Shooting Times & Country Magazine
PHEASANT HAGGIS
Inever stop challenging myself to think of new ways, or at least different ways, to use up game meat. I am very lucky because, even though I shoot a bit, I live in a place where game is often available for the asking from the local shoot. That is doubly handy as, this season, I can’t seem to find my backside with both hands, let alone a curling pheasant at 40 yards.
It’s a curious thing, the abundance of game at this time of year. It can lead to a sort of boredom with eating pheasant and it can certainly lead to a tendency to treat the birds with less thought and respect than is due.
I am an advocate of eating as much as is practical of any animal that has died to feed you and this takes us on to the sticky issue of offal.
As the season for pheasant progresses, the birds toughen up somewhat. This means we are better to leave them off the roasting list and add them to the ‘to do other things with’ list.
In my house, this often means that I don’t pluck the birds, I simply skin them, remove the breast and leg meat, separate the thighs from the drumsticks and bone them.
Rather neatly, this leaves me with: drumsticks and thigh bones for making stock; breasts for myriad uses — often they will get cold smoked and frozen for later use — boneless thighs for mincing, currying or stewing.
And you could be forgiven for thinking that’s pretty much it — but what of the delights within? A simple stroke of the knife along the keel bone from the bottom end towards the wishbone will reveal the glistening red and robust liver and heart, both of which can be simply plucked out without disturbing the more noisome innards. This will result in a small, but useful amount of pheasant offal.
If the liver has discoloured or been shot through, discard it. The same applies to the heart. But if they are both red, fresh and untainted, there is no reason to avoid them. In fact, they are delicious.
I often marinate the hearts in a little miso paste and water before grilling directly on a hot plate and serving with a soy dip and toasted sesame seeds. The livers often get the devilling treatment or find their way into pâtés and terrines — also delicious.
However, since moving to sunny Scotland last year, all things haggis have been on my radar more than before, so I wondered if it would be possible to make one purely from pheasant.
“Since moving to sunny Scotland last year, all things haggis have been on my radar”
The process and recipe on the following page is the result and I can tell you it works very well indeed. While it is by no means a traditional haggis, it is certainly a wonderful thing to do with late-season pheasant thighs and offal — especially when served up with a neep (swede) puree and a dram of the good stuff.