What’s Stu Cooking

I picked up a couple of pheasants from the farmers market on Saturday and had a dig around the web for a good recipe. This recipe for pheasant casserole (pot roated pheasant, really) looked just right as I didn’t want to mask too much of the game flavour. Some people seem to think that you need to heavily marinate and sauce this bird because of it strong flavour, but my family and I disagree. Pheasant has a wonderfully rich taste.

The recipe turned out fantastic, I only tweaked it a little bit:

• Add 3 cloves of whole garlic along with the shallots.
• I left out the redcurrant jelly because I didn’t have any.
• I toasted the roux, as I am prone to do, and added rosemary, thyme and bay leaves along with some cracked black pepper to the roux instead of the bouquet garni. Toasting the herbs like this, especially the rosemary, makes them nice and nutty and allows them to dissolve into the sauce.
• About half way through remove the cover and if the sauce left in the pan is not thick enough reduce it.

This made very rich and savoury sauce for spooning over the pheasant at the table. I served it with a black/long grain/wild Canadian rice and some steamed broccoli.

If you’re not one for game, you might try Pot roasted pheasant with cider and calvados, I haven’t, but it looks plenty good.

Living in England it’s hard to squelch a craving for buffalo wings so I started making my own. My wings are not quite the same as the ones you get in restaurants, they are not fried but baked in the oven making them a little bit healthier (at least I tell myself that). Also, I use whole wings as opposed to breaking them into drumblets and discarding the tips. Why waste the best part?

• 12 chicken wings
• olive or vegetable oil
• 2 tablespoons Tabasco sauce
• 2 tablespoons butter
• 1 teaspoon sugar

Pat the wings dry with paper towels and arrange on a heavy baking tray. Rub a bit of oil over the wings so that they won’t stick to the tray and to help crisp the skins. Season with salt and pepper or chicken seasoning (I use Old Bay) and place in a hot 400F oven. Cook for 25-30 minutes.

When the first stage cooking time is nearly up melt the butter in a small sauce pan, stir in the Tabasco sauce, dissolve in the sugar and remove from heat. Using a pastry or basting brush paint half the sauce on the wings and return them to the oven to cook for 10 minutes. Baste the wings again with the remaining sauce and cook for 10 minutes more.

If the wings are not yet crispy, place them under the broiler for a couple of minutes to brown and crisp up some more. Make sure to keep an eye on them as they will burn easily.

Serve, of course, with carrot and celery sticks and a blue cheese dressing or dip (I make my own: crumbled blue cheese, mayo and Worcestershire sauce).