From Field to Plate

Before we go any further, this recipe comes with a warning. It's not for the squeamish. It's not for people who don't like to see where their meat comes from. It's definitely not for vegetarians. It's my opinion that if you eat meat, and you enjoy it, then you should have a thorough understanding of how it got to your plate, which is why I'm sharing this recipe (plus it'super tasty!). But I do appreciate that I'm a zoologist, I work in a natural history museum (lots of taxidermy), and I live in an area where hunting is generally thought to be acceptable. I have a very skewed perspective on these things. So it's up to you. A recipe for delicious pheasant stew is just under the jump. Here's something inoffensive to get your taste buds tingling.

Fully feathered birds aren't necessary for this recipe, you can pick pheasant up from some supermarkets, and it works well with beef too. But Ben and I were lucky enough to be given some fresh pheasants by his next door neighbour, so I'm going to show you how to prepare the pheasant for cooking and how best to cook it. Pheasants are beautiful birds, the males are brightly coloured and the females are brown, but equally as lovely. It's not often you get chance to see them up close, so I thought I'd share some photos I took before we got them ready.

Aren't they spectacular? Are you getting hungry or have the feather put you off? Don't worry, they're easy to prep. 

Pheasant Stew

2 Pheasants

1 Large onion

3 Carrots

2 Parsnips

6 Potatoes (small)

A bottle of brown ale

A sachet of stew mix

A squeeze of tomato sauce

1. Grab your pheasants. If you just have meat, skip down to the picture of the veggies, but if you went the whole hog, or if you're curious, stick about here.

 2. Lie the pheasant on it's back. Pluck feathers until you can see the skin in the middle of the body. Pinch the skin in the centre of the body and make a cut, trying not to hit the muscle underneath. Continue the cut to just before the throat and just before the bum. You can see the cut in the photograph underneath.

3. Pull the skin (feathers and all) around the body, freeing the muscle. Pull as much of the legs free as you can - you can see the leg meat on the photo below - you don't want to waste that! The thick yellow stuff on top of the muscle is fat - just leave it there and you can deal with it later.

4. Chop off the legs, feathers and head and bottom. Chop the head right at the base of the neck, as close to the body as you can. This helps you remove all of the skin.

5. This is where it gets a bit gory. Put your hand inside the body cavity and pull out the guts. Wash the inside of the cavity thoroughly.

6. Clean off any feathers and chop the fat off the meat. Remove the meat from the bones in small sections - the size that you want to put in your stew. Get as much as you can off. We used two birds for one stew, and it comfortably feeds four.

7. Grab your veggies, peel and chop into small pieces.

8. Grab a slow cooker mix for a meat stew - I used Schwartz Beef and Ale Stew. I used a little more ale and water than it says on the back because I had more meat. You want your stew to be well covered.

9. Cook in a slow cooker for 8-12 hours until the meat is tender. If you don't have a slow cooker you can boil it up on the hob and then leave on low, but you need to stay close if that's the case. I'd really recommend a slow cooker, the one we have is half price in Tesco at the minute and well worth every penny. Ben's Mum bought it for us as a treat recently and I love it! When you're ready to eat, cook some greens and serve with chunks of bread for dipping. It'll warm you right the way through on a cold winters night.