As the weather, regarding our summer is rather wet we fancied a comforting dish without the heaviness of  lots of vegetables and rich gravy’s you get with a winter stew. I got the idea for this from a partridge recipe and then Paulie used his magic to adjust (a lot) for a light healthy version for the last pheasant we had in the freezer. This is an easy recipe that doesn’t take hours of slow cooking, it is extremely tasty and keeps the pheasant nice and moist unlike roasting. The bonus is I also got a one pot dinner stored in the freezer for me when Paulie is out one night.

Ingredients (serves 2)

• 1 Pheasant
• 3 Leeks, sliced
• 400ml Chicken Stock
• 400ml Cider
• 1 Pack of Pancetta Cubes (50g)
• 4 Sprigs of Thyme (handful from garden)
• 1 Large Sweet Potato, peeled and cut into chunks
• Salt and Pepper
• Drizzle of Olive Oil

Method

1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees (fan). Heat a drizzle of olive oil in a casserole dish over a med-high heat. Brown the pheasant for 2-3 mins on each side, once browned set aside on a plate.
2. Add the leeks and pancetta to the casserole dish and cook on a reduced heat to soften for around 2 mins.
3. Add the cider and turn up the heat to burn off the alcohol, letting it bubble for around 1 min.
4. Return the pheasant to the dish, pour in the stock, season and add the thyme, bring back to the boil.
5. Once boiling, add the casserole lid to the dish and cook in the oven for 40 minutes.
6. After 15 mins into the cooking time in the oven, put the sweet potato in boiling water and simmer ready for mashing once ready to serve.
7. Once the pheasant has cooked, remove the lid place the pheasant on a plate and with foil to rest and keep warm.
8. Put the casserole dish back on a medium-high heat and reduce the sauce by 1/3. Once reduced either add 2 tsp of corn flour or a knob of butter to thicken into a gravy consistency.
9. Drain the sweet potato add a small knob of butter and mash, serve the leek gravy with carved pheasant and sweet potato mash.