[usr 5]
The first part of this recipe can be prepared several hours in advance.
In a bowl of lukewarm water, soak the prunes and currants.
Peel and thinly slice the shallots.
Prepare the bouquet garni.
Lift a thin orange peel 1 cm wide by 5 to 6 cm long.
Coarsely crush the black pepper (place it in a folded cloth and crush it with the bottom of a saucepan or a bottle). Set it aside on a large flat plate.
Detach the fillets and wings from the pheasant hens. Cut off the wing tips and remove all the skin. Detach the thighs from the carcasses and cut off the legs you discard. Coarsely chop the carcasses.
Put 10 tablespoons of peanut oil in a 4 liter saucepan. Heat, then add the carcasses and thighs. Stir well with the wooden spatula to color.
After about fifteen minutes, when everything is nicely colored, add the minced shallots, the bouquet garni and the orange peel.
Toss well, then sprinkle with a tablespoon of flour. Stir again.
Pour a bottle and a half of red wine, add a good pinch of salt and leave to boil for 5 minutes, after this time, if the bones are not completely covered with wine, add a little water.
Then cook over medium heat for 30 minutes. But, be careful, the boil must be moderate and without a lid; don't let it reduce too much. While cooking, peel the small dry Martin pears, keeping them whole and retaining the tail, put them in a 2-litre saucepan and cover them with the rest of the red wine. Put them to cook over medium heat, adding a little water if the wine does not completely cover them. After boiling for 30 minutes, add the drained prunes (but not the raisins) and cook for another 10 minutes. Then remove the pan from the heat, but leave the fruit in it.
If using Williams pears, peel, halve and remove seeds. Arrange them in the pan with the prunes, cover with wine and cook over medium heat for just 10 minutes.
Drain the currants.
When the 30 minutes of cooking the carcass and thighs have elapsed, pour the sauce through a fine strainer into a saucepan and put it to reduce until there is only 15 cl of liquid left.
Remove the supernatant film of fat and keep the sauce aside.
Collect the thighs, put them in a terrine and cover them with a little sauce. You can use them for another meal by reheating them and serving them with buttered pasta.
So you have kept aside:the sauce, the prunes and the pears in their cooking juices, the drained grapes and the crushed pepper on a plate.
35 minutes before the meal, salt the wings and fillets on both sides, and roll them in cracked pepper to coat them well.
Heat the pan with 2 tablespoons of butter. When it browns, add the wings and fillets, cook for 3 to 4 minutes, then flip and cook for 2 minutes on the other side.
Remove the wings and fillets, keep them warm on a plate, but do not turn off the heat under the pan. Throw in the currants, roll them well in the cooking butter and pour in 5 tablespoons of Cognac.
Flambé, add the sauce reduction that you had set aside previously and let bubble. Add the rest of the butter (about 70 g) cut into small pieces.
Stir with the wooden spatula until the butter is completely incorporated into the sauce. Taste, add salt if necessary and remove the sauce from the heat; but keep it warm.
When ready to serve, place the wings and fillets on hot plates with a prune and a drained pear, then top with the sauce.
If necessary, you can put the plates in the oven for 2 minutes before serving.
Source:Les Fêtes de mon Moulin by Roger Vergé
Merry Christmas
