Tag Archives: peanut oil

Asian, Game, Rice

Crispy Orange-Ginger Coconut Pheasant

Leave a comment

I’m using coconut two ways in this dish, coconut flour to bread the pheasant chunks, and coconut milk to cook the rice. You could make the same dish with chicken or turkey or pork cut in strips, but as I have said before, I have a freezer full of pheasant and grouse to cook. This is the last week of grouse season, so I will be getting a chance to catch up before next season.

I’m going to bread the pheasant as I would do any breading—flour, egg wash, then the final breading, which is often bread crumbs or panko, but today will be a second coating of coconut flour. After breading, I’m frying them in peanut oil. Coconut flour makes a softer breading than regular wheat flour, but I’m calling it crispy, anyway. You could make the same recipe using all-purpose white flour.

This recipe turned out very well and will become a regular on the menu. I’m still searching for the perfect pheasant (or grouse) recipe, though, and am thinking a meatball is probably next in the works.

Pheasant breasts cut in chunks
Breading process
Breaded chunks
Fried until brown
With sauce

Crispy Orange-Ginger Coconut Pheasant with Coconut Rice

  • Servings: 4-6
  • Difficulty: easy
  • Print

Preheat oven to 375°

Baked Coconut Rice

1 cup brown Jasmine rice

1 1/2 cups chicken or vegetable broth

1 cup coconut milk, shaken before opening can (save the rest for the breading liquid)

1 teaspoon olive oil or butter

salt & pepper

  1. Place the rice in a 2 quart baking dish.
  2. Combine the broth, coconut milk, and oil or butter. Bring to a boil.
  3. Pour the liquid over the rice and cover the dish with foil. Bake for 1 hour.

Crispy Orange-Ginger Coconut Pheasant

6 boneless, skinless pheasant breasts, cut in large chunks (use fewer if using large chicken breasts)

3-4 cups coconut flour

2-3 eggs

1/2-1 cup coconut milk (from the same can used for the rice)

Peanut or vegetable oil to make a depth of at least one inch in a large frying pan with straight sides

Orange-Ginger Sauce

1 1/4 cups orange juice

1/4 cup soy sauce

1 tablespoon olive oil

3 tablespoons ginger, grated

3 large garlic cloves, grated

1 tablespoon rice vinegar

2 tablespoons brown sugar

1/2 teaspoon sesame oil

1 tablespoon cornstarch and 1/4 cup water for thickening

toasted sesame seeds and chopped green onions for garnish

Prepare the sauce and set aside, keeping warm:

  1. Heat olive oil in small saucepan and lightly sauté the garlic and ginger until fragrant, but not browned.
  2. Add the rest of the ingredients, except the thickener and sesame seeds. Bring to a boil and simmer for 5 minutes.
  3. Stir in cornstarch/water mixture and continue cooking until translucent and thickened.

Prepare pheasant:

  1. Heat oil in pan over high heat to a temperature of 350°
  2. Set up breading ingredients in 3 containers, one for the first dredging, one with the egg wash, and one for the final coating of flour.
  3. Dredge pheasant chunks in flour. For the first coating, I shake them in a sealed plastic bag.
  4. A few at a time, coat  floured chunks in egg wash made from whisked eggs and coconut milk.
  5. Remove pieces from the egg wash with a fork, placing them in a bowl of the rest of the coconut flour, tossing to coat. This coating makes little clumps of egg and flour that make an interesting texture on the meat, similar to a buttermilk breading.
  6. Continue until all pieces are breaded.
  7. Fry chunks in hot oil, placing them in your pan so that they do not touch. I got about 8-9 pieces in my pan at a time. Turn them when they are browned to brown the other side, about 5 minutes total. Remove to paper towel lined plate while you cook the rest.

Mix fried pheasant chunks with orange-ginger sauce and garnish with sesame seeds and chopped green onions. Serve with rice.

