Pheasant breasts are usually skinless. They’ve worked pretty hard so can often be tougher than chicken. Wanting a quicker dinner than slow cooking would produce, I stuffed some pheasant breasts with mozzarella and wrapped them in bacon to keep them moist during their half hour in the oven. Served hot for dinner with roast winter vegetables – pumpkin, onion, cauliflower and parsnips and then sliced cold for lunch the next day with a beetroot, rocket and radish salad with a white wine vinaigrette. The roulades release a reasonable amount of juice which I serve as it is poured over the top. You could add some white wine and thicken to make a sauce.
four skinless pheasant breasts
four rashers of streaky bacon (Freedom Farms do a good one)
100g mozzarella (I used Hohepa available in Wellington from Commonsense Organics and Moore Wilson)
Olive oil, salt and pepper
Pre heat the oven to 200 degrees C. Slice the cheese and divide into four equal portions. Wrap a pheasant breast around each portion of cheese. Stretch the rashers of bacon using the back of a knife and wrap each pheasant breast with a spiral of bacon, sealing in the cheese as much as possible. Put a little olive oil in an oven-proof dish. Arrange the roulades in the dish, season well with salt and pepper. Bake un-covered for 30 minutes. Remove from the oven, cover loosely with foil and allow to rest for a further five minutes. Slice each roulade into four or five to serve. Serves four.
