This is properly entitled "big fat roast dinner for lazy, lardy layabouts". At the very least the trimmings deserve more of a mention: rosemary and pancetta wrapped pheasant with roast chestnuts, curly kale and roast potato cubes. That was a bit too long for the title though!
It sounds a bit complicated and lengthy to make but it really isn't, it didn't even take a full hour.
First of all take some pheasant breasts (1-2 per person depending on appetite; I had one, my husband had two) and pat clean with some kitchen roll. Lay a small sprig of rosemary on top of each one and wrap it in a couple of slices of pancetta. Place in a small roasting tray with some oil and a sprinkle of salt and pepper. Cover with foil and leave to one side while the oven preheats to 200 degrees C.
Boil up some small potatoes until mostly cooked but still firm in the middle. Drain and cut them into little cubes. Add to another small baking tray that has been lined with greaseproof paper. Drizzle some oil over and season with salt and pepper. If you like (and I do) sprinkle some finely chopped pancetta in as well. Mix until the potato cubes are coated with the oil.
When the oven is hot bung both trays in together and leave be for 15-20 minutes.
In the meantime you can decant your chestnuts * onto a third small baking tray and tear up your kale into a saucepan. If you find any little green caterpillars you could pop them into the garden with a complementary kale dinner of their own, as we did - that was a very narrow escape for a cabbage white butterfly-to-be. If your garden is full of brassicas though you might not - it depends on your take of these things!
After the 15-odd minute roast, remove the foil off the pheasant breasts and pop the chestnuts in on the shelf below. Cook for a further few minutes until the pancetta has crisped up.
Turn the oven off, but leave the potatoes and chestnuts in there. Put the pheasant breasts onto a warm plate and re-cover with foil, leave to rest while you sort out the gravy and briefly cook the kale, with a sparing amount of hot water, until tender.
To make the gravy just pop the roasting tray the pheasants were in onto a medium heat with a slosh of red wine, a dollop of redcurrant jelly and a small amount of cornflour. Scrape and stir and let it bubble away until it tastes good and has the right consistency.
* You can get pre-cooked and peeled chestnuts from, as far as I'm aware, abel & cole, waitrose and sainsburys. The brands I know are Organico and Gourmet Merchant.
Lovely, juicy, rich venison is the perfect roast dinner in late autumn. I had my first proper venison in Stockholm several years ago and have been a convert ever since. It's terribly sad that I had to travel so far from home before being properly introduced to this meat, especially as we've got fabulous and well-managed deer right here.
I'm not sure whether it went out of fashion while I was growing up, I don't remember seeing it very often though. Fortunately, these days, finding a nice bit of deer isn't difficult.
Pre-heat the oven to 220°C, and take the meat out of the fridge to come up to room temperature for at least half an hour.
First thing to do with a bit of venison haunch is to season it with salt, pepper and rub with a little oil. Lay a sprig of rosemary or thyme on top (dried is ok, but don't overdo it) and then wrap with thinly sliced pancetta or other cured meat. Tuck a couple of bay leaves in amongst the pancetta and grind a final bit of pepper over the top.
Pop the joint in the oven and roast for 20 minutes, before turning down to 160°C, for a further 13 minutes per 500g.
When ready, place the cooked joint to one side, covered in foil to rest. Put the roasting tray over a low heat and give it a good scraping (de-glazing). Pour in a glug of red wine and a nice big spoon of redcurrant jelly. Stir until the alcohol has cooked out and the jelly dissolved, reduce until the sauce tastes as intense as you like it.
Jerusalem artichokes are delicious, nutty little roots full of fibre, iron and vitamin c. They do have a reputation for inducing wind, however mixing them with a similar amount of normal potatoes (to make mash) goes some way towards allieviating that particular after effect!
Just give them a good scrubbing, the same as you would potatoes, you can eat the skin quite safely and it has plenty of flavour. Boil the two up together and steam some greens over the top.
When tender, mash the 'chokes and potatoes up together with some butter, salt and pepper.
My husband was out last night: fleeing to a friend's house to watch the apprentice as I absolutely hate it! He was also going to get an Aroma, which is possibly the best kebab in the world, without me. Damn.
Again the thought of an easy takeaway floated through my mind, before I remembered that we're going for a Chinese dinner with his parents on Sunday. So, a quick scrabble about in the fridge and I came up with this comforting dinner.
The concept is inspired by something I saw Nigella cook once, she used cream, egg and white truffle oil for a pasta sauce. Genius.
I haven't used particularly fancy pasta: I like the tricolore because it's so pretty, but homemade this is not. Get it on to boil first, as the sauce doesn't take long to make.
Heat up a pan and add some thick cut bacon or pancetta. Once mostly cooked, add a diced stick of celery, a sliced purple onion and some thinly sliced mushrooms.
In a separate bowl, beat a raw egg with cream, white truffle oil, lots of pepper and salt, and some grated pecorino (or parmesan, or hard cheese of any kind really).
Once the pasta is cooked and drained, dump it in the pan with the vegetables, turn off the heat, and stir in the sauce. It's lovely. It's quick. And it's a little bit naughty.
