Shika tataki (deer tataki with vegetables)

For ➍
600 g deer (or hind) fillet
200 g fine green beans
200 g pod peas
2 carrots
2 lemons juice
ginger 3 cm
½ red pepper
4 tbs sesame seeds
1 dl soy sauce
1 dl rice vinegar
1 tbs raw cane sugar
2 tbs olive oil
salt & pepper

Cut the ends of the beans and pod peas. Blanch  them (and eventually the carrots) for 3-6 m in a large pot of salted boiling water. Drain and scare into ice water so they retain their green color. Peel the carrots and cut into long pieces of 1 cm wide. Then cut them into thin strands with the peeler. (Raw, not when blanched).
Prepare the sauce. Peel, grate and squeeze the ginger. Mix the ginger with the lemon juice, soy sauce, rice vinegar and raw cane sugar.
Put a pan on the fire with olive oil and heat it.
Season the deer fillet with salt and pepper. Crust the meat 1 m on each side. Deglaze with the sauce, let cook for ± 4 m. Turn the meat regularly so that the flavour of the sauce is well absorbed. Bake the meat nice rosé (about 8 m for 400 g).  
Remove the meat from the pan, wrap in a sheet of aluminum foil and let rest for 5 m.
Let the sauce boil until slightly syrupy.
Sprinkle your work surface with sesame seeds. Roll the meat in it to get a crispy sesame crust. Cut the meat into very thin slices.
Divide the beans and pod peas pod on 4 plates. Arrange the thin slices of doe and cover again with the sauce. Finish with the rolled carrot slivers and bring to taste with finely chopped red pepper.
Serve with cooked glass noodles.

Deer with celeriac mash & endives

For ➍
600 g deer fillets
20 g butter
8 stalks witloof, cleaned
1 celeriac, cut into chunks
200 g potatoes, cut into chunks (or about the same weight as the cleaned celeriac.)
sauce chasseur

Prepare the sauce chasseur without the adding of gravy or wine. Set aside.
Cook the potatoes and celeriac for 20 m. When cooked, add 1 tbs of butter. Make a mash. Set aside.
Brown the deer fillets for 20 m in a stove-top pan with some butter on high fire. Reduce fire, cover the pan, and bake for 20-25 m. Cover and let rest for 15 m.
Add gravy and wine to the sauce. Set aside.
Meanwhile, braise the endives with a little butter for 5-10 m. Keep warm.
Reheat the mash just before serving.
Cut the meat. Serve the meat with the sauce, the mash and endives.

Sauce chasseur (red wine sauce)

For ➍-➏
60 g (6 tbs) butter
60 g (6 tbs) flour
3.5 dl stock
2 slices bacon, cut
1 onion, cut
1 carrot, cut*
1 celery branch*
pili pili, chilli or pepper
1 dl gravy
1 dl red wine
3 tbs red currant jelly**

Make a roux of the flour and butter.
Baste the bacon, onion, carrot and celery. Add to the roux. Add pili-pili.
Finish with roasting gravy, red wine and jelly.

*Traditionally with mushrooms.
**Optional.

Fazantenfilets op zijn Brabants (Flemish pheasant fillets with endives)

For ➍
4 pheasant fillets, skinless
4-6 endives, finely cut
2-4 tbs fond
cream
savoy or turnips mash

Brown the fillets in a well heated pan. Lower the heat and cook the fillets for 5 more m.
Meanwhile sautée the endives in a little butter in another pan on medium heat. After 5 m, add the fillets and the fond. Cover and cook for 5 more m. Add the cream and thicken the sauce for a few m.
Put the fillet on a plate with some sauce.
Serve with a mash of savoy or turnips.

This a simple and quick version of a tradtional Brabant recipe. Read the similar elaborated recipe with guinea fowl.
Read the braising endives without water tip.
Read the cooking endives @ microwave tip.

