Pheasant and Pork Pâté

By corlear

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 lb belly pork, rind removed
• 1/2 lb pork fat
• 6-8 rashers unsmoked bacon
• 1 large pheasant
• 5 tesps sel-épicé
• 2 tblsp each brandy and white wine
• 2 oz pistachio nuts
• handful of celery leaves and parsley
• scrap of garlic
• freshly ground pepper

Details

Servings 6

Preparation

Step 1

Part-roast the pheasant as in the recipe for Basic Game Pâté. Remove the flesh as neatly as possible (use the scrappy bits for a pie and the meaty carcase for soup).

Mince the pork and half the fat finely; cut the other half of the fat into small cubes. Blanch the pistachio nuts and chop them roughly; chop the garlic, celery and parsley finely. Add the nuts, herbs, garlic, sel-épicé, pepper and alcohol to the pork and cubed fat, and mix these together thoroughly.

Season the pieces of pheasant and sprinkle a little extra brandy over them. Leave them and the forcemeat overnight in a cool place.

Next day, fry a small piece of the forecemeat to test for seasoning. Line a terrine with half the rashers, put in a layer of forcemeat and then a layer of pheasant pieces, continuing in this way until both are used up, finishing with a layer of forcemeat. Arrange the rest of the bacon over the top. Cook, in the usual way, at 350°F for about 2 hours. Weight it gently as it cools.

Store for a week in the winter.