Day seven-Jades Jammy pheasant-Dorset

These two beautiful pheasents were a gift from my Dorset cousin Stephen who occasionally gets to take part in a shoot on the estate where he is a shepherd. If you pay to go on this shoot it's about £40 a bird. Ridiculous I know but they were beautiful birds with no shot in them that we could find. Proabably becuase they have to shoot them really high here because of the Downs. We were very glad to have them and I felt I had to do them justise with this recipe of mine. The jam gives the meat a caramalised fruity coating which combined with the ginger and the pep of the pepper gives you a distinctively oriental taste. Think plum sauce and forget knives and forks this is sticky finger food to put a smile on your face....and sauce around your mouth.

Ingredients:
1 pot homemade jam (mine was some fantastic Damson jam from my Ashdown forest friend Katie)
1 pheasent
Chives 1 large handful
Dorset cider
Black pepper
Ginger 1 thumb sized piece or you could use ground ginger.



Spatchcock the pheasent by cutting along its backbone with a large knife. Turn the bird over and push down until it's flat-usually with a satifying crunch.

Lightly brown the skin side on the barbeque then turn over. This means that you don't have to over cook it later.

Tuck herbs along the V-down the sides of the legs and at the bottom of the breast. The herbs will infuse the meat and keep it moist. I like to use oniony herbs such as chives or wild garlic becuase this adds to the nod towards an oriental taste. Lemony herbs would work as well. If you have no herbs use finely sliced onion.

Cover the top of the pheasent with jam and add half the grated ginger or several good shakes of ground ginger. Season with lots of pepper.

Cover with a metal dish or saucepan. This allows the pheasent to start to cook through and also starts to caramalise the jam so it sticks to it when you turn it over.

Turn the pheasent over and add the nearly all rest of the jam, ginger, and pepper. Cover with the metal dish again. Use a skewer to prod the pheasent and check if there are any bloody juices coming out. This is time to bbq any veg you want to accompany it.Ours was from Fivepenny farm, Dorset.

When its cooked. Place it inside the metal dish on top of the BBQ and add a good slosh of cider then leave for about 4 minutes for the sauce to reduce. Take off the BBQ

Allow roughly 10 minutes for the meat to relax..or however long you can keep your hands off it. Then pull apart and serve with the liquor from the bowl.