Pheasant breast with parsnip purée, mulled blackberries, colcannon croquettes, red wine sauce

Ingredients

4 pheasant breasts
50ml vegetable oil

Marinade
100ml rapeseed oil
1 tbs juniper berries, crushed
1 tbs thyme, chopped

Colcannon croquettes
200g mashed potato
75g cabbage, roughly chopped
2 spring onions, finely chopped
50g mature British cheese, grated
1 tsp English mustard
3 tbs plain flour
1 egg, beaten
100g panko breadcrumbs
1 tbs rapeseed oil

Mulled blackberries
¼ punnet blackberries
¼ bottle red wine
½ orange, halved
30g demerara sugar
1 cinnamon stick
Grated nutmeg
1 dried bay leaf

Parsnip purée
2 parsnips, sliced
200ml cream

Red Wine Sauce
2 tsp olive oil
2 shallots, finely chopped
150ml red wine
1 rosemary sprig
1 bay leaf
400ml chicken stock
2 tbs butter
Pinch sugar

Thirsk, North Yorkshire
www.mountstjohnsporting.co.uk

Serves 4

Combine the marinade ingredients and marinate the breasts for a few hours.

Combine the mash, greens, spring onions, cheese, and mustard for the croquettes in a large bowl. Use your hands to shape the mixture into 4 croquettes. Put the flour, egg, and breadcrumbs in 3 separate shallow dishes. Dip the croquettes into the flour, then the egg, then the breadcrumbs, turning to coat. Heat the oil in a large non-stick frying pan and gently fry the croquettes for 3-4 minutes on each side until golden and heated through.

Gently heat the wine for the mulled blackberries with the orange, sugar, bay leaf and the spices until the sugar has dissolved. Taste to see if you need more sugar. Take off the heat, drop in the blackberries, and allow to cool in the liquor.

For the parsnip purée, cook the sliced parsnips, cream, and 100ml water in a covered pan until the parsnips are soft. Strain, reserving the cream, and transfer the parsnips to a blender. Add a splash of the cooking liquor and blitz until smooth and silky. Season to taste and set aside.

For the sauce, fry the shallots in the oil in a large frying pan over a medium heat until golden and caramelised, about 10 minutes. Add the wine and herbs and simmer for 10 minutes or until reduced by half. Pour in the stock and continue to cook until reduced by half again, then strain, discarding the shallots and herbs. Transfer the sauce to a new pan and bring to the boil. Remove from the heat and whisk in the butter, then season to taste.

To cook the pheasant, remove the breasts from the marinade. Add the oil to a hot pan and shallow fry the breasts, skin-side down, until golden brown. Once golden, turn over the breasts and place in the oven for 5-6 minutes at 180˚C. Rest for at least 5 minutes before serving.