I'm not a pheasant plucker....

....I'm a pheasant cooker.

Yesterday I cooked a little pheasant I had in the freezer. I dusted it with flour and seasoned it and seared it first with a couple of rashers of smoked streaky bacon, I deglazed the pan with some red wine then it went in the slow cooker with leeks, celery, garlic clove, carrot, juniper berries, thyme and a bay leaf. Then I added some more red wine, vegetable stock, some lentils and a dollop of tomato puree. I parboiled some new potatoes then added them about an hour before the end of the cooking time (7 hours).

I've just taken the meat of the carcass ready to heat up for dinner tonight. It smells delicious and the sauce is rich and unctious.

So votes please -

A couple of hunks of crusty ciabatta bread to mop up that sauce as there's plenty of veg in it

Or - green beans

(I wouldn't be able to eat the bread AND the beans as it's quite a hefty portion)