Harissa smoked pheasant with pork belly recipe

Harissa is an aromatic paste made with chill and a mix of spices – making it a flavoursome choice for a meat rub, dip or sauce. The chilli in the paste contains around seven times more vitamin C than an orange, and has multiple talents: such as fighting sinus congestion, aiding digestion and helping to relieve migraines and muscle, joint and nerve pain, so if you’re suffering with winter illnesses, get cooking this dish pronto!

Ingredients

1 plucked and drawn (gutted) pheasant

1 pork belly

3tbsp brown sugar

2tbsp red wine vinegar

For the dry rub:

2tbsp cumin seeds

2tbsp fennel seeds

2tbsp coriander seeds (all seeds pre-toasted)

1tbsp sea salt

1tbsp dry chilli flakes

1tbsp black peppercorns

5tbsp smoked paprika

Method

Chuck all seasoning ingredients into a pestle and grind into a lovely rub for the pork belly. Take the skin off the pork belly and cut it for the dry rub to hold on to. Ideally leave overnight to soak in.

Oven roast the pork belly at 200°C for 20 minutes, then cover in foil and cook for another two hours at 160°C.

For the Harissa sauce:

2 chillis

1 pepper

1 red onion

1 garlic bulb

Set your oven to 180°C and leave the veggies overnight to roast slowly. Obviously it gets less hot as the coals and wood burn down overnight, so in a domestic fan oven it should only take 20 minutes at 200°C.

When these are ready, peel the skins and remove the seeds. Then put into a blender and add:

1 tsp toasted cumin seeds

1 tsp toasted coriander seeds

2 tbsp smoked paprika

For the pheasant dish: 

Marinate the pheasant in the Harrisa sauce for 8 hours (if you want a bit more of a kick to it).

We BBQ’d ours in the barrels but in a domestic oven you could roast it on a high temp at 220°C degrees until golden.

Then turn down to 180°C for about 20 minutes, take the pheasant out and let it rest for 5 minutes. Make a cut on the inside of the leg to check its done. The leg of the pheasant should be a bit pink inside with clear running juices.

Carve and mix with the cooked pork. Serve with roasted root vegetables.