Pre-Christmas Pheasant!

Hello, so it is very nearly Christmas.. about 5 days to go now! Very exciting!

We had my godfather over for lunch and I made 2 very tasty roast Pheasants! The recipe was courtesy of BBC food website, http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/roast_pheasant_with_18760

Here is our little Christmas tree at home, with some homemade decorations that I made for it!

So heres the recipe for the Roast Pheasant with Celeriac and Bacon!

Recipe: Serves 4 generously 

Pheasant and roast vegetables:

-2 Pheasants

-Olive oil

-4 rashers of streaky bacon

-2 Bay leaves

-1 leek, chopped

-1 onion, chopped

-1 carrot, chopped

-250g Mushrooms (about 6!), chopped

-4 garlic cloves, smooshed

Recipe for the Celeriac and Bacon:

-1 whole celeriac, cubed 

-8 rashers of streaky Bacon, chopped

-1 leek, chopped

-Half a bottle of Cider

-200ml of chicken stock

-100ml of cream

How to make:

-Preheat the oven to 200c

-First prep the pheasants, put a little butter inside each of them and then place 2 rashers of streaky bacon and a bay leaf on top of each one. Sprinkle with a fair amount of olive oil and seasoning. 

-Place all of the chopped veg in to a deep sided baking tray and then place the pheasants on top of them.

-Pop this in to the oven and roast for about 45/50 minutes

-Whilst the pheasants are roasting then make the celeriac and bacon!

-Fry the streaky bacon in a heavy based frying pan until crispy and then add the  celeriac and leek. And cook these for about 8 minutes.

-Then add the half bottle of cider and reduce it by half. Then add the chicken stock and reduce that by half as well. 

-Add the cream and season generously with salt and pepper. Let this all cook together for a little longer and then serve with the pheasant!

-Carve your pheasant, or just cut each in half and let your guests do the hard work! Then enjoy! YUM! :) 

Here are the 2 pheasants on top of the vegetables waiting to go in to the oven!

I also made some yummy roast potatoes! These I made my slitting the potatoes down to nearly the bottom and then I smothered them in oilve oil, rosemary and salt! They were so good!

And of course I also did some Brussel Sprouts.. because secretly I love them!

This is the celeriac and leek, all chopped and ready to be cooked!

Here is the celeriac, bacon, leek, cider and stock simmering away!

Here is the finished roast Pheasants and celeriac and bacon! The celeriac was wonderfully creamy, and it went really well with the crispy pheasant and potoatoes! I highly reccomend this recipe if you can get hold of some pheasants, if you cant then im sure it would work really well with a chicken as well!

Mince Pies...as it's almost December!

I know it's not even December yet but I had a huge urge to make some Mince Pies today! Its cold outside and definitely beginning to feel a little bit Christmassy! I have to admit that these are cheats Mince Pies (as I didn't make the pastry or mince meat.. oopsie!) but they still taste amazing and I will make some proper ones in the run up to Christmas!

The recipe: (made 10 but I only used 1/3rd of the pack)

-Jus-roll Sweet shortcrust pastry packet

-Mince meat (I used Waitrose Cranberry and Port)

-Milk, for glazing

To make:

-Grease a baking tin with butter and preheat the oven to 180c

-Roll out the pastry until it is quite thin (as it makes nice crisp pastry), and then use a large round cutter to cut out the base of the pie

-Spoon in a heaped teaspoon of the mince meat in to each, but dont put too much as it will bubble over when baked

-Then roll out the leftover pastry and with a heart or star cutter, cut out the lid and place on top.

-With a pastry brush, brush over a little milk on the lids and edges, then bake in the oven for about 15 minutes, but keep an eye on them as they turn very quickly! 

-Then sprinkle with some icing sugar and enjoy whilst still warm! YUM!

Above are the things you will need to make the Mince Pies! 

And below are the pies ready to go in the oven! 

Yummy, fresh Mince Pies out of the oven!