Pheasant breasts braised in cider

Another purchase from Newhouse Game at Winchester Farmers Market: 4 pheasant breasts. Again, what to do with them?

I found 2 recipes that sounded appealing. This is one and the following recipe the other.

I had some apple cider opened. It made sense to use it.

This recipe is from BBC Food website and it is very tasty but I made a few changes: the pheasant needs less cooking time (it was too dry) and the sauce needs less flour (it was too thick).

Serves: 2 persons.

Ingredients:

• 2 pheasant breasts
• 2 bacon rashers
• 250ml cider
• 2 shallots, finely chopped
• knob of butter
• 1 tsp caster sugar
• 1 tbsp plain flour
• 3 tbsp crème fraîche

Method:

1. Butter the pheasant breasts and then wrap in the bacon. I'm not quite sure they need butter...
   
   
   
   
   
   
2. Place in an ovenproof dish and then pop in the oven for 25 min at 200°C. I buttered the bottom of the dish as well as I was worried they might stick.
   
   
   
3. After 25 min reduce the oven temperature to 170°C, pour 250 ml cider over the pheasant breasts, cover with a lid or tin foil, and return to the oven for another 30 min. The recipe called for 60 min but it proved to be too much.
   
   
   
   
   
   
4. Once the meat is cooked, pour some of the cider over the meat to moisten it and reserve the meat.
5. Pour the cider with the cooking juices into a saucepan and cook until the volume of liquid has reduced by about half.
   
   
   
6. Fry the shallots very slowly in a little butter until soft. 
   
   
   
   
   
   
7. Then add the sugar and continue to cook until lightly caramelised.
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
8. Add the flour and mix over a gentle heat.
   
   
   
   
   
   
9. Add the cider reduction and the crème fraîche and cook together over a low heat until the sauce starts to thicken. Not as thick as mine but my problem was too much flour.
   
   
   
   
   
   
10. Slice each breast into about 5 slices and place on the plate still in the shape of the whole breast. Pour the sauce over the meat and serve. My sauce was too thick so it didn't look good over the meat, it looked better under the meat!