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Servings: 4 to 6

Pheasant brine

½ cup salt

½ cup brown sugar

2 bay leaves

2 cloves garlic

¼ teaspoon thyme

4 cups (1 litre) water

4 cups (1 litre) ice or enough to bring total liquid up to 8 cups (2 litres)

Pheasant confit

1 pound (450 grams) pheasant legs

3 pounds (1.36 kilograms) duck fat

1 tablespoon canola oil

Pheasant rillette

½ tablespoon lemon zest

1 tablespoon chives

1 tablespoon shallot

Salt to taste

Crabapple juice

8 cups (2 litres) crabapples

1 cinnamon stick

4 cups (1 litre) water

Crabapple jelly

4 cups (1 litre) crabapple juice

1½ tablespoons lemon juice

2¼ cups sugar

1 pouch pectin

Method

PHEASANT RILLETTE

Make the brine for the pheasant by placing the salt, brown sugar, bay leaf, garlic, thyme and water in a pot and cooking over high heat. Bring ingredients to a boil to dissolve salt and sugar. Place the ice in a separate container. Pour the ingredients in the pot over the ice to melt. Make sure the total volume of the brine equals 2 litres. If it doesn’t, top up the liquid with cold water. Place the brine in the fridge to cool.

Clean all excess fat off the pheasant legs.

Save the fat in a separate container.

Making sure the brine is completely cold, place the cleaned pheasant legs in the brine. Cover with plastic wrap or a lid and place in the fridge. Brine the legs overnight for about 12 hours. Take the legs out of the brine and set aside. Dry them off as much as possible. Discard the brine.

Preheat the oven to 300 F. Put a medium-sized pot large enough to contain all pheasant legs and fat for braising over high heat. Pour the canola oil into the pot and wait for it to almost reach the smoking point. Place the pheasant legs into the pot, searing them on all sides. Once the legs have developed a brown colour, pour in the duck fat. Add the excess fat from cleaning the pheasant legs. Cover the pot with a lid or tin foil. Place in the oven and let braise for 3½ hours.

After the legs are confit, the meat should pull off the bone easily and be very tender. Leave the confit legs in the fat to cool.

While the legs are still warm but not hot, pull the meat off the bone and reserve. Discard the bones and save the fat.

Zest the lemon. Dice the shallot and chives and reserve.

Place all the confit pheasant in a mixing bowl. Using a stand mixer with the paddle attachment on medium speed, mix the confit. You can also use a potato masher to mix by hand. Slowly pour in some of the saved confit fat to make the mixture smooth and paste like. Add the chives, lemon and shallot and slightly season the mix with salt to taste. Mix the ingredients to make sure everything is combined. Scoop the rillette out of the mixing bowl and reserve.

CRABAPPLE JELLY

Cut apples into small pieces after removing the blossom and stem ends. Place the apple pieces along with the cinnamon stick in a medium-sized pot and place over medium-high heat. Add the water to the pot and bring to a boil. Simmer covered with a lid for 10 minutes. Transfer the ingredients into a blender, removing and discarding the cinnamon stick. Slightly pulse the mixture until blended. Place back in the pot and simmer again for another six minutes. Pour the mixture through a cheesecloth-covered strainer and into a large pot or bowl. Let sit until the juice stops dripping. Do not compress the apple mixture or the jelly will be cloudy.

Measure apple juice, lemon juice and sugar into a saucepan and mix well. Bring to a boil over high heat. Stir continuously. Add in the pectin while boiling and let cook for 1 minute. (Crabapples have natural pectin but the cooking time is reduced if you use commercial pectin and you are guaranteed a good set.) Remove from the heat. Skim off any foam. Pour the jelly into 4 250-mL (8 ounce) sterilized jars. Leave enough space from the top, about 6 mm. Wipe the rims clean and screw on lids. Place the jars in boiling water bath for about 10 minutes. Pull out the jars and tighten the lids slightly.

Serve the rillette and jelly with crostinis, crackers or your favourite bread.

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