Pheasant Makhani, with basmati rice, chapatti and snipe tikka
This would be delicious with chicken too, so read on even if you don’t like or have access to game. It’s basically a Tikka Masala with some extra zing and depth.
A friend who had been shooting gave me a snipe and a pheasant and having enjoyed pheasant at the Cinamon Club a few weeks ago, I decided to give it the Indian treatment, same for the snipe.
The pheasant recipe serves 2, the snipe was a bit incidental but tasty and produces a delicious morsel.
I hung the birds for about 10 days. Sorry no pics of them before, but the snipe was a sorry little sight and the pheasant a nice clean and meaty example.
I decided to prepare the pheasant along the lines of murgh makhani – butter chicken. I used a Hugh Fearnly Wittingstall recipe as the base but modified it as I wanted it to be lighter (trying to shed some poundage for snowboarding) and spicier. I modified his recipe to reduce the amount of butter and cream and add some punch and to suite two people rather than six (and also to leave out stuff I didn't have). I have good Indian cookery books but liked the simplicity of his recipe for a weeknight meal, rather than spending all day at it.
I plucked and drew them and after this is where the pics start. I skinned both birds. I then removed the pheasant breasts and quarter leg portions. I trimmed the fat. The snipe is tiny and didn’t need much doing with it.
Both were marinated together in the following:
Couple of table spoons plain yoghurt
Juice of a lemon
Couple of tbsp Garam Masala
Couple of teaspoons of hot chilli powder
Couple tsp of coriander, ground
Couple tsp of fenugreek seeds, crushed in the pestle and mortar
About three inches grated ginger
Finley chopped red chil
About 5 cloves crushed garlic
Couple of tbsps but oil
Season with salt
Mix it all together in a big bowl and chuck the meat in. This Tikka marina would be just as nice with lamb or chicken for the bbq or grill.
I marinated for about 5 hours but longer would have been even better.
While the oven was getting hot (about 230) I prepared the tomato base for the sauce:
Combine
I tin tomatoes chopped in juice
Inch grated ginger
2-3 garlic cloves crushed
2 red chilli finely chopped (less if you like, this had kick)
3 or 4 cloves
About 100ml of 2 water
Simmer that for about 10 mins.
Sieve it so it is perfectly smooth.
I then put the sauce aside and began to cook the meat. I wacked the bone in bits of pheasant into the oven for 5 mins and then followed with the breast parts for a further 5 mins. I then turned down to about 180 and cooked for a further 20 mins.
During that time I mixed the following to finish the sauce:
1 tsp tomato puree
2 tsp honey, runny
50 ml ish of double cream
Dsp crushed fenugreek
Juice of a lemon
Black pepper
I warmed a knob of butter (not very much, remember I was trying to make a lighter than normal version of this dish – though admittedly not that light!) and added a teaspoon of ground cumin for a minute or two.
(at this point the snipe was put in the hot oven – for a total cooking time of about 15 mins – chapattis were put in for 10 mins – I cooked the plain basmati at the same time.)
The sieved tomato was returned to the pan with the cumin butter and warmed to simmering, the pheasant was added.
Slowly warming the tomato and pheasant, I added the cream and honey mixture for the last 5 mins.
The result was delicious and would work just as well with chicken as per the original recipe. Reduce cooking time for breast rather than bone in, as I did for the pheasant breast.
I did not add the litte snipe to the curry but rather left it as tikka, when finished I removed the meat from it in the kitchen as my wife probably wouldn’t have liked the look of it too much (cute factor pre cooking), but the meat was delicious, not over-cooked at 15 mins and full of gameniess and spice.
This makes for a smooth and creamy curry with loads of flavour and some real chilli bite. The game works really well with the strong flavours and adds another dimension over chicken. It was very, very tasty!
This would be delicious with chicken too, so read on even if you don’t like or have access to game. It’s basically a Tikka Masala with some extra zing and depth.
A friend who had been shooting gave me a snipe and a pheasant and having enjoyed pheasant at the Cinamon Club a few weeks ago, I decided to give it the Indian treatment, same for the snipe.
The pheasant recipe serves 2, the snipe was a bit incidental but tasty and produces a delicious morsel.
I hung the birds for about 10 days. Sorry no pics of them before, but the snipe was a sorry little sight and the pheasant a nice clean and meaty example.
I decided to prepare the pheasant along the lines of murgh makhani – butter chicken. I used a Hugh Fearnly Wittingstall recipe as the base but modified it as I wanted it to be lighter (trying to shed some poundage for snowboarding) and spicier. I modified his recipe to reduce the amount of butter and cream and add some punch and to suite two people rather than six (and also to leave out stuff I didn't have). I have good Indian cookery books but liked the simplicity of his recipe for a weeknight meal, rather than spending all day at it.
I plucked and drew them and after this is where the pics start. I skinned both birds. I then removed the pheasant breasts and quarter leg portions. I trimmed the fat. The snipe is tiny and didn’t need much doing with it.
Both were marinated together in the following:
Couple of table spoons plain yoghurt
Juice of a lemon
Couple of tbsp Garam Masala
Couple of teaspoons of hot chilli powder
Couple tsp of coriander, ground
Couple tsp of fenugreek seeds, crushed in the pestle and mortar
About three inches grated ginger
Finley chopped red chil
About 5 cloves crushed garlic
Couple of tbsps but oil
Season with salt
Mix it all together in a big bowl and chuck the meat in. This Tikka marina would be just as nice with lamb or chicken for the bbq or grill.
I marinated for about 5 hours but longer would have been even better.
While the oven was getting hot (about 230) I prepared the tomato base for the sauce:
Combine
I tin tomatoes chopped in juice
Inch grated ginger
2-3 garlic cloves crushed
2 red chilli finely chopped (less if you like, this had kick)
3 or 4 cloves
About 100ml of 2 water
Simmer that for about 10 mins.
Sieve it so it is perfectly smooth.
I then put the sauce aside and began to cook the meat. I wacked the bone in bits of pheasant into the oven for 5 mins and then followed with the breast parts for a further 5 mins. I then turned down to about 180 and cooked for a further 20 mins.
During that time I mixed the following to finish the sauce:
1 tsp tomato puree
2 tsp honey, runny
50 ml ish of double cream
Dsp crushed fenugreek
Juice of a lemon
Black pepper
I warmed a knob of butter (not very much, remember I was trying to make a lighter than normal version of this dish – though admittedly not that light!) and added a teaspoon of ground cumin for a minute or two.
(at this point the snipe was put in the hot oven – for a total cooking time of about 15 mins – chapattis were put in for 10 mins – I cooked the plain basmati at the same time.)
The sieved tomato was returned to the pan with the cumin butter and warmed to simmering, the pheasant was added.
Slowly warming the tomato and pheasant, I added the cream and honey mixture for the last 5 mins.
The result was delicious and would work just as well with chicken as per the original recipe. Reduce cooking time for breast rather than bone in, as I did for the pheasant breast.
I did not add the litte snipe to the curry but rather left it as tikka, when finished I removed the meat from it in the kitchen as my wife probably wouldn’t have liked the look of it too much (cute factor pre cooking), but the meat was delicious, not over-cooked at 15 mins and full of gameniess and spice.
This makes for a smooth and creamy curry with loads of flavour and some real chilli bite. The game works really well with the strong flavours and adds another dimension over chicken. It was very, very tasty!
