Pheasant Fricassee with Dried Kale Flakes
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If youve kept up with the last few recipes Ive posted, youll know that Ive been trying to come up with a few recipes to deal with my self-inflicted, backyard Kale problem. It has been out of control and overgrown in my little raised garden beds, growing faster than I could use it. The summer heat has stifled its growth some and the bugs have pretty much destroyed whats left, it looks like someone shot the leaves up with a shotgun, there are so many holes them. Ive sprayed and sprayed insecticide, trying to kill the bugs, but they still seem to have the upper hand. So, this will be the last Kale recipe that Ill be posting for a while. It may even be debatable that this recipe be considered a Kale recipe. What I did for this recipe, was to dehydrate my kale, with a little olive oil and salt, then crushed it to use like a kale pepper garnish, to sprinkle over the top of this Pheasant Fricassee, just finish it up after cooking. This dehydrated Kale was so good though, I was literally eating it by the spoonful, straight out of the bag I crushed it in.
This fricassee is basically like a stew, with pieces of Pheasant meat that have been browned in butter, then braised in a white sauce made from pheasant stock. Im leaving the skin on for this recipe, so the outside of the pheasant gets brown and crispy. This would have been excellent with some good old crusty white bread to sop up the sauce! Even Garlicky Mashed Potatoes, or Pasta would have been good, but I decide to serve this with some long-grain rice, cooked in the same Pheasant stock. Timing is going to be key to make a good Fricassee, you want to the sauce to reduce, but you want enough of it to cook the Pheasant in. So let your sauce reduce some before adding the Pheasant Breast back to the skillet. Adding the Pheasant to your sauce to soon, might leave you with a sauce that is still a little lose and Pheasant that is done cooking, which isnt that big deal because you can just remove the Pheasant from the skillet in order to let the sauce thicken so more. If you have to remove the Pheasant to prevent it from overcooking and thicken your sauce, you can always make a small slurry to thicken your sauce by mixing 1 tablespoon of corn starch with 1 cup of water, stirring to combine it all together before adding to your sauce. If you decide to make the slurry, add it at the end, remove the breast form the skillet, increase the heat, and let the sauce cook for a few minutes at a boil. Remove from heat and allow to cool for a minute, before adding the Pheasant back to the sauce.
Ingredients
Dried Kale
Pheasant Fricassee
Long Grain Rice
Instructions
Dried Kale
Step #1 Wash 6 ounces of Kale. Remove the stems, by tearing off the leaves. Throw the stems away.
Step #2 Lay the Kale out on paper towels to dry or run through a salad spinner.
Step #3 Add kale to a large bowl and pour in Olive Oil, using hands to mix and coat the Kale in oil. Sprinkle in sea salt, mixing to coat leaves.
Step #4 Evenly place kale leaves on dehydrator tray. Set temperature set to 155 degrees Fahrenheit and allow to run for one hour before reducing temperature to 95 degrees Fahrenheit. Allow to run 3 to 4 more hours.
Step #5 Remove Kale to bowl, then use your hands to crush leaves into small crumbs.
To cook rice
Step #1 To cook rice. Add rice to a saucepan then pour in Pheasant stock and add salt. Allow to sit on stove for 15 minutes before turning on heat.
Step #2 Allow to reach a boil, then reduce to simmer. Cook for 20 minutes. After 20 minutes, turn off heat, remove from stove eye and allow to sit 10 minutes before removing lid.
Pheasant Fricassee
Step #1 Prepare your ingredients by washing the vegetables. Dice the onions, garlic, and carrots, then slice up the mushrooms.
Step #2 Add 2 tablespoons of butter to large skillet over medium heat.
Step #3 While the skillet gets hot, season both sides of the Pheasant with Salt and Pepper.
Step #4 Place Pheasant, skin side down, in hot pan and allow to cook for 3-4 minutes, under skin starts to brown
Step #5 Turn the Pheasant over and allow other side to cook for a few minutes. You don’t want to cook the Pheasant all the way through, just brown the side. It should still be raw in the middle.
Step #6 Remove the Pheasant to a plate.
Step #7 Add diced Onion, Carrots and Mushrooms to hot skillet and allow to cook 5 to 7 minutes.
Step #8 Allow the Mushrooms to brown a little before adding a sprinkle of Salt and Pepper.
Step #9 Add diced garlic and cook for another minutes.
Step #10 Add another 1 tablespoons of butter to hot skillet and allow to melt.
Step #11 Add 2 tablespoons of all-purpose flour to skillet, using a spatula to coat the vegetable in flour and butter. Allow to cook another minute or two.
Step #12 Add another sprinkle of salt and pepper.
Step #13 Pour White Wine into skillet, using a spatula to scrap up any bits stuck to the bottom of the pan. Allow this to cook a few minutes.
Step #14 Allow wine to reduce down a few minutes until you have a thick sauce.
Step #15 Add Pheasant stock.
Step #16 Add Heavy Cream to skillet, turn up heat and allow to reach a boil. Reduce heat and allow to simmer for 10 to 15 minutes.
Step #17 Tastes your sauce to see if you need to add additional salt and/or pepper. Add the Pheasant Breast to the sauce, skin side up. Cook uncovered for 10-15 minutes, until Pheasant is cooked, about 150-155 degrees. If you Pheasant reaches 155 degrees and your sauce is still too loose. Remove the pheasant from the sauce and allow the sauce to reduce some more. You can mix 1 tablespoon of cornstarch with 1/4 cup of water, then add that to your sauce to help thicken. Pheasant will have some carry over cooking as it sits in the hot sauce.
Step #18 Remove from stove and allow to sit for a few minutes
Step #19 To plate, add some long grain rice to your plate. Add cooked Pheasant breast, then using a large spoon or ladle, pour over some of the sauce.
Step #20 Garnish with dried Kale flakes or fresh chopped Parsley.
Recipe Card
Pheasant Fricassee with Dried Kale Flakes
Ingredients
Dried Kale
Pheasant Fricassee
Long Grain Rice
Instructions
Dried Kale
To cook rice
Pheasant Fricassee
About the Author
Jeff Davis
Visit authors websiteYou may think cooking and recipes don’t have much to do with a website dedicated to hunting dogs ... but really, why do we hunt? Sure, we enjoy watching our dogs work in the field and being outdoors, but ultimately, hunting is about survival and feeding our families. We might as well try to do it well. I'm not a chef and definitely no food authority ... but I do like to eat and enjoy cooking. After searching for people willing to share their recipes on Gundog Central, without much success, I decided to try to do a few on my own, with my wife Tami's help. The recipes I share here are things I like to eat and have made here at home. I've tried to include step-by-step instructions with each meal describing exactly how I did it, but my method may not be best, if you decide to try a recipe posted here, please use whatever technique you think works best, I'm simply sharing how I did it. You'll see a lot of recipes where I've tried to make things from starch, when I could have just used store bought ingredients, simply because I wanted to learn how something was done. My goal is to continually update these recipes as I learn new things and techniques. These are my attempts at creating good, home cooked food, that I would like to eat! If I'm sharing it here, my family and I enjoyed it and I believe you will too.