Asian, Tips

Reheating Yesterday’s Egg Rolls

1 Comment

Egg Rolls get kind of soggy in the refrigerator, but I’ve reheated them in the microwave and eaten them. You just don’t get the crunch of the baked or fried original; it’s more like a noodle surrounding the filling. To get some of the crunch back, without burning them, you need to do two things: (1) a quick reheat in the microwave to get the filling warmed up, and (2) put them in a hot oven to shock the egg roll wrapper back into life.

Reheating Egg Rolls

  • Difficulty: easy
  • Print

Preheat oven to 425°

  1. Spray or brush baking sheet with some kind of cooking oil; peanut oil is nice for this. I lined my baking sheet with non-stick foil, as well.
  2. Place egg rolls in microwave on a plate or in its storage dish and microwave at a low level, if your microwave has levels, for one or two minutes. The time will depend to some extent on the number of egg rolls. You’re just trying to warm them a bit on the inside; the bottom of the plate should be slightly warm to the touch when done.
  3. Place warmed egg rolls on baking sheet and spray or brush with a little cooking oil.
  4. Bake for 5 minutes, then turn and bake for 5 more minutes. Mine didn’t burn, but check sooner, if concerned.

All these steps might need adjusting, according to whether your egg rolls had been fried or baked, and on how soft they became in the refrigerator.

Asian, Game, Meat

Pheasant Stir Fry

Leave a comment

Time to start in on that mountain of pheasant breasts in the freezer.

I’m always suckered into a stir fry, because it has that reputation of being something whipped up quickly in one pan on high heat. The truth is that it takes a lot of prep, from slicing and dicing all the vegetables and meat, to measuring out the sauce ingredients so they are ready to throw in quickly, to time for marinating, if that’s part of your dish. It’s the recipe that looks good on TV where the chef has minions setting everything up in advance so it can be thrown together in three minutes.

I tried to keep the prep down in this recipe by using only a few main ingredients—pheasant, shiitake mushrooms, and snow peas—and I marinated the pheasant, which gave me the time to mix the sauce ingredients. It turned out well, although my choice of pan didn’t allow the pheasant to brown as I would have liked. I should have used my regular stainless steel cookware, but I gave a large non-stick pan a chance and it just didn’t want to brown anything. Oh well, it only affected the photos.

Browning the pheasant
Quick frying the vegetables
Mixing all with sauce
With wild rice blend

Pheasant Stir Fry

  • Servings: 4-6
  • Difficulty: easy
  • Print

Marinate sliced pheasant breasts for 15-30 minutes:

8 boneless, skinless pheasant breasts, sliced in 1/4 inch strips (if using chicken, 4 breasts would be plenty)

1/4 cup orange juice

1 teaspoon cornstarch

Grate and set aside to cook with meat:

2 tablespoons fresh ginger

2 large cloves garlic

Prepare sauce and set aside:

1/4 cup orange juice

1/2 cup chicken stock

4 tablespoons hoisin sauce

2 tablespoons soy sauce

3 teaspoons cornstarch

1/4 teaspoon salt

Prepare vegetables:

3/4-1 lb snow peas, cleaned and trimmed

1/2 lb shiitake mushrooms, cleaned and sliced thinly

1/2 cup chicken stock

Peanut or vegetable oil for frying

  1. When all the ingredients are prepared, heat a large saute pan or wok over high heat until very hot. Add 2-3 tablespoons peanut or vegetable oil.
  2. Add snow peas and mushrooms stirring quickly to prevent sticking. Add 1/4 cup of the chicken stock, stirring until it evaporates, then add the other 1/4 cup and let it evaporate. Remove the vegetables to a plate, leaving the heat on under the pan.
  3. Add the marinated meat to the pan, with more oil if necessary, stirring to prevent sticking. You can cook the meat in stages if you have a lot to cook, removing it to a plate to cook the rest.
  4. Add the ginger and garlic to the pan as the meat is cooking.
  5. When the meat is done, which should only take 2-3 minutes, return the vegetables to the pan and toss with the sauce mixture until it is thickened and glossy.

Serve with rice.