- Remove the pheasant parcel out of the packaging, pat away any excess moisture and bring to room temperature.
- Pre heat the oven to 190°C (gas mark 7) fan assisted or 210°C without a fan.
- Choose a small roasting tray for the pheasant. If preferred, you can wrap the bird with some pancetta or streaky bacon. I like this way of roasting the bird, but if you like to cook in foil, place the veggies inside the foil too to keep the bird moist, and undo the foil at the end of the cooking time to crisp up the bacon/pancetta.
- Make a trivet by roughly chopping equal amounts of onion, carrot and celery or our preferred choice of celeriac, the root of the celery plus a bay leaf, sprig of thyme and a few peppercorns.
- Place the pheasant onto the trivet which should line the base of the tray.
- Place in centre of the oven and roast for 25 minutes, core temperature should be a minimum of 65°C.- You can test for doneness by piercing the bird with a skewer and looking at the juices that run out, you need them to be clear. Or use your meat thermometer. Sometimes a larger bird may take a little longer, but never less time than this.
- Remove from the oven and pop onto a clean tray and keep warm by covering with a sheet of tin foil then rest for a few minutes, leaving the roasted vegetables in the tray for the gravy.
- For the gravy I make up 250ml of chicken stock, then deglaze roasting tray with a glass of white wine and reduce to a syrup stirring all the caramelised juices from the tray, add the stock and bring to boil, then pass through a fine sieve pushing all the juices from the vegetables into a clean sauce pan, bring to the simmer and thicken if required by whisking in a teaspoon of corn flour mixed with a little cold water and reduce till you reach a rich glossy gravy.
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