Lesson 19th of the monthly course.
Susan is ready for more advanced recipes. Today we will cook phaesant, duck and pigeon.
All these dishes have some hard details to accomplish: the pheasant is a hunted bird: fibrous with a game flavor. It must be treated properly. The duck has a layer of fat under the skin and it must be used for the sauce. The pigeon is boned, stuffed, cooked in honey and wine.
We start with a surgery, while the duck breast is in the oven to melt and free the fat.
The ribs cage is extracted from the bird through the hole of the neck.
Then the bird is stuffed wiht sausage and with its own organs previously chopped, then sewn; it is roasted in butter, then stewed in wine, honey, vinegar. It is served with an onion jam… handmade by Susan while the pigeon is cooking.
Meanwhile we take out the duck breast from the oven and collect the fat. We prepare a sugar caramel and with it we create a sauce with orange and duck fat to serve with the fanned breast.
The pheasant needs some extra fat, due to its hard meat. We start with bacon and butter and, after having sectionated the bird and liberated from the skin, we let the pieces brown gently, stirring often and adding broth as needed.
The last touch is the caramelization got lighting a fire in the pan with the help of a strong Brandy.
Then we added grapes. The result is this:
Susan said that the Lesson 19th has been the best cooking day of the course. But … she said that also at the end of the any one of the previous 18…
The real sadness is that tomorrow is the 20th, the last day…. I know we will see again and again Susan.
Marcella Ansaldo © 2021