On a recent trip to Toronto’s St. Lawrence Market, we happened upon a Mennonite butcher stall. The selection was impressive and the staff friendly. We purchased a nice sized pheasant, for an upcoming meal, and ended up taking the bird to the cottage with us, but did not have a plan for it yet. When we got back home, we realized that the poor bird was left behind. Since we would not be back north for a few weeks, we resigned ourselves to having to throw out our purchase. We finally got back to the cottage this past weekend, but where was the pheasant? Turns out it was in the freezer all along. So after a review of Jacques Pepin’s video on deboning fowl, Shawn practiced his knife skills and deboned our bird. We then stuffed it with ground veal, chestnuts, porcini mushrooms and herbs, then formed it back into roughly its original shape.
OK, that’s kind of fun! Now we are starting to see a plan for Monday Night Dining.
This week the weather to the west has turned nasty, so NMJ could not get home. This makes out trio a quartet this week (of course with Enzo, that’s five). For some reason the pacing this week seemed very relaxed. I think because so much of the prep was done ahead. We started with a new appetizer, Goat Cheese Toasts with Eggplant Confit. When I saw the ingredients, I was not sure about this one, but when it is assembled, it melds together into cheesy, eggplanty goodness. The slices of eggplant are roasted and we found a goat cheese brie, to get that nice soft melted texture.
Now back to our pheasant… The inspiration for making the entrée comes from Anthony Bourdain’s cookbook “Les Halles” and his recipe for Roulade of Wild Pheasant . We had to modify the recipe because we did not have truffles or foie gras. After marinating the pheasant and making the sauce it was time to cook the bird “sous vide”. You wrap the pheasant in cheesecloth and then plastic wrap. Bring a pot of water to the boil, add the bird and shut off the heat. It remains in the pot for 2 hours and then you take it out, and rest it for another hour.
We then seared the pheasant and roasted it, to bring it back to temperature. The sauce is made by searing the bones from the pheasant with some aromatics, which is then boiled down with port and chicken stock, and finished with a little veal demi glace. We served this over Jerusalem Artichoke Puree.
Although we did flame the sauce for the pheasant, I haven’t had the opportunity to set enough things on fire lately…. So out came the blow torch for a wild blueberry creme brulee. The recipe called for black currants, but this isn’t the best season for them. On the other hand we did have some flash frozen wild blueberries in the deep freeze. I also bulked it up with a few blackberries. For this creme brulee, the berries are made into a syrupy mixture, to which you add Cassis. This is spooned into the ramekins and the custard is poured on top. For the caramel layer, we tried brown sugar, which makes an almost cobbled crust. The best part is that the berries are a nice surprise, when you dig to the bottom. Although Shawn’s birthday is tomorrow, there was no way to get a candle in the Crème Brulee.
Our timing was pretty relaxed, which gave us some time to talk about compositions, rehearsals, dinners to come, and life. We also had the big reveal of a letter we received from The Prince of Wales… Yes the one in England. Unfortunately he will be unable to attend our performance of Perry’s Oratorio Judith, but at least he is aware that it is happening.
We also might have sampled a wee dram of Sortilege. Whiskey with real maple syrup. Very nice. Then we were off to tackle the first half of Judith….. Well to rehearse it anyway.
