PHEASANT RECIPES

LINDA B.'S RECIPE
Cook a pheasant until meat falls off of bones. 1/2 hour in boiling water maybe. Bone and skin all meat. Put in food processor and chop until fine. Add chopped celery and onion and nuts if desired. Salt and pepper to taste. Add enough Miracle Whip to make the consistancy of pate and voila! Pheasant Pate. Great on crackers or toast. This seems to go over great. I make Pheasant McNuggets. Cut the meat into bite sized chunks. Dip in saltine cracker crumbs and egg and crumbs again. Fry in a skillet with oil. Doesn't take long to cook and tastes great.

PHEASANT JUBILEE
Submitted by Sharyn Baker: "...it comes from a very old copy of the "Favorite Recipes of California Winemakers" published by the Wine Advisory Board, 1963."

4 pheasants quartered (hope you get four big ones)
Flour
1/2 butter or maragarine
1 onion chopped
1/2 cup golden raisins
1 cup chili sauce
1/2 water
1/2 brown sugar
2 TBS. Worchesershire sauce
1/4 tesp. garlic powder
1 cup California Sherry ( not too sweet)
1 (1-lb.) can pitted dark sweet cherries, drained

Dust pheasants with flour. Melt butter in a heavy skillet: brown birds thoroughly. Place pheasants in a deep casserole. In the same skillet, combine onion, raisins, chili sauce, water, brown sugar, Worchestershire sauce and garlic; boil briefly, scraping browned meat from bottom and sides of pan; pour over pheasants. Bake covered, in a moderately slow oven (325 degrees) for 1 1/2 hours. remove cover; add sherry and cherries. Continue baking 20 minutes longer. To serve transfer to a deep chafing or warming dish. This works well with wild rice and a fresh green vegetable. Bon Appetite!!and Happy Thanksgiving.

POTTED PHEASANT


First, go out and shoot a couple of pheasants, then pluck and clean, and pick out all the birdshot. Rinse the birds well in salted water, then drain. Stuff the cavity of each bird with an onion, a clove of garlic, and two pieces of celery. Place in a terra-cotta pot (you can use one of those heavy metal covered roasters, or any pan with a tight cover, or even a pan covered with doubled aluminum foil. there are also heavy plastic bags made for potroasts which will work well.

Butter the birds' breasts liberally, or use a slice of bacon on each bird. surround the birds with your choice of vegetables. I use a few more onions, one or two small tomatoes, peeled carrots, halved white potatoes and sweet potatoes, small yellow turnips, parsnips, and more celery sticks. Lightly salt and pepper the veggies. use enough veggies to feed the gang, and 1/2 pheasant per person, unless the birds are really small.

Add about a cup of water, or wine, or beer, or chicken stock. Cover, or seal the bag according to directions, and roast for about an hour at 350 degrees, or until the juices run clear, checking that there is enough liquid about half way through. cook a tough old cock a little longer.

STUFFED PHEASANT ROULADE
Jane in Pennsylvania writes that she heard this recipe from the TV FOOD NETWORK. Emeril Lagasse, one of the chefs on the network did this recipe....it looked wonderful! Of course, you need a BONED pheasant...probably not an easy task...

1- 3-pound pheasant
1/2 cup chopped toasted pecans
1/2 cup dried cherries
1 cup crumbled day-old cornbread
1/2 cup chicken stock
Salt and pepper
4 slices bacon

Have your butcher bone out pheasant in one piece, cutting open back. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Combine pecans, cherries, cornbread and stock; season to taste with salt and pepper. Season pheasant inside and out; fill it up with stuffing. Roll up pheasant to fully enclose stuffing and place in a roasting pan, seam-side down. Wrap bacon securely around bird, tucking it under to secure. Roast until an instant-reading thermometer inserted in thigh area registers 180 degrees F, 25 to 30 minutes. Transfer roulade to a serving platter and slice at table. Yield: 2 servings {Copyright, 1996, TV FOOD NETWORK, G.P., All Rights Reserved}

