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.

Old-Fashioned

For ➊ cocktail
1 sugar cube (or ½ ts loose sugar)*
3 dashes Angostura bitters
club soda
6 cl rye whisky or Bourbon

Place the sugar cube (or ½ ts loose sugar) in an old-fashioned glass.
Wet it down with 2 or 3 dashes of Angostura bitters and a short splash of water or club soda. Crush the sugar.
Rotate the glass so that the sugar grains and bitters give it a lining. Add a large ice cube. Pour in the rye (or bourbon).
Serve with a stirring rod.

*Or use simple syrup (¼ to ¾ whiskey).

The Old-Fashioned is the ur-cocktail, dating from the early 19th century. A 'cock tail' was a morning drink made up of a little water, a little sugar, a lot of liquor, and a couple splashes of bitters. Freeze the water, make it with whiskey, and you have an Old-Fashioned. The 60's variation, with a cherry and orange peel was revived with the 'Mad Men' television series.
The Jack Daniel's bourbon variation: gently muddle orange peel, cherry, 1.5 cl sugar syrup and 4 dashes of bitters in an old-fashioned glass. Optionally, add a Maraschino cherry. Add ice and stir in part of the JD Single Barrel bourbon until it dilutes. Keep adding Single Barrel and ice. Garnish with orange peel.
It could also be made with Dutch or Belgian jenever or rum.