Recipe - Sauteed Breast Of Pheasant With Wild Mushrooms

4 Pheasants, about 1 lb. each
Salt & freshly ground pepper
16 Thin asparagus
trimmed to 3inch tips
1 cup Kale (packed)
torn into 1inch pieces
1 lg Ripe tomato; peeled
6 tablespoon Butter
2 Shallots; finely chopped
1 Leek; white part only,
thinly cut or sliced up
2 lg Scallions; cut or sliced up
8 lg Shitake mushrooms
stems removed,
cut into 3/4inch wedges
1 cup Chicken or Poultry stock
One fourth cup Dry white wine

Disjoint the pheasants and reserve the legs for another use. Bone the
breasts and sprinkle lightly with salt and pepper. Reserve the bones,
gizzards and wings for making Poultry Stock.

Cook the asparagus for 3 minutes in boiling salted water and transfer to a
bowl of ice water. Cook the kale for 2 minutes and drain and chill it in
the ice water. Squeeze out the kale and drain both asparagus and kale on
paper towels.

Halve the tomato and scoop out and discard the pulp. Cut the shell into
thin strips and reserve.

Heat 2 tablespoons of the butter in a large skillet and add the pheasant
breasts, skin side down; cook 3 to 4 minutes more, just until golden but
still pink in the center. Transfer the breasts to a plate, cover loosely
with foil and keep warm.

Wipe the skillet and add 2 tablespoons of fresh butter. When it is hot,
add the shallots, leek, scallions and mushrooms and cook, partially
covered, for 3 minutes, stirring once or twice. Add the stock, wine and
salt and pepper to taste, and cook for about 5 minutes, until the mushrooms
are tender and the liquid is reduced by half.

Heat the remaining butter in a skillet. Add the asparagus and cook just to
warm through. Arrange them in a fan to one side of each of 4 warmed
plates. Add the kale to the skillet and stir to warm through and gloss
with the butter. Divide among the plates.

Cut the pheasant breasts into thin diagonal slices and place them on the
kale. Cover with some of the mushroom mixture.

Toss the tomato strips in the skillet for 30 seconds, just to take off the
chill, and arrange a few pieces on each of the plates.

Source: Freshfields West Cornwall, Connecticut
: American Bistro Contemporary Books, Inc. ISBN: 0809250470
Posted to MMRecipes Digest by valerie@nbnet.nb.ca (valerie) on Mar 30,
1998