The Willoughton Wanderer

Although currently out-of-season we had a couple of pheasant breasts in the freezer so I thought I would put them to good use in this salad. Chicken would work equally well, especially the flavourful thighs.

The pomegranate salad is loosely based on one devised by Sabrina Ghayour which I saw recently on Saturday Kitchen Best bites. So loosely in fact that only the pomegranate molasses and bread are used but it gave me the inspiration to devise my own. It can be made in advance, even the night before. Thank you Sabrina!

Ingredients: Serves 2, preparation time 1 hour 10 minutes if you include the resting time for the salad

For the pan-fried pheasant:

2 pheasant breasts

Salt and pepper for seasoning

2 tablespoons olive oil

50g cubed butter at room temperature

For the salad:

75ml pomegranate molasses

25ml sweet chilli dipping sauce

2 teaspoons rose harissa

1 tablespoon tomato puree

2 tablespoons olive oil

Half a stick of celery, halved lengthways and diced

Half a green bell pepper, sliced and diced

2 slices of day-old Cob loaf (or sourdough perhaps), cut into cubes, any artisan loaf will do – avoid sliced!

1 teaspoon white poppy seeds

A small handful of chopped parsley

Recipe:

In a largeish bowl add the olive oil, pomegranate molasses, sweet chilli dipping sauce, tomato puree and harissa and combine. Then add the celery and peppers together with the poppy seeds and again mix well.

Add the cubes of bread and chopped parsley and stir in gently so as to not break up the bread. Cover and let infuse and unctuate (is that even a word?) for at least an hour.

Season the pheasant breasts (or chicken thighs) well with salt and pepper. In a medium sized frying pan heat the oil and add the cubed butter. Once foaming add the pheasant and gently brown equally for a few minutes on each side. Make sure you cook the breasts through but don’t overcook them as they can become tough. Slice in half and if you’re happy put them to one side to rest for the same amount of time as you pan-fried them.

In the meantime spoon out the salad onto two plates, slice the pheasant and add to the plate.

Enjoy!

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