Pheasant Leg Meat Three Ways and Devilled Duck Egg Summer Salad

Pheasant leg meat three ways salad

In this second recipe featuring the batch of pheasant legs I slow cooked in the previous post, I have opted to serve the meat three very different ways. I hope you like the colourful presentation and the simple but tasty ideas I have come up with to enjoy this tasty wild game to the full.

Cook Time (not including Pheasant Legs)

Prep time: 20 min

Cook time: 10 min

Ready in: 30 min

Yields: 1 serving

Ingredients

• 1 small white onion, peeled and finely diced
• 1 tablespoon tomato ketchup
• 2 teaspoons mint sauce (1 for spiced onions and 1 for cucumber log)
• 1 teaspoon runny honey
• Juice of half a lemon
• 1/2 teaspoon ground fenugreek
• 1/4 teaspoon hot chilli powder
• Salt and pepper
• 1 duck egg, around 10 days old (fresher duck eggs do not hard boil at all well)
• 2 medium tomatoes
• 4 tablespoons pheasant leg meat (small pieces, cooked as in Pheasant Leg Meat Doner Kebab recipe post)
• 2 tablespoons grated/shredded cheddar or similar hard cheese
• 2 inch (5cm) piece cucumber (English cucumber, US)
• 1/4 teaspoon Dijon mustard
• Generous pinch dried dill
• 6 to 8 baby spinach leaves
• Generous handful pea shoots (or similar green leaves)

Diced onions are added to spiced tomato paste

Method

The spiced onions should ideally be prepared a couple of hours in advance or even the night before, just to let the flavours infuse, but this is not essential. Start by combining the tomato ketchup, 1 teaspoon of the mint sauce, honey, lemon juice, chilli powder and ground fenugreek in a large glass bowl. Season with a little salt and pepper and stir in the chopped onions, ensuring even coating. Cover and refrigerate until required.

Put the duck egg in to a pot of cold water and the pot on to a high heat until the water starts to boil. Reduce the heat to achieve a moderate simmer and continue to cook in this way for precisely 6 minutes.

Halved and seeded tomatoes

Put your kitchen grill/broiler on to preheat to its highest setting.

Cut the tomatoes in half around the central circumference by making cuts at alternate 45-degree angles, all the way around and through to the core. The halves should fairly easily pull apart at the end of this process. A teaspoon can then be used to carefully scoop out and discard the seeds before the insides are patted dry with a wad of kitchen paper.

Pheasant meat and cheese

Add 2 tablespoons of the pheasant leg meat and the cheese to a bowl and season with black pepper. Use your fingers to lightly mix and combine.

Tomato halves filled with pheasant meat and cheese

You can use a teaspoon but I find it easier to use my fingers to fill the tomato halves with the cheese and pheasant leg meat combination. You can press down lightly to fully fill but don't compact too much or the cheese won't melt as it should. Lay the tomato halves on a suitable tray and place under the heat for a couple of minutes until the top of the cheese is melted and lightly golden. Sit aside to cool.

Lift the pot containing the duck egg to your sink and run cold water into it for a couple of minutes to help cool the duck egg quickly. Leave it sitting in the cold water while you continue your preparations. 

Pheasant leg meat and mint sauce

Add 1 of the remaining tablespoons of pheasant leg meat to a clean bowl along with the second teaspoon of mint sauce. Stir gently but well.

Cucumber and minted pheasant leg meat logs

Cut the cucumber piece in half down through the core. Use a teaspoon to scrape out and discard the seeds. Carefully fill the resulting groove with the pheasant and cucumber mix.

Pheasant leg meat and spiced onions

Put the final tablespoon of pheasant meat into a bowl along with a tablespoon of the spiced onions. Mix well. The remaining onions will keep in your fridge in a suitable container for several days.

Arrange the spinach leaves around the inner edge of a small ramekin and fill with the pheasant and spiced onion combination.

Removing yolk from duck egg halves

Crack the shell of the duck egg all over against a hard surface and carefully peel. Cut the egg in half down through the yolk and carefully scoop the yolk halves out of the white with a teaspoon and add to a small bowl.

Duck egg yolk, mustard and dill

Add the Dijon mustard and pinch of dill to the egg yolk before mixing well together with the back of a teaspoon. Carefully spoon half the mix into the empty cavity in each of the two egg white halves.

Plating up pheasant three ways salad

Arrange the pea shoots in the bottom of a deep serving plate and sit the ramekin of the spicy pheasant and onion mix in the centre. Lay a tomato half at each of the main points of the compass.

Arrange the cucumber logs in opposite gaps on the plate and the duck egg halves in the remaining two and serve.