Recipe: Pheasant schnitzel with honeyed hedgerow pickles

Bring your autumn walk to the table with this pheasant schnitzel with honeyed hedgerow pickles recipe

Ingredients (serves 4)

• 4 skinless pheasant breasts

• 4 tbsp plain flour

• 2 eggs

• 150g dried breadcrumbs

• 1 tbsp fresh thyme leaves

• 75g butter

For the hedgerow pickles:

• 250g runny honey

• 250ml cider vinegar

• 1 tsp sea salt

• 1 cinnamon stick, halved

• 6 cloves

• 6 cardamom pods

• 4 firm pears, peeled, cored and cut into wedges

• 250g crab apples, or 3 small apples, peeled and cut into wedges

• 150g blackberries, elderberries or a mixture

Method

1. The hedgerow pickles are best made at least two days before serving, though they’ll keep for weeks in the fridge after opening. Put the honey and vinegar in a saucepan with the salt, spices and 250ml of water. Stir over a medium heat to dissolve the honey and salt and then bring to the boil.

2. Boil for 5 minutes, then remove the spices with a slotted spoon. Add the pears and simmer for 15 minutes, then add the apples and simmer for a further 10 minutes or until just tender to the point of a knife. Add the blackberries or elderberries. When the liquid starts to boil again, remove the fruit from the liquid with a slotted spoon and pack into a large sterilised jar.

3. Boil the cooking liquor for 5 minutes, then pour it over the fruit and seal immediately with a sterilised lid. Store in a cool dark place until needed.

4. To make the schnitzel, put each pheasant breast between two sheets of clingfilm and bat into a thin escallop with a rolling pin. Remove the clingfilm and season the meat, then dust it with flour.

5. Beat the eggs lightly in one bowl and toss the breadcrumbs with the thyme leaves in another. Melt the butter in a small saucepan, then gently pour the clear yellow top layer into two large frying pans set over a medium heat. Discard the white milky layer left in the saucepan.

6. Dip the escallops in egg and coat in the breadcrumbs, then lower them gently into the frying pans. Cook for 2 minutes on each side or until golden brown, basting occasionally with butter from the pan. Remove the schnitzel with a slotted spoon and serve immediately with the hedgerow pickles on the side and some boiled, buttered new potatoes.

Find it in Hampshire

• Pheasant - Blackmoor Game, Alresford, 01420 563831; blackmoorgame.co.uk

• Honey - Becky’s Beezzzs, Andover, 01264 351104; beckysbeezzzs.co.uk• Apples and pears - Blackmoor Estate, Liss, 01420 476003; blackmoorestate.co.uk