End Game London, Part One

Two last trips to Borough Market.  What to choose?  We decided again for the weekend double of seafood and game bird.  After the halibut, we chose a fat Lakeland pheasant, and picked out a nice Savoy cabbage that looked green and healthy.  We found a recipe from Simon Hopkinson for  braised pheasant,  garlic, cabbage, and fat bacon that used mostly ingredients that we had in our dwindling larder, supplemented by a trip to Lamb's Conduit Street for some sherry.
Start with one lakeland pheasant.

Preheat the oven to 275 degrees F.  Heat 25 g. butter in a large cast iron pan (Le Creuset is perfect, Simon says.) Cut 4 slices of very fat, streaky bacon into squares, add to the butter in the pan. (Smoked streaky bacon from the Ginger Pig is a staple, always on hand.)

Let the bacon sizzle until it has generated a large amount of fat, then remove the bacon from the pan.   Season the pheasant with salt and pepper and brown carefully on all sides, until "golden and crusted."

Remove and set aside.

Now add 10 large peeled garlic cloves and brown slowly in the crusty pan.

Drain off most of the residual fat, and pour in a generous splash of Madeira or sherry, and 75 ml white wine.  Stir with a whisk and then add 100 ml of "good" chicken stock and 3-4 sprigs of thyme.  Bring to the boil and put in one small firm head of cabbage, cored, quartered, and sliced.  Simmer until the cabbage begins to wilt and lose its stiffness.

Then push the cabbage aside to make room for the pheasant, bury it in the cabbage and strew the bacon around, tucking them into the cabbage.

Cover the pheasant-cabbage with parchment paper (or foil), and put the pot, covered with its lid, in the oven for 1 to 1.5 hours. Remove from the oven and let rest for 20 minutes to settle.  Serve with plain boiled potatoes.  Or Jersey royals, if you've got 'em.

Obviously, we don't cook like this every night. Sometimes we go out. Sometimes we have cheese or eggs. Or leftovers.  For example, to use the extra peas and carrots from the halibut, we made a sauce for the fresh spinach pasta from the folks at LaTua.  Start with Guernsey cream from Neal's Yard Dairy, another staple.

Add it to the peas and carrots, with a splash of sherry.

Cook the fettucine (from the freezer to the pot), and serve!

And dream about the next trip to the market, and our last chance for English exotica.  Stay tuned.