Serves 4

Ingredients

2 oven ready pheasant
50g demerara sugar
100g lard
20ml cider
2 cloves of garlic    
50g butter
2 bay leaves     
10ml sunflower oil
Sprig of thyme    
1 chopped shallot
2 eating apples    
50ml cider
100g cooked prunes    
25ml Calvados
50g butter     
250ml whipping cream

Method

Take the legs off the pheasants, put in a casserole dish with the lard, garlic, bay and thyme; cover and cook in a very slow oven 170c for 2 hours until cooked.

Cool, remove the meat from the legs and pulse gently in a food processor with some of the melted lard until forming into a ‘sloppy’ pate.  Season well and put into a bowl and refrigerate.

Peel and dice the apples; place in a non stick pan with the butter and sugar and sweat gently for 10 minutes until the apple is softening; add the prunes and cider and cook gently until the cider is reduced and the mixture goes to a ‘chutney’ consistency.

Remove the breasts from the pheasant; heat a frying pan with the butter and oil and sauté the pheasant breasts skin side down for 5 minutes; turn and cook slowly for 10 minutes until cooked; remove from pan, season with salt and keep warm. Add the shallot and cider and reduce by half; add the cream and reduce further; add the Calvados and season.

Put some compote on each plate with a breast; scoop a teaspoon of the rillette and place on each breast; drizzle some sauce on the plate and serve.

Courtesy of The Rose and Crown at Romaldkirk, County Durham