Pheasant and Wild Rice
1 cup raw wild rice
1 can cream of chicken soup
1 can cream of mushroom soup
1 can mushroom stems and pieces
2 1/2 cups water chestnuts, optional
2 pheasants, cut up
1 package dry onion soup mix

Flour and lightly brown pheasant pieces. Mix rice, canned soups, mushrooms and water chestnuts in a casserole. Add pheasant pieces. Sprinkle dry onion soup mix over the top. Cover lightly with foil and bake for 3 hours at 300 degrees.


Scalloped Pheasant
pheasant, cut up
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup bread crumbs
2 tablespoons melted butter
2 cups whole milk

Cook pheasant until tender. Pour off and save broth. Remove bones and dice pheasant. Make a gravy of the broth, using 1/2 broth and 1/2 whole milk. Thicken slightly. Season to taste. Moisten bread crumbs in melted butter. In greased casserole, place alternate layers of diced pheasant, gravy and crumbs. Bake at 350 degrees until thoroughly heated and the top crumbs are brown.


Hunter's Style Pheasant
2 pheasants
4 tablespoons olive oil
2 to 3 garlic cloves
1 teaspoon rosemary, dry or fresh
1/3 cup wine vinegar or dry sherry
salt
pepper

Cut pheasant into sections, wash, drain but do not dry. In an iron skillet, place olive oil and sliced cloves of garlic. Brown garlic slightly. Add sections of pheasant, season with salt, a little pepper and rosemary. Cover skillet and let pheasant cook slowly in its own juice for about one hour or until meat appears tender when tested with a fork. If, while cooking, meat becomes too dry, add about 1/2 cup water. When meat is cooked, add vinegar or sherry and turn off heat. Cover skillet immediately and let meat steam for about five minutes. When serving pour cooking juice over pheasant.


Cream Cheese Stuffed Pheasant Breast
4 boneless pheasant breasts, skinned
1/2 cup butter
1 1/2 cups crushed corn flakes
1 (8 oz.) package cream cheese
1/2 tablespoon garlic powder
1/4 cup Parmesan cheese
1/2 cup finely chopped green onions

Soak pheasant breasts in butter. Coat each breast with corn flake crumbs. Mix cream cheese, garlic powder, Parmesan cheese and green onions together and divide into four parts. Place each coated breast flat in ungreased baking dish. Place one part cream cheese mixture on each breast and fold breast in half to sandwich mixture between the two sides. Use toothpick to hold breast in place. Bake 35 to 40 minutes at 375 degrees.


Pheasant Soup
bony pieces from several pheasants
1 teaspoon salt
1 bay leaf
1/2 cup raw rice
1 cup raw carrots, sliced
1 very small onion
pepper

Clean and wash bony pieces of pheasant well. Put in kettle with enough water to cover pieces and add salt and bay leaf. Cook until meat is tender enough to fall from bones. Remove meat and bay leaf from broth. Discard bay leaf. Remove meat from bones in pieces as large as possible. Return meat and add a few grains of pepper. Add uncooked rice and carrots. Cut onion in quarters and add. Simmer mixture for about one hour or until carrots and rice are tender and have soaked up most of the broth. North American Wild Game Cookbook by Bill & Anita Mabbutt: This book has some pretty good recipes and some very good sauces.


STUFFED PHEASANT FILETS

FILET PREP -- Remove filet from bone, being careful to leave inner "Tenderloin" attached. Lightly score silverskin side of filet with a sharp knife to minimize shrinkage.
Lay tenderloin open, and make a pocket cut in the thick portion of the fillet opposing the tenderloin.