Faisan à la gueuze et mousse de poireaux (pheasant with gueuze & leeks mousse)

For ➍
2 pheasants 700 g
4 tbs olive oil
40 g butter
15 cl cream
250 g fresh walnuts
5 cl gin
25 cl gueuze
salt, pepper
leek mousse

Blanch the nuts to remove the skin.
Clear the skin of the pheasant near the head and insert a finger to lift the skin up to the thigh. Push a little cream between the skin and the meat. Rub gently to spread the cream and close with a toothpick. Put a knob of salted butter in the belly and close with a toothpick.
Bind the legs, rub oil on the pheasants. Sauté in a pan with a little oil.
When pheasants are browned add the nuts and mix. Heat gin and blaze the pheasants.
Pour the gueuze over the fowl. Cook covered over low heat for 30 m.
Reduce the cooking juices and whisk in the butter.
Cut the white meat of the pheasants into 2 mm slices.
To serve, put leeks mousse on a plate, pour a little of the leek cooking juices around it. Put some slices of the pheasant on the mousse.
Pour the pheasants' sauce on the meat. Decorate with nuts.
In second service serve pheasant thighs with fried mushrooms with garlic and a little green salad.

Pheasant salad with fennel

For ➋***
1 whole pheasant or chicken breast, or a half of a turkey breast
1 l pheasant, turkey or chicken stock
1 medium fennel bulb, chopped
2 ts fennel pollen (optional)
1-2 tbs green fennel seeds (optional)
1 tbs mint leaves, chopped
1 small, red hot chilli, minced
zest & juice of 1 lemon
6 cl olive oil
salt &  black pepper to taste

Bring the broth to a simmer in a lidded pot. Turn the heat off and drop the pheasant breasts in. Make sure they are submerged. Cover the pot.
Meanwhile, chop the fennel bulb into pieces. Add all the remaining ingredients and set aside.
The pheasant breasts should be fully cooked in 20 m.* ** When the pheasant is cool enough to handle, shred it into pieces.
Mix everything together and let it stand, covered, at room temperature for 1 h. You can also store it overnight in the fridge.

*Turkey and chicken breasts are larger and will take longer. A turkey breast might require a full 45 m in the warm broth.
**Save the broth for soup or something else. It will keep in the fridge a week or so.
***Double quantities for 4.

Pheasant & wild mushrooms

For ➍
3 dl fowl fond  or chicken stock
2 dl medium sherry
2 dl cream
salt & pepper
400 g wild mushrooms*
olive oil
3 large branches rosemary, finely chopped
3 cloves garlic, finely chopped
lemon juice
4 pheasant fillets, skinless

Mix the stock and the sherry. Reduce on low heat to  2 dl. Add the cream, and simmer for 4 m. Season.
Shred the mushrooms. Heat some oil in a frying pan and fry the mushrooms with rosemary and garlic over high heat, about 5 m, stirring continually. Season with salt, pepper and lemon juice.
Season the pheasant fillets and brown 2 m per side in olive oil, keeping them pink inside. Cut into fine slices.
Put on a plate. Dress with the sauce around, the mushrooms on top.
Serve with a potato mash with some small pieces of sweet-sour apple.

*Cook pheasant and serve with mirin cooked endives.

Pheasant with mushrooms & spinach

For ➋
2 pheasant breasts (no skin)
mushrooms such as oyster, shiitake or/& chestnut
½ bag of fresh spinach, washed (or tinned lentils)
2 portions of brown basmati rice
4 tbs red wine
garlic
salt & pepper
garlic salt
knob of butter
olive oil

Blanch spinach by pouring boiling water over it until it softens (2-3 min). Drain water and put to the side.
Put 2 tbs of olive oil into a non stick pan over high heat. Once the oil is nice and hot, add the pheasant breast and cook for 2 m on each side. Take out the breasts and put to the side to rest. Cover with foil so they don’t get cold.
Add the roughly chopped mushrooms and cook for 2- 3 m. Add a knob of butter and some minced garlic. Once the mushrooms have cooked and start to soften add the blanched spinach. Make sure the spinach has been drained. Continue to stir and add red wine if using. The mushrooms in total should be cooked for 4-6 m. You can add a dollop of sour cream , cream or creme fraiche to enhance texture.
Serve on a bed of rice and have a side salad.

