Pheasant on couscous with a wheat beer and boysenberry sauce

SERVES 2

4 large Swiss brown mushrooms

1 large red onion, quartered

4 tablespoons olive oil

1.25 kg (2 lb 12 oz) pheasant

1 bunch of thyme

20 g (¾ oz) butter

4 French shallots, peeled

125 ml (4 fl oz/½ cup) wheat beer, such as Emerson’s Bavarian wheat beer (see note)

3 tablespoons chicken stock

3 tablespoons boysenberry and garlic sauce (see note)

1–2 tablespoons roasted cherry chutney (see note)

4 large handfuls of baby English spinach

COUSCOUS

250 ml (9 fl oz/1 cup) water

2 tablespoons good-quality olive oil

185 g (6½ oz/1 cup) couscous

20 g (¾ oz) butter

grated zest of 1 lemon

1 tablespoon chopped parsley

Preheat the oven to 200°C (400°F/Gas 6). Wipe the mushrooms with a moist paper towel to clean off any dirt, then put in a roasting tin with the onion pieces. Season with salt and pepper and then drizzle with half the olive oil and put in the oven for about 15 minutes, or until softened.

Remove the breast fillets from the pheasant and the legs and set aside for later. Score the skin of the pheasant with a sharp knife and then season with salt and freshly ground black pepper. Cook in a very hot frying pan with the remaining olive oil, skin side down, until the skin is brown and crisp. You may need to use a spatula to press the breast down firmly to keep all the skin in contact with the pan.

Sprinkle the thyme over the mushrooms and onion, then put the pheasant, skin side up, on top of the thyme and cook in the oven for about 5 minutes, or until cooked to your liking. Remove the pheasant, mushrooms and onion from the tin, keeping separate. Cover with foil.

For the couscous: Bring the water to the boil, add the olive oil, a generous pinch of salt and the couscous. Take off the heat, cover and leave for a couple of minutes. Add the butter to the couscous and mix it through using a fork to separate the grains, then chop the roasted onion and mix it with the lemon zest and parsley.

Put the roasting tin on the stove over medium heat and deglaze it — if there is no juice, you can add a little butter. Fry the shallots in the tin until softened, then add the beer, chicken stock and the boysenberry and garlic sauce. Season to taste and simmer until reduced to about 3 tablespoons or to a consistency you like.

Cut all of the meat away from the legs and then cut that meat into thin strips. Season with salt and pepper and then flash-fry in a hot pan with some olive oil. Add 1–2 tablespoons of the roasted cherry chutney, mix through well and then remove from the heat.

Sauté the spinach with a splash of oil until wilted.

Make a mound of couscous, top with some slices of pheasant breast. Add the mushrooms, wilted spinach and a mound of the leg meat. Serve with the beer and boysenberry sauce and cherry chutney.

There are many brands of Bavarian-style or Hefeweizen beer — Schofferhofer, Erdinger or Franziskaner are just three. As for the boysenberry and garlic sauce and the roasted cherry chutney I’m sure you can find equivalent products at a really good deli or farmers’ market.