Cold pheasant pie
( Tortino freddo di fagiano )

Recipe for cold pheasant pie

Preparation and cooking

• - Prepare berries.
  Let wild berries boil for few minutes in orange juice in a little saucepan.
  Purée in a blenderor food processor until smooth.
  Pass through a sieve in order to eliminate little seeds.
• . Cook pheasant.
  Fry pheasant pieces lightly in olive oil in a saucepan.
  Brown them on all sides.
  Pour in orange-flavored liqueur (arancino).
  Let it evaporate over a fierce heat turning pheasant pieces to flavor them very well.
  At this point dd wild berries mixture (except some tablespoons) and a glass of hot water.
  Continue cooking over a medium heat, half-covered, turning meat now and then until pheasant is tender and cooking juice is almost reduced.
  Add other water only if necessary.
  Let pheasant cool in the saucepan.
• - The last step.
  Remove its skin, bone it and cut into little pieces its meat.
  Put all pieces again in the saucepan together with the remaining wild berries mixture.
  Let them flavour over a medium heat until cooking juice is well reduced.
  Meanwhile clean and wash fresh chives.
  Pat dry with absorbent kitchen paper. Add to pheasant a minute before turning off the stove.
  Let your meat cool.
  Meanwhile prepare jelly following the instructions on the package.
  Pour the third part onto a mold.
  Let it cool quickly in the freezer.
  Remove the mold from freezer.
  Spoon pheasant mixture in the mold.
  Cover with the remaining jelly.
  Preserve in the refrigerator for a night.

Just before serving

• - Take away the mold from the refrigerator 15-20 minutes before serving.
• - Turn it out on a serving platter. You can make this operation easier if you plunge partially your mold into hot water for few seconds.
• - Serve your pheasant pie at room temperature.

Note

Tips

• - Impossible to recommend the size of the mold. It's a choice of yours depending on the amount of meat-and-berry mixture and how deep you want to make it.
• - Don't make your pie too thin or you could break it when you turn it over on serving plate.
• - If you have any pieces left, don't worry. It is tasty the day after too but keep it in the fridge.

Menu planning

• - It's a dish very refined and tasty too. It's the ideal course for a special or colored menu.
  But you can also serve it in a meal, buffet-style.
  This is a do-ahead dish, ideal for a summer party.
• - The doses are enough for more people if you serve it together with other courses.
• - Interested in a special menu, Italian-style? Read my suggestion below with all links to mentioned recipes.

Useful links for this recipes

• - Here's my menu idea!
  Starter: wildboard-and-paté canapés accompanied by assorted salami and baked cherry tomatoes.
  First course: choose between pasta salad with quail eggs or spaghetti with black truffle. In the page dedicated to black truffle I explain how to prepare such a dish.
  Second course: my pheasant pie
  Dessert. Don't smile for my tip but I recommend you panettone. In summer it leavens very well and is tastier according to me.
  Pair the bubbles I suggest below.
• - Want a recipe to make arancino at home? follow the link!

Healthy eating

• - For the goodness of this dish I sacrificed the nutrients of berries. The long cooking time, as you know, dramatically reduces their vitamins for example.
  In addition, oranges are not in season in summer and then you have to use imported oranges from countries south the Equator.
  This is contrary to my principles, but for once ... On the other hand it is not a dish for your daily menu. Too laborious!
• - Fiber per serving: 2.6 grams

Loretta

What's the right wine for " Cold pheasant pie "?

Serve bubbles as Prosecco di Conegliano Valdobbiadene Cartizze (sparkling wine from Veneto).