Pheasant consommé

Ingredients for 6 servings:

• 4 pheasant(s)
• Pheasant bones (back carcasses)
• Pheasant leg(s) and wings
• 1 stalk leek, the white part, diced
• 1 carrot(s), diced
• ¼ celeriac, diced
• 1 large onion(s), unpeeled, halved, browned on the cut side
• Salt
• n. B. water
• 3 egg whites
• 6 legs (pheasant legs), skinless and tendonless, boneless
• 1 stalk leek, the white part, finely diced
• 1 carrot(s), finely diced
• ¼ celeriac, finely diced
• ¼ bunch thyme, the leaves of it
• 20 ml Sherry, dry
• 20 ml port wine
• 1 ½ liters of broth (pheasant broth)
• 5 juniper berries
• 5 grains of allspice
• 2 bay leaves
• salt and pepper
• 2 pheasant breasts (halves), skinless and boneless
• 1 truffle (winter truffle)
• 60 g duck liver or goose liver (foie gras), if available, only fresh, ready to cook

Instructions

Working time approx. 1 hour 15 minutes; Rest time approx. 6 hours; Total time approx. 7 hours 15 minutes

Pheasant broth with winter truffle and foie gras

Since I only use the breast of the pheasant for a meat dish, using the other parts is a practical way to make a wonderful consommé. For this, I bone out the back, wings, and two breast halves. The remaining breast halves can easily be used to cook a meat course for six people. If you don’t want to do that, you can buy just one pheasant for the consommé and make the broth from chicken stock using a standard chicken. This will, however, reduce the flavor of the actual consommé and make it taste less like a game bird. To make the pheasant broth, brown the repeatedly minced carcass, the wings, and two legs in the oven at 180°C for 25 minutes. Be careful not to overcook them, as this would make the broth bitter. Without browning, it would lack flavor later on. Place all of these parts in a pot and add enough water to cover everything. Bring the liquid to a boil, skimming off any foam that forms. Now add the vegetables and let everything simmer gently for 1.5 hours. Then strain everything through a fine sieve, add a little salt, and wait until the broth has cooled to remove the layer of fat. Since this process is quite time-consuming, you may want to cook the broth the day before. For the pheasant consommé, dice the leg meat very finely or grind it through the coarse disk of a meat grinder. Then mix it with the very finely diced vegetables. Add the port wine, sherry, thyme leaves, juniper berries, allspice, bay leaves, and egg whites to this mixture. Mix well, season with salt and pepper, mix again, and refrigerate for 2-3 hours. Now add this mixture to the cold pheasant broth (the ratio of broth to liquid should be approximately 1:5-2:5) and bring to a boil. Stir frequently and make sure nothing settles at the bottom. The egg white will curdle and rise to the surface as a grey-white foam. Once the mixture has boiled, reduce the heat and let it simmer for 1 hour on a small plate or flame. This will cause the hot liquid to rise in the middle of the pot and sink again at the cooler edges. Skim off any foam that keeps forming. The surface will look pretty inedible, but that’s perfectly normal. After an hour, strain the liquid through a cheesecloth and season again with salt and pepper if desired. The result is a completely clarified, light-coloured consommé with enormous flavours. For the garnish, cut the well-chilled, but not frozen, breast halves and the truffle into wafer-thin slices, cut the foie gras into very small cubes, divide among the 6 deep plates, and pour the hot, but not boiling, consommé over them to poach the breast slices and liver cubes to keep them tender. Consommé is the queen of all broths and a wonderful start to a feast.