Pheasant, Prune, brandy " Toad in the Hole "

Now I'm always rather wary of doing recipes based on "classic dishes" This recipe is I suppose based on Toad in the Hole, but bares absolutely no resemblance to the traditional recipe, albeit it does have meat baked in batter, there will be people, and I can here them now saying " why on earth is he doing this? Toad in the hole is what it is!"

Let me explain, I've a step daughter, a very opinionated step daughter, if she says she doesn't like it! She doesn't like it!, no ifs buts or maybes, my job as a doting step father, is to convince and cajole, that what I'm cooking and putting in front of her, isn't horrible or inedible, but is in fact extremely tasty!

So you have to come up with ways of making foods tasty, luckily she loves Yorkshire pudding so I have a start, enjoys sausage so another bonus, pheasant was going to be a problem, so with a little playing around, here's the recipe we came up with, you can try what ever combinations you like, pheasant, pigeon, partridge, chicken pancetta, Parma ham etc it's a great way to get people to try different flavours, it's also a fantastic way of glaming up the humble traditional dish

The recipe here is for a rather glamorous poshed up Toad in the Hole,

It'll serve 4 people easily and is a fantastic dinner party dish

SHOPPING LIST

2 pheasant breast

2 lambs kidneys

4 prunes soaked in brandy

4 Cumberland sausage ( or whatever flavour you like)

4 smoked streaky bacon rashers

FOR THE BATTER

150g plain flour

3 medium eggs

200ml milk

100ml water

Seasoning

FOR THE GRAVY

2 tins of game soup

1/2 bottle of red wine

METHOD

Firstly whisk together the milk, water flour and eggs and give it a good pinch of salt and pepper, you should have a batter with the consistency of single cream

Now make your gravy, tip the game soup into a pan, add the red wine and simmer until reduced to a gorgeous intensely flavoursome gravy, season to taste

Now for the meats, cut the pheasant breast into two, wrap each one in the streaky bacon rasher

Cut the kidneys in half and cut out the white fatty bits

Pour a good splash of oil into a roasting tray and place into a hot oven 220c

Once hot carefully place in the sausage and the pheasant and brown on all sides

Now add the kidneys and the brandy soaked prunes (these add a fantastic flavour burst)

Pour over the batter very carefully and place the tray into the oven for 20-25 minutes

The batter should be puffed up and golden brown

Serve immediately with the game gravy

I don't think this needs anything else! It's ridiculously over the top, but fantastically delicious