Pheasant stew
The dash of fruit jelly and the apple juice gives a sweetness to Mary Berry's slow-cooked pheasant stew. Wintery and warming.
Ingredients
- 2 pheasants
- 2 tbsp oil
- 100g/3½oz smoked streaky bacon, cut into 1cm/½in strips
- 1 onion, roughly chopped
- 2 sticks celery, sliced thinly on the diagonal
- 25g/1oz plain flour
- 300ml/10fl oz apple juice
- 300ml/10fl oz hot chicken stock
- 1 tbsp fruit jelly, such as redcurrant jelly
- 2 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
- 3 bay leaves
- 250g/9oz button mushrooms, halved
- gravy browning (optional)
- mashed potato, to serve
- salt and freshly ground black pepper
Method
Preheat the oven 160C/140C Fan/Gas 3.
To prepare the meat, remove the breast meat and legs from the birds. Set aside the carcasses to make stock for another time. Remove the skin from all the meat and cut the the breast meat into 3cm/1¼in cubes. Season the breast meat and legs with salt and pepper.
Heat 1 tablespoon of the oil in a casserole dish placed over a medium heat. Add the meat and fry until brown all over. Remove with a slotted spoon and set aside.
Add the remaining oil and fry the bacon for a few minutes until crisp. Add the onion and celery, and fry over a high heat for few minutes until softened.
Sprinkle in the flour and stir. Gradually pour in the apple juice and stock and bring to the boil. Add the redcurrant jelly, Worcestershire sauce and bay leaves and return the meat to the pan.
Bring everything back to the boil, stirring. Season with salt and pepper and a few drops of gravy browning, if using. Cover and cook in the oven for about 1–1½ hours, or until tender. Add the mushrooms and cook for a further 30 minutes.
Remove the bay leaves and serve piping hot with mashed potato.
