Game ragu

Rabbit, venison, mallard - cooked with celery, carrot, onions, bay, thyme, white wine, vegetable bouillon. We slow braised it in the oven, then cooked papardelle and added to the light stew. It was unbelievably good! Very simple, but the flavours were just perfect. Jamie at Home to thank for this one.
Similar in its way to the Chick Pea and Cavolo Nero recipe from River Cafe: same mirepoix base and white wine flavouring. It just works so well.

Guinea fowl rice

This was an experiment that didn't quite come off.
I found some lovely guinea fowl legs (thigh and drumstick) in the butcher and decided I wanted a light but flavoursome meal.
I browned then roasted the guinea fowl, then added it to the rice, herb salad that I'd made before from Ottolenghi. But the sesame oil  didn't work with the richness of the guinea fowl - much better with the relative blandness of chicken.
The meat was beautiful, and its good to experiment, but I won't repeat this one!
The dressing on the dish was: lemon juice, fish sauce, sesame oil, olive oil. Added to mint, parsley. Needed coriander to lift and marry the flavours together.

Pheasant breast with port, redcurrant, thyme jus

OK - this is me trying 'neater' food.

Made some boulangeres potatoes - sliced with onions, rosemary, thyme, cooked in stock.
Put the pheasant breasts in pan, coloured them, then roasted in foil in the oven.
This meant that the skin lost its crispness, but there were lots of lovely juices.
I put port, cider (cos it was lying around), juniper berries, redcurrant jelly in the pan to get all the meat juices. Reduced.

Plated up boulangeres with beans and carrots (i just wanted something green, and the co-op doesn't do greens or kale or purple sprouting).
Then added butter to the jus, and then strained it to remove thyme, juniper berries.
All done. It was very nice - strong rich flavour from the jus. Boulangeres was a bit too salty. I need to watch out with the new finer salt I've got. Haven't gauged how much to use yet.
Pheasant was totally delicious - moist, flavoursome, well seasoned (who knew?).

Venison pie

This was partly a 'clear up the left-overs' pie - but with some choice venison from the game man at the market.
We used up the gravy from the partridges the other week, some small carrots we put in there whole, some shallots (often spelled shorlots at college) left over from the thai curry paste, paris brown mushrooms that we have a surfeit of as they looked great at the market, and remnant puff pastry from the tarte tatin. We had to crack open some red wine, which went down very well with it. Also used up half a celeriac I had lying about, which I had mashed up. Matt's a bit over celeriac mash and has retreated to plain potato. Unfortunately for him - its still my favourite - lifting the gag-worthy heaviness of just potato and adding that superb sweet and sour aniseed flavour. Absolutely cracking.

Partridge Chartreuse

This was more successful.
Layers of partridge, braised cabbage, bacon, carrots - wrapped in savoy cabbage leaves.
The dish took 3 hours to make:
brown the partridges
roast the birds for 8 minutes, rest for 15
blanch and refresh outer cabbage leaves - pat dry
cut cabbage hearts into 4
brown bacon, brown cabbage hearts in roasting tray on hob
place whole carrots in roasting tray, half fill with water
roast for 1 hour
take breasts and legs off the partridges
brown the carcasses in a saucepan
add mirepoix celery, carrots, onion - brown them too
add thyme, bay.
add water, cook for an hour.

then assemble chartreuse:
butter deep sided roasting dish
lay out a good looking cabbage leaf on the bottom
line the dish with cabbage leaves
take the stalks from the cabbage hearts, and spread the leaves in the dish
layer with partridge breasts
layer with cabbage hearts, thickly sliced bacon
layer partridge legs, thickly sliced carrots
final cabbage heart layer - and top off with cabbage leaf.
wrap it all up.
Roast for 30 minutes.

Gravy - strain the vegetables and carcasses from the liquid, reduce the liquid. Add scant cornflour if nec to thicken.

Turn out the chartreuse onto a serving dish - it should be presented in one tidy piece.

I'd roasted some potatoes to go with it - which sopped up the gravy a treat.

In the end - i needed more bacon - not the pancetta I had. And actually - a smaller cabbage. there was depth of flavour from the way it had all been cooked, but overall just too much cabbage. Needed more partridge and bacon.