On Dec 1, 2:45*am, "Champagne Socialist"
> wrote:
> "Bi!!" *wrote .....................
>
> > For starters I pulled out some pheasant I had shot and smoked last weekend
> > and served it on a crostini spread with left over D'Artagnan foie gras
> > mousse with truffles and a small doppop of cranberry pepper relish..wow..
>
> William, slightly off topic, but may I inquire, what species/variety of
> pheasant do you have in that area?
>
> I would surmise, that like here in NZ, pheasant is an introduced species
> (from Asia)?
>
> Here, in northern NZ, the "Ring-necked pheasant" is seen in the wild today,
> but, this is acknowledges as being a hybrid of three breeds – Blacknecks,
> Chinese Ringnecks and Mongolian pheasants.
>
> While they do bred in the wild, many thousands are bred each year, and
> released as game for shooting.
>
> You also wrote....
> > Our neighbors brought over a lobster mac and cheese casserole made with a
> > couple of butter poached lobsters, white cheddar and gruyere.
>
> Could you kindly elaborate for me *- *"butter poached" - "casserole with
> white cheddar and Gruyère"?
>
> (I understand "poached" in a liquid like wine or stock etc, but butter?)
>
> I am sorry, all I can envisage is straight out of Monty Python ("Lobster
> Thermidor aux crevettes with a Mornay sauce, served in a Provençale manner
> with shallots and aubergines, garnished with truffle pate, brandy and a
> fried egg on top and Spam")
>
> Yours in antipodean ignorance
>
> AB

Love the Mony Python reference. The Pheasants were introduced from
Asia in the mid 19th century and have been interbred with modern pen-
raised varieties over the past 50 years so we have mainly hybrid stock
of birds that appear to be mostly Mongolian ringnecks although in our
area we have a fairly strong strain of melanastic birds that locally
are called black pheasants. The birds are wild and we haven't
released birds for over 30 years. The lobster mac and cheese is just
a fancy version of macaroni and cheese. We blanch the lobsters
(Maine) in boiling water for a minute, pick all the meat off the
bodies (the meat is still quite raw) then gently poach for about 5
minutes in an emulsion of butter and water. I start with a few
tablespoons of boiling water and slowly whisk in chips of cold butter
forming an emuslion and continue adding chips of cold butter until I
have about 1 stick of butter emulsified. I then gently poach the
lobster meat until just translucent. This leaves the lobster moist
and tender. I then add the cut up lobster to a mixture of cooked
elbow macaroni and a cheese sauce made of Gruyere and white cheddar.
This is all placed into a buttered casserole dish and topped with
buttered panko bread crumbs and baked until hot and bubbly and the
panko is browned. I use the poaching butter in the cheese sauce.
Yummy with Chardonnay. There are a number of reciepes for butter
poached lobster online via Google.