Cooking with Game: Partridge

Eric shot a partridge last November, and we finally ate it for dinner last night. It was scrumptious.

I just love partridge. It doesn’t taste at all gamey, and it’s so easy to prepare. We usually roast it. Here’s our fool-proof method, which Eric employed last night:

Season bird with salt and pepper. Rub skin with butter and place in a roasting pan with some ramps (wild leeks) and a splash of white wine. (We prefer the screw cap wines. Nothing but the best for us.) Bake at 400 for 35 minutes.

Interesting note about the partridge Eric cooked last night: When he cleaned it out, we saw that its last meal had been bittersweet.

I made a bulgar wheat salad to go with the partridge.  I tossed a cup of cooked bulgar with some olive oil, lemon juice, sliced grape tomatoes, diced yellow bell pepper, chopped red onion and feta cheese.  It was wicked good.

How do you like to prepare partridge?

Venison Sausage and Peppers over Parmesan Polenta

Tonight I cooked Eric’s venison sausage with onions and orange and yellow bell peppers for dinner.  I served the sausage and peppers over parmesan polenta. It was so yummy and satisfying!

Venison Sausage Links

Here we have the raw venison sausage links. The butcher in East Arlington, Riverside Custom Butchery, carved up Eric’s deer.

Cooking the Venison Sausage, Peppers and Onions

I find that bell peppers always take longer than onions to cook, so I added my sliced bell peppers to my frying pan first and sautéd those for a few minutes before I tossed in the onions. After a few more minutes, I placed the sausage links on the peppers and onions and covered the sauté pan with a lid so that everything steamed for a little while.  When the sausages were cooked on the outside, I removed the lid from the pan and seared the casings. I finished the sausage by slicing it and then crisping the slices in the frying pan.

Cooking the Polenta

Meanwhile, I boiled the polenta.  I used a recipe from the Everyday Food cookbook that calls for cooking 3/4 of a cup of polenta in four cups of water seasoned with salt and pepper.  I whisked a tablespoon of butter and some grated parmesan cheese into the polenta when it was finished.

Dinner Is Served

Not the greatest presentation, I admit, but the sausage, onions and peppers were sooo tasty!  The polenta would have benefitted from more cheese, but it was still good.