt this sunday. the favourite (2018) is happening roughly at the same time as Black Sails (the year flint becomes a pirate) … a disgraced vengeful lesbian with a scar across her cheek and a vendetta against royalty….. where could she go. much to think about

[tomorrowillbeyou]

i regret to inform you all that they are once again scheming against me with the oils

[hprecipe-recfest]

Hello dear HP Recipe Rec fest mods, I just got excited because of your post asking about our favourite food-themed hp fics reminded me of my all-time favourite food-themed Drarry fic.

It's a Muggle AU. It has: A lot of baking, as they participate in a baking competition show. A retired daddy material Harry. Single parent Draco. Theo with an incredible role for Draco's background story. A little age gap (but not that dramatic big and all are adults.). Getting together. McGonagall and Snape as judges.

I haven't read it in a long, long while, but I think Luna was there being a painter, or doing lot's of different creative stuff.

But I remember it being a joy to read and I have a lot of scenes stuck in my head although I'm usually bad at remembering details.

Bake your way into my heart by Hufflepuff_Romantic

https://archiveofourown.org/works/34488982/chapters/85837528

~ waterfalls-moon

Hello chef!

Thank you for the rec @waterfalls-moon , this sounds like a great read (link here). Thank you for the rec!

Here ya go @hufflepuffromantic 😉

❤️HP Executive Chefs

[airyairyaucontraire]

It's strange how much, when I have time off (e.g. tomorrow is ANZAC Day and I've booked the Friday after as annual leave so I can have a four-day weekend), I feel like "ah, normal life for a bit," because work-day life never really feels like life.

Anyway, this weekend is my mother's 70th birthday and she's having a party (catered ladies' lunch) and she's sad because her sister is sick and can't come but on the other hand her best friend has flown over from Australia for it, and I will spend a chunk of tomorrow baking two large and sumptuous carrot cakes for the occasion.

The best carrot cake recipe I've ever found btw: Carrot Cake III from Allrecipes.com. I make it without the pecans, because my sister's allergic to nuts, and instead of plain cinnamon I use mixed spice (called pudding spice in the UK and pumpkin pie spice in the USA). Otherwise, I just follow the recipe and I really cannot over-emphasise how nice this cake is. My sister and mother request it for their birthday cakes pretty much every year.

It's so moist you can make it a couple of days in advance with no noticeable deterioration (provided you store it wrapped up or in an airtight container, of course). The original recipe is for a 9x13 rectangular pan but it works pretty perfectly if you divide the batter equally between two medium-size round cake pans and then layer the baked cakes with the cream cheese icing, which is my normal method. This time, however, I'm making the rectangular version for ease of cutting and serving to a lot of different people.

And it's easy. You don't actually need an electric mixer, if you have a whisk or an egg-beater and some gumption that's just as good. I speed things up by grating the carrots in a food processor - as well as being quicker, I find this results in tidier grated carrots that don't leak and slop their juice so much. In my experience, three medium-size carrots usually yield three cups of the grated stuff, and I would recommend using a grater or food processor disc with smaller holes - thinner strands of carrot give you a better-textured cake.

And as you may know if you know me, I like carrot cake to be a simple and honest CARROT cake, and this one is. There is no secret, sneaky fruit involved.* Carrot it says and carrot it is and carrot it ever shall be.

I once made this with heirloom purple carrots as an experiment. It looked simply disgusting and tasted exactly the same.

*I don't mind if you want a carrot and pineapple cake! I just think you should call it a carrot and pineapple cake. Stuff you if you put sultanas or raisins in it though.

[crabussy]

Hey! I made the spinach and crushed tomatoes recipe the other night and my bf loved it! Even took the leftovers to work the same night. Do you have any other recipes you really like?

awww, I'm so happy to hear that!!

I only cook sometimes (will definitely learn more before I start uni!) so here's my other favourite recipe for hiroshima-style okonomiyaki!!! my siblings request this ALL THE TIME and while it requires a lot more skill than the pasta sauce, it is DELICIOUS and SO FILLING.

you'll need okonomiyaki flour, cabbage, eggs, noodles, bean sprouts, spring onion and japanese mayo!! for the sauce, you need japanese soy sauce, oyster sauce, tomato sauce and sesame oil. you can also buy the sauce pre-made, but I understand that could be difficult to find!!

savoury pancake mix add 100ml of water to 100g of okonomiyaki flour and mix until smooth and liquid, you don't want it too thick!! we're making savoury pancakes here!!

preperation!! chop up the cabbage beforehand, as well as washing all the vegetables and slicing the spring onion. you'll want the eggs on hand too!! making this requires speed (and two pans!!) you also need to cook the noodles beforehand, and make the sauce. for the sauce, I just eyeball it- add around one tablespoon of each sauce, and only a little bit of sesame sauce!!

cooking! put two hands over medium heat on the stove, make sure each one has a bit of oil so nothing sticks!! in pan A, pour some of the savoury pancake mix until it's pancake sized. you'll need maybe half a cup, just go with what feels the right size (: next, add cabbage and bean sprouts before even flipping it. they'll stick to the uncooked side, this is what you want!! add a drizzle of pancake mix on top. don't flip it over.

In pan B, you'll be frying some of the noodles, about a handful. spread them out until they're the same size as the pancake, and drizzle some of the sauce you made on them for flavour. when the noodles are crispy and stuck together more (this means less mess!!), you have to flip the pancake over onto the noodles. this can be difficult, I often use two flippers/turners whatever they're called, one on the top and one on the bottom, would recommend this.

now that pan A is free again, add a little more oil and crack oven your egg. you want to break the yolk and stir it around until it's swirled and marbled, but not until its scrambled. the aim is to fry it like you usually would but with the yolk mixed in!! try to spread it out a little bit, again to almost the size of the pancake. once it's mostly cooked, get your two flippers and flip over the pancake-noodle amalgamation onto the egg!! at this point the pancake will be on the TOP, noodles in the MIDDLE, egg on the BOTTOM. after that, you're going to flip the whole thing off the pan onto a plate, so the pancake is on the bottom and the egg is on the top. you're done cooking!!!

finishing touches!! drizzle the sauce you made over the okonomiyaki (don't drown it!!) and criss cross the japanese mayo. or draw a smiley face. or a horse. go wild. then sprinkle your spring onion on top!! if you have some, furikake sprinkles can be so delicious to add as well. you're all done!!

notes making one of these takes around 2-5 minutes, you have to be quick and alert as to not burn something!! it's a little stressful but 100000% worth it, I was actually taught this recipe when I was lucky enough to be able to do a student exchange trip to japan when I was 12!! I'm 17 now and still make this regularly. it's amazing.

there are versions with pork, but I don't love meat so I leave it out, but there are totally recipes out there with it included!!