With due care and attention you can prevent the birds from drying (a problem often encountered with pheasant) and this braised cabbage with bacon and chestnuts is a fitting accompaniment for a winter dish.

Ingredients - serves 4 for stuffing: 2 Riverford pork & leek sausages, skinned 1 shallot, peeled & finely chopped 1 slice Riverford streaky bacon, chopped small 1 tbsp finely chopped sage & parsley 20g walnuts broken into small pieces for pheasant: 2 plump pheasants 4 rashers Riverford streaky smoked bacon 75g softened butter salt, pepper for cabbage: 1 savoy cabbage, trimmed, halved & finely shredded 4 rashers Riverford streaky bacon, cut into lardon & fried off 100g chestnuts, cooked & peeled 20g butter 250ml good chicken stock

Method

1 Preheat the oven to 200°C
Dry fry the bacon pieces until the fat is released then add the chopped shallot and cook for a couple of minutes until softened. Remove from the heat and mix together with sage, parsley, walnut pieces and sausage meat. Divide the mixture into two and push gently into the cavity of each bird, keeping it towards the opening and not deep inside.

2 Sit both the pheasant - with a little space between - on a large sheet of foil, rub each with softened butter all over the skin and season with salt and pepper, drape 2 rashers of bacon over the breast of each. Tent the foil around them but leave an opening for steam to escape. Sit the parcel in a roasting tin and surround the foil with a centimetre of boiling water to create a bain-marie. Roast for 20 minutes then open to baste with the butter. Continue for a further 30 - 40 minutes until they are cooked through (test at the thigh) - browning them by opening the foil fully for the final 15 minutes and basting again.

3 Rest the pheasant for 10 minutes in a warm place before carving - half a bird, plus stuffing, per person. Meanwhile melt butter in a saucepan, season and cook the cabbage for a couple of minutes before adding chestnuts, cooked lardon and stock. Cover and braise for 8-10 minutes until tender, stirring once. Add some of the buttery juices from the pheasant then divide between warmed plates to serve with half a pheasant each and leek & potato mash.