Pheasant with mushrooms & kohlrabi risotto

For ➍
2 shallots
200 g mixed mushrooms
100 g kohlrabi
4 dl chicken stock
butter
1 clove of garlic
200 g risotto rice
fresh thyme
Parmigiano cheese
cream
freshly ground black pepper
parsley
2 endives
lemon juice
sugar
4 fillets of pheasants
carcass of pheasant
1 glass of port
sage

Chop the shallot. Brush the mushrooms and cut them small.
Cut the kohlrabi into cubes of 5 mm thick, cook until al dente in the chicken stock.
Fry the mushrooms in butter on high heat, add the shallot and garlic.
Make the risotto.
5 m before the end of cooking of the mushrooms, add kohlrabi, thyme and crushed garlic.
Finish the risotto with grated Parmigiano, cream, black pepper and chopped parsley.
Pull the leaves from the endives. Boil them for 10 m in water with lemon juice. Drain and fry in butter with sugar. Let slightly caramelize.
Fry the pheasant fillets on both sides in butter, put 10 to 12 m in an oven at 100°C.
Create fond of the bones of the pheasant, add port and a sage leaf. Let it boil, filter and add some butter.
Serve the meat with the risotto, the endives and sauce.

Read the tip on making a quick risotto.

Pearl barley risotto with pheasant & beer

For ➍
200 g pearl barley (hata mugi)
1 shallot , chopped
70 cl chicken stock
1 dash of white wine
100 g dried wild mushrooms, soaked in water
½ lemon, zest
4 pheasant fillets
20 cl Double Postel beer
250 g oyster mushrooms, cut into strips
2 handfuls of fresh herbs (parsley , tarragon , chervil , ... ), chopped
butter
olive oil
pepper & salt

The pearl barley is cooked like a risotto, named orzotto. Stew a minced shallot in a little olive oil. Add the pearl barley. Deglaze with the white wine and a splash of chicken stock. Cook on a low heat for 20 m. Check if there is still enough liquid. Add stock if necessary.
Pour in the liquid from the soaked mushrooms for extra flavour. Chop the mushrooms finely and add at the very end. Add grated lemon zest for freshness. Season with salt and pepper. Keep the risotto warm.
Fry the pheasant fillets in a little butter on both sides. The meat should still be pink. Season with salt and pepper. Further, let yarn in a preheated oven at 160°C for 15 m.
Make the sauce. Drain excess fat from the pan and deglaze with the Double Postel. Get the bakings loose and pour the rest of the chicken stock over it. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Bring the sauce to a boil.
Remove the meat from the oven, cover and leave to rest for a while.
Fry the sliced mushrooms in oil. Season with salt and pepper and add the spring onions. Let yarn on a low heat for a few m.
Serve the risotto with fresh herbs.

Double Postel beer is a Belgian brown abbey beer with a hint of Eastern spices. A good brown or red beer will do.
Read the tip on cooking risotto.

tip: game cooking times

wild boar steak             skillet           10 m
boar leg                         oven              30 m /500 g
fawn roast                     oven              20 m /500 g
doe leg                           oven              30 m /500 g
doe cutlet                      skillet            20 m (low-medium fire)
wild rabbit                    pot                30 m /500 g
hare                               pot                30 m /500 g
young partridge           skillet           15 m
pheasant                       pot                30 m /500 g
pheasant cutlet            oven              15 m (180°C)
wood pigeon fillet        skillet            10 m (high fire)

tip: cooking meat in the oven

Red meat:
beef, deer / doe, lamb, duck, stag

Preheat oven to 200° C, 20 m per 500 g.

White meat:

pork, veal, young boar

Preheat oven to 220° C, 20/25 m per 500 g.

Other meat:

poultry, chicken, turkey, guinea fowl, pheasant

Preheat oven to 240° C, 20 m per 500 g, reduce heat to 180° C, 20 more m per 500 g.

The meat is done when the liquid out of the thighs turns colourless.

All meat must rest for at least 20 m in aluminum foil before serving.

Don't put meat, straight from the refrigerator, in the oven. It will make the temperature drop.

Most meat benefits from basting, but opening the oven will affect cooking time.
Skewers:
Preheat oven to 180°C. Cook for 15-20 m, depending on the thickness of the chunks.

Read more tips. Read tip on grilling and braising meat in the oven. Read more meat and fowl recipes. Read more on roasting meat. Read general cooking times for meat, in & out of the oven.