Roasted pheasant breast, confit leg, creamed sprouts, chestnuts, pheasant and port jus with blackberries

We are lucky in the UK that game season coincides with the winter vegetable and fruit season because the three marry up so well. This dish is a country game pub inspired classic, not reinventing the wheel, just using quality produce to its potential, and utilising a ‘nose to tail’ no wastage approach with the game bird.

Prep & cooking time: 1 hr 30 mins   Serves: 2

Ingredients

•  1 x oven ready partridge, separated into breasts, legs and carcass, keeping the skin but blowtorching any feathers from it
• 300g x sprouts, peeled, washed and finely sliced
• 150g x chestnuts, finely chopped
• 6 x blackberries, slice half widthways
• 250g x unsalted butter
• 1.2l x reduced golden chicken stock
• 100ml x port
• 50ml x white wine
• 100ml x double cream
• 1 x clove garlic
• 2 x sprigs thyme
• Salt

Instructions

Legs

1. Firstly, place the legs in a vacuum bag with 50g butter and salt, vacuum and place in a preheated water bath at 90 degrees for about 4-6 hours (this depends on how old the bird is and whether it is wild or farmed, old wild birds will take a lot longer than young farmed due to them using their leg muscles a lot more. If you do not have sous vide available, firstly salt the legs for 2 hours, wash them and then submerge in vegetable oil, bringing the heat to around 90 degrees and cooking for around the same amount of time, once cooked chill down and remove the thigh bone by twisting gently and pulling it out of the socket.

Pheasant and port jus

1. Place the garlic, thyme and port in a large saucepan and reduce to a syrup before adding the chicken stock.
2. Roast the pheasant carcass at 200 degrees for around 45 minutes or until golden brown and place into the saucepan and simmer gently for 1.5 hours, pass through a fine mesh sieve and reduce to desired consistency (too thick will leave a sticky taste in your mouth and too thin will not stick to the meat appropriately).

Creamed sprouts and chestnuts

1. Place 100g of butter in a medium sized saucepan on a medium heat, add the sprouts and chestnuts, season with salt and sweat gently for around 4-5 minutes
2. Add the white wine, turn up the heat and reduce until its basically nothing
3. Add the cream and reduce slowly until thick, seasoning to taste

To serve

1. Place the raw breast and leg into a frying pan with a small amount of oil on a medium heat, gradually increasing the heat, making sure all skin is in contact with the pan to ensure crispiness
2. Place the frying pan in the oven at 200 degrees and roast for around 5-6 minutes.
3. Return the frying pan to the stove on a medium heat, flip the breast over and add a knob of butter, basting the foaming butter over the breast and leg for about 2 minutes, transfer breast and leg to a tray with kitchen towel to rest. Once rested for 2 minutes slice the breast in half lengthways
4. Place your creamed sprouts (reheated if necessary) on your plate, followed by the confit leg and the breast. Drop the halved blackberries into your pan of reheated jus and spoon over the entire dish. Serve immediately.