Slow cooker Pheasant, and Next Day Pheasant Pie

One of the reasons I love game is because its had a chance to live it's wild life just as it was meant to. In my opinion, this trumps any organic, free ranged meat that's been carefully fed a pre-made mix of whatever at scheduled times. The other reason I like game is because we don't cut down forests locally or rainforests abroad in order to feed and keep them. As far as eating meat goes, it's win win (except for the game, that is).

The downside of game, is that because it's not kept in a tiny cage and killed as it approaches puberty, it'll be a bit tougher to cook, but this can be dealt with beautifully in the slow cooker. If you're buying from a market, The Cottage Small holder gives excellent advice on choosing game (and a great recipe for pheasant) but I order mine through Able and Cole when it's in season, so I wasn't the one choosing the bird. 

Tenderising the bird (overnight): 

The way I deal with a larger bird is to marinate it overnight with a mix of cider vinegar, olive oil and salt (plus whatever herbs I'm planning of using) to begin tenderising the meat, then putting it in the slow cooker the next day with a good glug of wine and let the slow cooker get to work. This might seem like a hassle, but the convince of ordering most of the weeks groceries while in my bathrobe in a few minutes on a Saturday morning (the veg box is scheduled weekly, all I do is check the next weeks contents and add a few extras to the box to compliment it -usually some kind of meat and gluten free pasta or some risotto rice) and then having it brought to my doorstep greatly outweighs the time and effort of wandering around a supermarket, so chucking a little tenderiser over the bird the night before is an acceptable trade off for me. 

Substitutions: This recipe uses what we had in our veg box that week. You can substitute cavolo nero with cabbage or kale. If using cabbage, you can add this to the slow cooker an hour before serving to soften it up, if using cavolo nero or kale, add half an hour before serving, or stir fry in a frying pan (1-2 minutes) and add at the last minute. I think cavolo nero and kale are best when not be completely wilted. If you don't have leeks, shallots or onions would be fine.
You can cook this in a conventional oven in a lidded pot for an hour and a half on 140C if three hours is too long.

Ingredients:

• 1 pheasant. If large, marinated overnight as above.
• 2 leeks, chopped
• 1 large carrot, chopped
• 3-4 rashers of bacon, diced. 
• 2 garlic cloves (I love garlic! You can use one if you prefer)
• 3 tomatoes, chopped (these were in our veg box that week, right at the end of tomato season, but you can use half a can of tinned otherwise)
• 1 tablespoon of tomato puree
• a splash of balsamic vinegar
• 1 teaspoon sugar
• 1 glass of red wine 
• 200ml of chicken stock.
• salt and pepper
• Rosemary
• Sage (or hebs of your choice)
• A good handful of cavolo nero. It will shrink to less than half it's volume so don't afraid to use more than you can possible image you'll need. Tear the leaves off from the stalks, discard the stalks, then chop the leaves roughly. 

Method:

1. Fry up the bacon and add to slow cooker
2. Turn the heat up high and add the copped tomatoes and a table spoon of olive oil until tomatoes get soft and and and start to melt. Turn down heat to medium and add a splash of balsamic vinegar and a teaspoon of sugar. Stir a little and turn down heat for a minute of so. Add to slow cooker.
3. add the chopped leeks to the bottom of the slow cooker
4. Rub a little olive oil, salt and herbs on the pheasant and add pheasant to the slow cooker.
5. Add carrots, seasoning, herbs, then the glass of wine, stock and the tablespoon of tomato puree (into the liquid). Don't worry if the liquid doesn't seem to cover the bird (it won't), what we're using here is the heat inside the slow cooker to replicate a pot roast in the oven, but using less energy.
6. set slow cooker to 'high' and leave to cook for three hours
7. Before serving, stir fry the cavolo nero with a little olive oil and add to the pot on serving.

We ate this with mashed potato and it was gorgeous. Even more so as my train had been delayed and I was starving. (thanks once again to Mr Umammi for taking instructions by email and cooking for me!).

Tomorrow, I'll write up how to make the leftover into a pie.