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Pheasant roasted with grapes, raisins, walnuts and vin santo
Serves 4-6 Starters and mains
Ingredients
- 6 clementines or other small oranges
- 675g red or black grapes, plus extra grapes on stalks, to garnish
- 200ml vin santo
- 2 young pheasants, plucked, drawn and trussed, with giblets
- softened butter, for basting
- 30g dried porcini mushrooms, soaked in warm water for 30 minutes
- 40 fresh walnuts in shells, or 225g walnut halves
- 2tsp balsamic vinegar
- 1tbsp dark soy sauce
- handful raisins
Method
Preheat the oven to 200C/40OF/ Gas 6. Grate the zest from 2 of the clementines and squeeze the juice from all 6 into a bowl. Reserve the ungrated squeezed halves. Purée the grapes very roughly in a food processor and stir into the clementine juice and zest. Ladle half the clementine and grape mix into a roasting tin, adding the vin santo and giblets.
Put the reserved squeezed clementine halves inside the pheasant cavities. Rub all over with softened butter and season with salt and pepper. Place the birds on their sides in the tin and roast for 15 minutes, then turn the birds onto their other side, baste with the pan juices and roast for another 15 minutes. Prop the birds upright, baste well and roast for a final 15 minutes or until cooked through. (The pheasant is cooked if the juices run clear when the thickest part of the thigh is pierced with a skewer).
Meanwhile, shell the fresh walnuts, if using.
Lift the pheasants onto a warmed serving platter, cover with foil and a thick towel to keep warm. Remove the giblets from the roasting tin and discard. Pour in the remaining clementine and grape mixture with the balsamic vinegar and soy sauce. Strain the porcini water into the pan, reserving the porcini, then bring to the boil, scraping any sediment from the bottom of the pan with a spoon. Boil for 1-2 minutes and pass through a mouli into a saucepan, or use a sieve, pressing the juice through with the back of a wooden spoon.
Finely chop the reserved porcini, walnuts and raisins, and stir into the sauce. Bring to the boil and reduce to about 450ml Taste and season well. The sauce should be slightly syrupy – if not, reduce a bit more.
Spoon the walnuts and raisins around the pheasant and pour the sauce into a warmed sauceboat. Dress the pheasant with grapes. Serve with the sauce.
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