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Roast pheasant with prunes

If you want to serve a special lunch or dinner to your guests, this roast pheasant with prunes could really win them over! In fact this dish could be your main course in a Christmas or other festive/celebratory menu during the game season. One pheasant is enough for about two people, so cook two,three or four birds for a dinner party - upping the quantities below proportionately. Serve it with mashed or roasted potatoes and some braised vegetables.
Print Recipe
Prep Time 10 minutes
Cook Time 1 hour
Resting Time 4 hours
Total Time 1 hour 30 minutes
Servings: 2 people
Cuisine: Mid&East European
Calories: 1234
Ingredients Method

Ingredients
  

  • 1 cleaned pheasant
  • 5 juniper berries crushed
  • 1 ½ tsp chopped fresh rosemary leaves
  • 1 tsp olive oil
  • 2 bay leaves
  • 8 prunes stoned
  • 2 rashers unsmoked streaky bacon
  • wooden cocktail sticks
  • 100 ml water/red wine
  • 1 tsp corn starch cornflour
  • 100 ml chicken stock
  • 2 tsp redcurrant jelly
  • rosemary to garnish

Method
 

  1. Preheat the oven to 200°C.
  2. Remove any leftover feather tips from the pheasant, then rinse out and wipe dry with kitchen paper (inside and out).
  3. Mix the juniper berries and rosemary leaves with the oil and spread inside the pheasant. Then put a bay leaf and the prunes in the cavity.
  4. Put the other bay leaf and the bacon across the breast, fix with cocktail sticks.
  5. Put the pheasant in a roasting tin and add the water (this will keep the bird moist).
  6. Cook for an hour in the oven until browned and tender, basting occasionally.
  7. Lift the pheasant onto a plate, cover with foil and tea towels. Leave it to rest.
  8. Put the roasting tray on the hob, stir the cornflour into the cooking juices and gradually add the stock. Bring to the boil, scrape up the bits from the bottom of the tin. Add the redcurrant jelly and pour in the juices of the resting bird. Stir and simmer for about 5 minutes until you get a gravy. Strain it into a serving jug.
  9. Remove the cocktail sticks, bacon and bay leaves and serve: cut off the legs and some breast - put these on the two plates with some prunes and gravy drizzled all over. Garnish with a small sprig of rosemary.