For Christmas, we had a meal at home, an appetizer of New Zealand prawns and cockles, with some lime and ginger, followed by roast pheasant, stuffed with wild rice and glazed with lingonberries.
The pheasant turned out perfect, but I would have added an extra ingredient to reduce the limey-ness of the appetizer. Something still citric, but not so acidic, like pureed mango, or I could have stuck with the New Zealand theme and used kiwifruit.
The pheasant and the seafood for the appetizers were bought at McCaffrey’s in Princeton. McCaffrey’s is a huge place with tons of specialty items and an amazing selection of meat and seafood. I haven’t seen anywhere else that has big hunks of foie gras in the case. Other ingredients like the lingonberries, the bread, and the rice were bought at the nearby Bon Appetit, who had a couple of white truffles on display, with no price (if you have to ask…) and the Princeton Wild Oats store.
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New Zealand Prawns and cockles, with lime ginger butter over snow peas
I’m not really sure what a New Zealand Prawn is. It might be another name for the Malaysian fresh water prawn, or it could be a marine variety. Whatever they are they have big and tasty tail meat. It looks like a langoustine, but I’m not sure how it compares in taste. Cockles are small clams.
Ingredients
NZ Prawns, 1 for each serving
1/2 a lime
butter
ginger
snow peas
heavy cream
I didn’t have a plan for presentation of these prawns, if I was serving more I might have displayed the whole thing (impressive, but not for the faint of heart, this are big mean looking shrimp). Ever see the scene in Apocalypse Now where they’re telling Martin Sheen to ‘terminate with extreme prejudice’? They’re having a lunch of gaint prawns, claws, antennae and all. For a fancier preesentation I might have cooked and displayed the long thin claws.
In any case, I butterflied the tail meat over the tail shell for broiling, like you might do with a lobster. Although the meat came out fine, the shell wasn’t very attractive, staying a fleshy white, rather than turning red, like a lobster might do.
The rest of the appetizer was fairly simple - boil the cockles for about a minute, boil or steam the snow peas for about a minute or less to mantain some crispness, melt some butter in a pan, maybe 3-4 tablespoons worth, ream half a lime and add to the butter and add in some grated ginger. I use just a bit, not wanting to overpower anything. Add a couple of tablespoons of cream and whisk a bit.
I shelled the cockles and removed the prawn tail meat from the shell, and threw them in the pan for about 30 seconds and plated equal portions over the pea pods.
This dish comes out very limey. I kinda liked it, but I think I would reduced the amount of lime and added something to tone it down next time. Some pureed kiwi fruit would have added some sweetness, or if I was making more, I might have used coconut milk.
Roast Pheasant, wild rice stuffing and lingonberry glaze
Most recipes I’ve seen for pheasant assume a very gamey, dry bird. But farm raised pheasants aren’t like the wild ones. Some recipes call for brining, barding (covering the bird with bacon during cooking) or braising. The method we used made a very tender, juicy, tasty bird. It’s the method i use with all my roasted birds, from game hen to giant turkeys. Truss the bird, put it into a very hot oven to start (450° F), until the skin just starts to brown, then cover loosely woith foil for the rest of the roasting. Some prefer to finish the bird in a hot oven, rather than start it but I think that overcooks the leg meat and I stick to the theory that browning the skin to start with helps to keep the moisture from leaving the bird during roasting.
Stuffing
1 cup of wild rice (will make 3 cups)
2 cups of seasoned, toasted bread cubes (toast your own from sourdough or something season to your liking with olive oil, tarragon or sage, don’t use the over-salted packaged stuff for a fancy meal like this)
butter
2-3 large shallots
wild mushrooms (most supermarkets sell a small package of mixed ‘wild’ varieties)
1 or 2 big portabellos, cut into vegas-dice sized cubes
Cook the wild rice (simmer covered in 2 1/2 cups of water and 2 T of butter for 45 minutes), then add in another 3 T of butter, add the mushrooms and shallots you sauteed in butter while the rice was cooking. Stir in the bread cubes and allow to cool.
Take the bird out of the frig, if you haven’t already. The idea is that the inside of the bird won’t be cold when you put it in the oven. Let it come to room temperature so it cooks evenly. Stuff the bird with the rice-stuffing. I like to put a layer of stuffing under the skin of the breast meat, as insulation. Truss up the bird and coat liberally with the lingonberries.
Again start the bird in a hot oven (450° F) until the skin is just brown, maybe 15 minutes, then cover loosely with foil and roast at 350° F until the thigh temperature reaches 130-135° F. Ours took about 1 1/2 hours. Give it another coat of lingonberries right before its done. Some recipes will tell you to go as high as 160°, but this is a bird that is best to be served just a bit more than rare. this article on The Art of Cooking Game is right - “Over 150° internal temperature all game birds begin to get tough and flavorless and are a loss, except as the base for some fancy sauce”. Let the bird rest for ten minutes or so, and the temperature will rise a bit more. You could also make a sauce with some pan drippings, and more lingonberries