Recipe for oven-roasted pheasant with jerusalem artichokes, blackberries, and morel sauce
My first attempt with pheasant, and it certainly won’t be the last time I try to make it.
Once it’s in the casserole dish/oven, it practically takes care of itself and also imparts a lot of great flavor to a wonderful and delicious sauce.
Since pheasant can easily become dry, I chose to wrap it in lardo and add plenty of liquid to the baking dish.
Servings: Portions
Oven-roasted pheasant with Jerusalem artichokes, blackberries, and morel sauce
Ingredients
Oven-roasted pheasant
- 1 pcs. Pheasant
- 8 slices Lardo Can be replaced with bacon
- 2 pcs. Celery Leaf 2 stalks
- 2 pcs. Onion
- 2 pcs. Carrots
- 27 gram Oil
- 200 gram Port
- 500 gram Water
Confit jerusalem artichokes
- 200 gram Jerusalem Artichokes
- 276 gram Duck Fat
- Spices Salt, pepper, and fresh thyme
Morel Sauce
- 25 gram Morels Dried. Can easily be replaced with fresh
- 400 gram stock The liquid from the pheasant
- 100 gram Cream
- Spices Salt, pepper, lemon juice, vinegar, and sugar
Instructions
Oven-roasted pheasant
- The meat was rinsed well and dried thoroughly. Then it was divided into 2 breast fillets, 2 thighs, and 1 carcass.
- Seasoned with salt and pepper and wrapped in lardo. Lardo is a seasoned Italian type of lard. It can easily be replaced with bacon, as it is not the easiest to get hold of. I visited several butchers and specialty shops in Aarhus and the surrounding area before I ended up at Salling Super and bought it.
- Everything was placed in an oven-safe dish along with the carcass, celery, onions, carrots, and neutral-flavored oil.
- It was baked for 15 minutes at 160 degrees Celsius (320 degrees Fahrenheit) (fan), after which the dish was taken out of the oven.
- Add port wine and water and wrap the dish thoroughly in aluminum foil.
- Cook it for 2 hours at 150 degrees Celsius (302 degrees Fahrenheit) in a conventional oven.
- After the two hours, take the dish out and pour most of the liquid and all the vegetables aside. This will be used for the sauce.
- Wrap the oven-safe dish in foil again and let the meat rest while the rest of the dish is prepared.
- Start by melting your duck fat over low heat in a pot,
- Scrub the Jerusalem artichokes well and dry them thoroughly. Place them in a small oven-safe dish, season with salt, pepper, and sprinkle fresh thyme sprigs over them.
- Pour the fat over the Jerusalem artichokes in the dish, and they should almost be covered.
- Moisten a piece of parchment paper and place it over, then add a tightly-fitting lid.
- Bake in the oven (together with the pheasant) at 150 degrees Celsius (302 degrees Fahrenheit) for 50-60 minutes. They should be tender.
- Take them out of the oven and let them cool in the fat. This takes about 1 hour.
- Cut them in half lengthwise and fry them in a pan.
- They should “just” get a bit of color/crust. They are now ready for serving.
- Start by soaking your morels in water. Preferably for a couple of hours but at least one hour. This will make them almost as soft and firm as fresh morels.
- When the sauce is to be made, pour all the liquid and vegetables from the oven-safe dish with the pheasant into a saucepan.
- Let it come to a boil and reduce the heat after a few minutes. Use an immersion blender to blend the liquid and vegetables so that you get something that resembles the consistency of sauce. It should be well blended.
- Add the cream and let it simmer for 5-10 minutes.
- Season to taste with salt, pepper, lemon juice, vinegar, and sugar. If it is too sweet due to the vegetables, add a bit of bouillon, for example, a "Fond du Chef - Beef" or a cube (whatever you have).
- If you think you have too many vegetables, then wait to add them bit by bit while you blend the sauce.
- Add the morels to the sauce about 1 minute before it's ready, so they just need to simmer for a minute.
- Serve one thigh and one breast per person along with Jerusalem artichokes, morel sauce, fresh blackberries, and pickled red onions.