STUFFING -- 1 fresh french bread, cubed or chopped in a food processor, 1 pound of sausage, 1/4 to 1/2 cup chopped onions, 1/4 cup chopped celery, 2 cup chicken or pheasant stock.
Seasoning can include using seasoned sausage, such as chorizo (Mexican), cajun, italian, etc., or you can use traditional stuffing seasoning such as sage and thyme.
Brown sausage and saute vegetables in skillet. Place bread and other ingredients in large bowl and mix stock in thoroughly. The stuffing mixture should be like a stiff cookie dough.

FINAL PREP -- Place several tablespoonfuls of stuffing in pocket and cover with tenderloin. Pin tenderloin in place with 2-3 toothpicks and brown filet in small amount of butter or margarine.
Place browned filets in uncovered baking dish and bake at 325 degrees to internal temp of 180 degrees, or 1 to 1 1/2 hours.

Remove from baking dish, and make a white gravy using pan drippings, flour and milk.

Serve with gravy.

Options include adding or changing stuffing ingredients, such as sauteed mushrooms, different sausages, or other types of bread, including cornbread.




GROUND PHEASANT, OR PHEASANT SAUSAGE

When preparing filets as above, save meat from thighs, back and upper drumstick and freeze in airtight containers. (Should yield 8-10 ounces per bird.) Other parts can be included, such as shot-up breast pieces of pheasant, quail or ruffed grouse.

When you have accumulated a supply of meat grind with beef fat at about 4-5 parts pheasant with 1 part fat.

For a low-fat, low-cholesterol version of this I've discovered that adding 1-2 tablespoons of cooking oil will work as well. This is handy for grinding in small batches in a hand-operated grinder. Bigger batches are best left to a game processor.

This ground meat can be used for patties, meatloaf, hamburger steak, and hamburger gravies. It can also be seasoned to make an excellent breakfast, or italian. Because it is white meat, it will work well for anything that calls for pork sausage.




PHEASANT SOUP

BASIC STOCK -- (Requires about 3 pheasants) After boning the carcass separate legbones, breast bone, and back from pelvis. (Because the pelvic area is often tainted, and contains kidneys it should be discarded.)

Place the bones in a large stockpot with a small amount of cooking oil and 1/2 cup each coarsely chopped onion, carrots and celery. Brown thoroughly on high heat, until vegetables begin to caramelize and the meat is well-done. (Undercooking will cause cloudy stock from blood cooked out of the meat into the stock.) The dark color of the caramelized vegetables makes a rich, dark stock, about the color of tea.

Add water to cover and simmer until meat can be easily removed from bones. Take bones out of stock and strain stock to remove remaining vegetables and scraps. Season to taste.

Remove meat from bones and reserve for soup.

Soup is completed by cooking noodles, rice, wild rice, barley, vegetables, or potatoes in the stock. Meat is added at the last minute to heat through. A small amount of cornstarch dissolved in water can be added to give body to the stock.

A good side dish for pheasants is:

WILD RICE

1 Cup wild rice 1/2 # mushrooms 1/2 Cup slivered almonds 3 Cups chicken broth 4 Tbl butter or margarine salt, pepper and garlic to taste

Brown dry ingredients on medium 10-15 minutes. Place all in casserole, cover with foil and the cover. Bake at 325 for 1 1/2 hours.

Can be made in a crock pot. Cooking time about 8 hours on low.

Honey Mustard Sauce (for Sandras Grouse Fingers)

cup Mayonnaise (mayonnaise not Miracle Whip)
2 tbsp. liquid honey
1 tsp. mustard
Mix mayonnaise, honey and mustard. Amounts can be varied depending on tastes



Field Dressing Tip:

Dress grouse when first shot by stepping on wings, breast up, wings out, head at the top, take hold of the feet and steadily pull towards you. The grouse will separate, leaving you holding the feet, legs and entrails. On the ground remain the exposed breast, heart and liver attached to the wings. Remove the legs if its a fair size grouse, you may get a few finger strips after you remove all the sinew. At least one wing must be left on for identification until you reach home.