Pheasant with Sloe Gin and Port Sauce, Soured Red Cabbage and Carrot Puree

To cook the pheasant heat oven to 200C, cook and a heavy based oven proof pan for 10 minutes on on breast, then turn and 10 minutes on the other.  Then cook on the back for another 10 minuntes.  This will vary on the size of the bird so check the juices after 25 minutes of cooking to make sure you don't over cook this.  (Place a skewer deep into the fattest part of the bird and remove and watch the colour of the juices, when the juices run clear and not pink, then it is ready.) Rest for ten minutes.

The sauce takes about 45minutes to an hour so start this before the pheasant. Soften onions and a small clove of garlic.  Add good quality chicken stock (or preferably home made) and bay leaf, star anise, 8 crushed pepper corns, thyme, a little rosemary, then reduce by half.    Add a large glug of port and a few dashes of sloe gin, some red wine vinegar and sugar until you get the correct sweetness and of course season.  Cook this right down to a thick sauce that will at least coat the back of the spoon if not a bit thicker.   This will give a lovely wintery, gamey sauce that will compliment the pheasant.

Serve with what ever takes your fancy, I used roast cubed potatoes, carrot puree and soured cabbage.

Christmas Dinner 2011

Starter - Scallops with Prawn and Haddock Tortellini and a Chorizo Cream
I've been playing around with making my own tortellini fillings for a while now and getting the pasta thickness just right.   If it is too thin, you cannot place them individually on a plate as they are self supporting but have them too thick and they are wasted.  I've found that the second thinest setting is the best on my pasta machine.

The filling is 70 prawn, 30% haddock or white fish.  Gently poach or bake the haddock but don't over cook as it will also have some cooking in the tortellini. Put the prawn and haddock with a little splash of single cream in a mini-chopper for a few seconds.  I also added a little taragon but not to much. Then that makes your filling, with any left overs, use that to place in the centre and build your green leaves on top to give height.

Chorizo and scallops is a well known combination but it can often over power the flavour of the scallops but if used as a chorizo cream, this leaves a subtle taste that is not overpowering.  Cook the chorizo first, then adding cream, put into a mini-chopper.  Put this through a tamis or sieve and you are left with a mild chorizo cream.  If you can leave the chorizo in the cream for a longer time, this will allow the flavours in infuse more.

Mains - Roast Pork from Sunnyside Farm with Sausages (the one I butchered), Celeriac Puree and all the trimmings.

Desert - Chocolate Ganach with Mango Jelly, Vanilla Ice Cream and a Baileys Cream Sauce.

Christmas Ham

Its Christmas, I'm so excited, I'll be cooking on and off today, tomorrow and on Christmas day.   Here is the best Christmas Ham recipe, its not mine but one I pinched off Jacqueline O'Donnell.  I also added some sloe gin to the glaze and use a carton of orange juice as well as apple and omitted the water.  Keep the juices that you boil the ham in, it makes a wonderful stock that you can use for pork gravy.   Well I think it will, will tell you on Christmas Day.

Recipe
6.5kg gammon, with knuckle bone
250ml red wine (1 cup)
Apple juice/water to cover
1 large onion, halved
2 cloves garlic (unpeeled)
1 head fennel, halved
2 star anise
1 x 15ml tablespoon coriander seed
1 x 15ml tablespoon fennel seed
1 x 15ml tablespoon mixed peppercorns
 1 bay leaf
 6 cloves

Ham Glaze:Approx. 20 whole cloves
4 x 15ml tablespoons cranberry or redcurrant jelly
 ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
 1 teaspoon smoked paprika
 ½ teaspoon red wine vinegar

Preparation: 1. Put all the ingredients, except those for the glaze, into a large pan, on the stove but off the heat, adding water until the ham is covered.
2. Turn on the heat and bring to the boil, then turn down to a simmer and partially cover the pan. Cook for about 3 1/2 hours. (This may not seem long for a big joint, but as it will carry oncooking as it cools, and this is going to be eaten cold, I don’t want it overcooked. Nor do you.)
3. Preheat the oven to 200°C/gas mark 6 (400F). Lift the ham gently out of the hot liquid, sit it on a board and let it cool slightly, not too much but just so that you can touch it without burning yourself.
4. With a sharp knife, strip off the rind, and a little of the fat layer if it’s very thick, but leave a thin layer of fat. I love this work: it is peculiarly gratifying seeing the hot blubbery fat slither off. Use the same knife to score a diamond pattern in the remaining fat on the ham, in lines about 2cm apart. Stud the points of each diamond with a clove.
5. Put the cranberry or redcurrant jelly, cinnamon, paprika and red wine vinegar into a little saucepan and whisk together over a high heat, bringing it to the boil. Let the pan bubble away, for about 5 minutes, so that the glaze reduces to a syrupy consistency that will coat the fat on the ham.
6. Now sit the ham in a roasting tin lined with foil, as the sugar in the glaze will burn in the oven as it drips off. Pour the glaze over the diamond-studded ham, then put it in the oven for about 15 minutes, or until the glazed fat has caught and burnished. Take the ham out of the oven and sit it on a wooden board to cool (2–3 hours) before you carve it.

Aromatic Christmas Ham Make Ahead Tip:
Cook the ham, loosely cover in a 'tent' of foil and keep chilled for up to 1 week.

Razor Clams in Veloute

Razor clams are really easy to cook, soften a shallot, put in a few glugs of white wine, then just pop them in once bubbling and cook with a lid on for 60 to 90 seconds and no more.  Remove, then only use the white meat, reheat before serving.  Serve with what ever accompaniments you like.

Pork Loin with Stuffed Cabbage leaves and Mustard Foam

Pork loin with celeriac puree with stuffed cabbage leaves and a mustard foam.  I'm experimenting with lecithin to help stabilize my foams, getting there.

Scallops with Lemon and Coriander Risotto

Risotto made with my own fish stock.  These were caught that morning so were as fresh as they come. If you get the correct scallops you are much better to under cook than over cook, and a little raw in the middle with fresh muscles is how I like them.

The Wonders of Tuna

Just looking back at my photos, I have cooked three tuna dishes recently.  I think that tuna works very well with a Thai slant to it but not too much to overpower the flavour.

Thai Tuna with corriander,
red chilli, garlic, ginger
& a soy sauce &honey dressing.

Tuna steak with Thai
flavoured udon Noodles

Pink centred Tuna
with udon noodles

How Pigeon Should be cooked.

Okay, after my rant below, here is how to cook pigeon, it must be pink and not over cooked otherwise it will be tough and tasteless.  It only needs 2 or 3 minutes depending on how thick the breasts are, then a couple of minutes to rest.

I have cooked pigeon three times since the below post and I am falling it love with it as a meat, it should almost melt in your mouth.  Thanks to my father in law who brought round the wood pigeon that flew into his window.

I cooked this with a pea puree and chard, sorrel and pancetta salad. I was a bit lazy with the puree as I didn't put it though the tamis to get all the lumps out.  Pea puree is actually sweater and tastier than normal peas.  Cook the peas in half cream, half milk until soft, then whiz in a blender and put though a tamis or fine sieve to remove all the lumps. Then, heat when needed. It's also good for freezing and keeps well.