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Recipe for "pheasant-2"

NAME

     PHEASANT-2 - Pheasant in the North American tradition
     This  recipe  is  adapted  from  the   exceptionally   good,
     controlled-circulation  Recipes Only Magazine.  The original
     dish was created by Mary Richard for use in her Teepee  Res-
     taurant,  in Winnipeg.  I found some of the ingredients hard
     to locate in a hurry and used what I had available with good
     results.   You can substitute rock Cornish hen, guinea fowl,
     or chicken for the pheasant and hazelnuts, filberts or  wal-
     nuts for the black walnuts.

INGREDIENTS (Serves 2)

     1 kg      hen pheasant, cleaned
     1         onion, quartered
     1         bay leaf
     6         peppercorns
     1         small carrot, sliced
     1         stalk celery, sliced
     5 ml      salt
     50 ml     butter
     pinch     powdered thyme
     1 ml      rosemary, dried and crumbled
     20 g      chopped mushrooms
     30 ml     flour
     30 ml     black walnut meats, finely chopped

PROCEDURE (BIRDS)

          (1)  Split pheasant down the breastbone (or  have  your
               butcher do this).
          (2)  Rinse the halves, place in a deep pot  and  barely
               cover  with  water.   Add bay leaf, onion, carrot,
               celery, salt and peppercorns.
          (3)  Bring to rolling boil, then  turn  down  heat  and
               simmer  for  approximately  30  minutes,  or until
               tender.  Remove foam and scum as it forms.  Remove
               bird(s) from broth, reserving the broth.
          (4)  Using a heavy skillet, saute the halves in  30  ml
               of the butter until golden.
          (5)  Place birds into small roasting pan  or  casserole
               with  just enough water to cover the bottom of the
               pan.  Sprinkle with thyme and rosemary.
          (6)  Bake, lightly covered with foil, for 30-40 minutes
               at 175 deg. C.

PROCEDURE (GRAVY)

          (1)  While the birds are in the oven, strain the  broth
               and boil rapidly down to 500 ml
          (2)  Brown the mushrooms  using  the  same  skillet  in
               which  you browned the pheasant.  Remove the mush-
               rooms and keep them warm.
          (3)  Melt the remaining 25 ml of butter in the skillet.
               Add  the  flour, stirring up the browning from the
               pan.
          (4)  Cook over moderately high heat until golden brown.
               Blend in the broth using a wire whisk.
          (5)  Add mushrooms and continue cooking approximately 1
               - 2  minutes.  Turn down heat, cover and keep warm
               until pheasant is roasted.

NOTES

     When the pheasants are cooked, remove them from the oven and
     scrape  the herbs from the skin.  After placing the pheasant
     halves on a warm platter (or leaving them in the casserole),
     pour  the gravy over the pheasant.  Garnish with the chopped
     nutmeats and serve.  This dish  is  particularly  good  with
     wild rice.

RATING

     Difficulty: easy once  you  have  the  all  the  ingredients
     ready.   Time:  40  minutes preparation, 80 minutes cooking.
     Precision: measure the spices.

CONTRIBUTOR

     G. Roderick Singleton
     Syntronics Manufacturing Inc., Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
     gerry@syntron.uucp  utzoo!syntron!gerry