Pheasant
1 pheasant (a little more than 2 pounds)
500 ml of beer (Lachouffe Belgian beer)
500 ml of water (Wakefield spring water)
‘Bouquet garni’ of cedar, red clover, wintergreen and sage
100 grams of dried wild mushrooms
½ red onion, roughly chopped
2 cloves of garlic
4 ounces of maple syrup
1/4 cup each, ground cherries and gooseberries
Sea salt and cracked pepper

Wild mushroom and barley risotto
2 cups barley (approximately 4 cups cooked)
3/4 cup of wild rice (1 cup cooked)
100 grams of cooked wild mushrooms
200 ml of pheasant broth
200 ml 35-per-cent cream
2 tablespoons of unsalted butter
½ cup of fresh Parmesan
150 grams ‘Ciel de Charlevoix’ blue-vined cheese
Cracked pepper

Garnish (Optional)
4 Smoked mussels with shell
Sautéed fennel
Fresh blueberries
Chive olive oil (¼ bunch of chives, roughly chopped, ½ cup of olive oil in a blender for 1 minute at high speed)

Pre-heat oven to 375F.

Using a meat cleaver, cut the pheasant in half from the neck down. Place the pheasant in a Dutch oven or deep baking pan, add chopped onions, whole cloves of garlic, bouquet garni, dried wild mushrooms, beer and water (the pheasant should be covered by the liquid, if not, add more beer.)

Place it in oven and cook uncovered for 45 minutes. Take it out of the oven to add berries and maple syrup. Cover with a lid or tinfoil and let rest for ½ hour.

Remove pheasant from pot, pull the pheasant from the bones, add a little broth and set aside, covered. Use a small strainer to remove and put aside the mushrooms and berries separately, but make sure to keep all broth.

While the pheasant is in the oven, rinse and then boil the barley and wild rice, separately, approximately 45 minutes each. Once cooked and drained, take a large skillet and, on low heat, add the butter, barley and half of the broth (100ml), then simmer until absorbed, approximately 5 to 6 minutes, stirring frequently. Add the remaining broth until it is also completely absorbed.

Add half the cream (100 ml) and a half portion of both types of cheese, stir frequently until reduced and then repeat process with remaining cream and cheese (keep 4 teaspoons of blue-vined cheese for smoked mussels). Add cooked mushrooms, wild rice, mix all together, turn off heat and cover for about 5 minutes.

Using risotto or pasta plates that are oven-friendly, place in oven to heat before plating. Oven should still be on at 375F.

In a separate small pan, place your smoked mussels, add 2 to 3 fresh blueberries, a dash of chive oil and crumble one teaspoon of blue-vined cheese per mussel. Put your pulled pheasant back into oven at this point. Leave dishes and plates in oven for 5 minutes and then turn off oven.

Rinse the fennel under cold water, dry and then julienne the stocks. In a hot pan on medium-high heat, add chive olive oil and lightly sauté the fennel with a dash of pepper and salt for approximately 2 minutes, until golden on the edges, but leaving it with a nice crunch. Put aside.

Take the warm plates out of oven, put on a safe surface and equally divide the risotto into the four dishes, add the pulled pheasant meat to the risotto. Top the plates with one mussel each, garnished with the sautéed fennel and cooked berries.