Treat your lady to Coq

[henry d]

First get a nice old cock(snigger, snigger.....get it over with) pheasant as they have the taste but are tough and better suited to this treatment. Choose a pheasant with big spurs as that will be an old one, skin it and joint it into 4 pieces. Then assemble the rest of the ingredients as below....

 

250gm belly pork

4-5 small pickling onions or the same amount of shallots quartered

2 sticks celery cut at an angle

6 small mushrooms

1 whole HEAD of garlic(stick with me you`ll thank me later)

butter

plain flour

1/2-3/4 bottle of red wine(cheap is fine)

1 pint of chicken/vegetable stock

Thyme and bay

salt and pepper.

 

Pre-heat oven to gas 1/2 or 120" C

 

Melt some butter in a large frying pan and fry the cubes of belly pork,I had a spare single sausage in the fridge so that went in too.

 

 

Whilst they are browning, place some of the wine in a flame proof casserole dish and warm it through and then put a couple of tablespoons of flour in a plastic bag and add a pinch of salt and a few twists of pepper. Put a joint of pheasant at a time into the bag and shake so it gets coated lightly with flour. Remove the pork from the pan when golden and add to the casserole dish then if necessary add more butter and fry the onions and celery until lightly golden and add to the casserole dish, then do the same with the jointed pheasant. Always try not to over crowd the pan. De gaze the pan with some of the stock and using a wooden spatula get all the crispy(tasty) bits off the bottom. Pour the juices into the casserole

 

 

The casserole dish will look overcrowded at this point but thats OK for this part of the recipe, add the rest of the hot stock and herbs. Then cut the head of garlic in half around the equator(see further down) and squeeze this in too. If it isn`t all covered top up with wine. If it is drink the wine

 

 

Cook for at least 1-1/2 hrs in the oven, then strain the liquid off through a fine sieve(not plastic) into a pan and boil to reduce it by about 1/3 to half it`s volume.

Remove the meat from the bones and return to the veg and keep warm.

Now get the garlic and squeeze the halved cloves out of their skins and mash to a paste with a fork and add this to the cooking liquid. This will add the sweetness to the sauce and is VERY wortwhile.

 

 

 

When the sauce is reduced add the meat and veg and allow to heat through, then fry the quartered mushrooms in butter and add these. Serve with what ever you fancy, I like plenty of mashed tattie and some carrots and savoy cabbage.

 

Give it a whirl she`ll love you for it !!

 

 

 

 

 

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Edited November 22, 2007 by henry d
Forgot the mushrooms.......oops!

[Guest The Outlaw]

I have shot many pheasant in the past and given them to people becaause I didnt like the idea of it "Hanging" up for a day or two.

 

Do you need to do this and why?

 

Apart from that this looks really nice

 

I did however spot the sausage before I read the script and jumped a bit

 

 

Tony

[Piebob]

I have shot many pheasant in the past and given them to people becaause I didnt like the idea of it "Hanging" up for a day or two.

 

Do you need to do this and why?

 

You don't need to do it but hanging does two things - tenderises the meat slightly, and adds flavour. The longer you hang it - the more "gamey" the flavour.

 

Good beef, for example, is likely to have been hanging for a month or more.

[Guest The Outlaw]

I have shot many pheasant in the past and given them to people becaause I didnt like the idea of it "Hanging" up for a day or two.

 

Do you need to do this and why?

 

You don't need to do it but hanging does two things - tenderises the meat slightly, and adds flavour. The longer you hang it - the more "gamey" the flavour.

 

Good beef, for example, is likely to have been hanging for a month or more.

Ok how is the best way to hang it ?

 

I.E Inside or outside, Temperature or is it just hang it up?

 

Thanks

 

Tony

[henry d]

Autumn outside for 2-4 days, winter up to 14 days in freezing weather, but generally 7 days. It really makes a difference, try it !

[Guest The Outlaw]

Autumn outside for 2-4 days, winter up to 14 days in freezing weather, but generally 7 days. It really makes a difference, try it !

 

Un gutted and plucked I suppose?

 

Tony

[migster]

Thanks for the recipe Henry. sure looks good.

 

I will give it a try, plenty of old cocks on our place.

[MC]

Autumn outside for 2-4 days, winter up to 14 days in freezing weather, but generally 7 days. It really makes a difference, try it !

 

Un gutted and plucked I suppose?

 

Tony

 

 

No,

 

As it was when you shot it, put a noose around its neck and hang it from a joist in your garage.

 

Cheers

 

Martin

[JJaxeman]

I will be giving this a go looks great

[migster]

Just cooked the meal, and it was excellent, thanks Henry.

 

I wont bother roasting, unless the bird is a young un, cheers.

[sandersj89]

Just cooked the meal, and it was excellent, thanks Henry.

 

I wont bother roasting, unless the bird is a young un, cheers.

 

I am looking forward to this for later, just about to start the things off.

 

Jerry

[potshot]

I always hang mine by the legs - if the guts have been damaged in any way then they don't hang down and taint the meat. You also want to try and hang them where they won't get fly blown!!