Jamie Magazine
By Peter Begg
Pheasant stew with chestnut dumplings
2 hrs 55 mins
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serves 4
About the recipe
Grouse and partridge may be the king and queen of gamebirds, but in a stew they’re no match for the humble pheasant. With bacon, herbs and nice booze, pheasant is simply delicious; add a few chestnut dumplings and it’s out of this world.
Recipe From
Ingredients
2 pheasants
3 tablespoons plain flour
3 small red onions
2 small carrots
1 celery heart
3 cloves of garlic
1 tablespoon unsalted butter
200g higher-welfare streaky bacon
6 fresh bay leaves
300ml madeira
CHESTNUT DUMPLINGS
50g plain flour
50g chestnut flour
50g suet
1 pinch of baking powder
25g ready-cooked chestnuts
Method
- Cut the legs off the pheasants and chop in half at the knee.
- Cut off the breasts and wings in one piece, then chop in half. You’ll have 16 pheasant pieces in total. Reserve the carcass.
- In a bowl, mix the flour with a few pinches of sea salt and black pepper, and toss in the pheasant pieces to coat. Leave for a while so the flour sticks to the skin.
- Peel and chop the onions and carrots, then trim and chop the celery, reserving the peelings. Peel and halve the garlic.
- To make pheasant stock, chop the carcasses in half and put them in a saucepan with a third of the veg and garlic, and all the peelings.
- Add water to cover, and bring to the boil. Simmer gently for 1 hour, skimming off any floating bits.
- Pass through a fine sieve, discarding the vegetables and peelings, then reserve.
- Melt the butter in a large sauté pan over a medium heat. Cut the bacon into lardons, then add to the pan with the floured pheasant pieces.
- Brown slowly on all sides, adding more butter as required.
- Add the remaining vegetables, garlic and bay leaves, and cook until soft and fragrant.
- Pour over the madeira and top up with stock to just cover the meat. Simmer gently for 45 minutes, adding stock if the liquid reduces.
- Preheat the oven to 180ºC/gas 4.
- To make the chestnut dumplings, mix the ingredients in a bowl, crumbling in the chestnuts.
- Mix with your fingertips until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs, then add a pinch of salt and pepper, and just enough cold water to bind everything.
- Dust your hands with flour and roll into about 25 Brussels sprout-sized balls.
- Pour the stew into an ovenproof pot. Drop in the dumplings, poking them under the surface of the stew.
- Cover tightly with a lid or tin foil and bake for 30 minutes, or until the dumplings are fluffy and have soaked up the liquid. Serve with braised red cabbage.
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