I know winter is not here yet. I know this because temperature here is in the 30’s C and we still wear our t-shirts. But, and here there is a big but, when someone brings you game, you simply cannot resist the temptation to cook it right away.

Let me explain myself. I have a cousin. Actually I have a few cousins, but this one is a hunter. So, every time he hunts he remembers his cousin,me, and brings something for this family too. I don’t like hunting and to be honest if this sport was abolished, I would be more than happy. He knows that, but he still brings something for me. My only consolation is that he respects the animals. He hunts only those his family will consume. He doesn’t hunt illegally, only during the specified periods and only large animals and birds. Not offspring or young ones.

This gives me some kind of peace in mind.

Back to the game. He gave me two pheasants. So, alea jacta est (the die is cast). Our Sunday lunch was going to have these two pheasants on it. I decided to make them in the oven with a sweet wine sauce and accompany them with bucatoni, as we often do here in Greece. This type of pasta is used to make Pastitsio or as a side dish for roosters and games.

I marinated the game, so as to become tenderer and get rid of the intense aroma these types of meat have. It was delicious. The sauce was so sweet that, when the birds were eaten, my son asked for a second plate just with pasta and sauce.

You can make this sauce with practically any meat, I am sure everyone will love it.

 

Pheasants in Wine Sauce with Bucatoni

Ingredients

For the marinade

½ bottle of semi-sweet Sherry wine

2 garlic cloves, chopped

1 onion, sliced

10 all spice balls

1 tbsp dried rosemary

1 tsp dried thyme

½ tsp cardamom

2 bay leaves

 

For the sauce

600 gr. /21 oz. tomato juice

4 onions, cut in 4

6 carrots, sliced

3 garlic cloves, cut in two

1 ¾ cup Muscat or any sweet red wine you have

½ tsp nutmeg

½ tsp cinnamon

½ tsp ground cloves

2 tbsp balsamico

2 tbsp honey

½ tsp ginger

¼ tsp cardamom

500 gr. /18 oz. fresh mushrooms, sliced

2 bay leaves

100 gr. /3.5 oz. dried cranberries

100 gr. /3.5 oz. dried nuts of different types

1 cup of hot water

 

Two Peasants about 1 kilo/2 lb. each, cut in four pieces each

Margarine for sautéing the birds

 

Instructions

Twenty four hours before cooking the birds, put all the ingredients of the marinade in a non-reactive bowl along with the birds.

Put the birds in the fridge and let them stay overnight.

Before cooking, take the birds out of the fridge and the marinade.

Pat them dry.

In a sauté pan put 3 tbsp of margarine in medium high heat.

Sauté the pheasant pieces in batches.

Put the sautéed pieces in a vessel for the oven.

Preheat oven to 200°C/400°F.

 

For the sauce

While the oven is preheated, make the sauce.

Take a sauté pan.

Pour 3 tbsp of olive oil and put it in medium-high heat.

Add the onions and mushrooms and sauté for five minutes.

Add the garlic and continue to sauté for couple of minutes.

Pour the tomato, the carrots, the balsamico, the honey, the ¾ cup of wine and all the herbs and spices except the cranberries and the nuts and stir.

Let boil in medium heat for 10 minutes.

Remove from heat.

Pour the tomato sauce and the hot water over the birds and put them in the oven.

Bake for an hour at this temperature and then lower to 175°/350°F.

You bake at this temperature for another one hour.

Thirty minutes before the end throw the cranberries, the dried nuts and the 1 cup of wine.

I served them with thick macaroni, bucatini, as we usually do in Greece, but you can accompany it with mashed potatoes or rice.