Poached pheasant makes for a warming dish now the shooting season is underway. For more inspiration, take a look at our top 10 best pheasant recipes.

Here Philippa Davis shares one of her postcard recipe. Sign up on the Philippa Davis website to get every new postcard recipe sent straight to your inbox for free.

This week I am delighted to be back up in the magnificent highlands cooking for various grouse, partridge and pheasant shoots.

Pheasant season opens the 1st October and runs to the 1st February. From a chefs perspective I think now is the time you really want to get hold of them. Still young and tender from not too many flights, their meat is really delicious and can be treated like a decent chicken so great for roasting, frying and poaching. As the season goes on they still maintain their wonderfully distinct flavor but become more suited to slow cooking as they will need tenderizing.

This poached pheasant postcard recipe is based on the idea that poaching a tender piece of meat not only gives you a delicious supper but also has the excellent knock on effect of providing a tasty liquid you can then use in broths, soups / risottos / pasta dishes etc….

POACHED PHEASANT WITH GINGER, GARLIC, CHILLI AND LIME

Bring traditional game together with Far Eastern flavours in this dish.

This poached pheasant dish would be great as a restorative lunch broth or you could add noodles/ rice / vegetables / chopped green lettuce to make it more filling.

The sprinkling at the end of raw garlic, lime and coriander totally makes this dish, though is possibly not first date stuff unless you both go for it.

Makes about 4 bowls of broth.

• 1 whole pheasant plucked and cleaned
• 1/2 tbs cardamom pods
• 1 tbs caraway seeds
• 1 tbs fennel seeds
• 1 tbs coriander seeds
• 50g fresh ginger peeled and roughly chopped
• 1 large medium red chili – to taste
• 25g coriander

To serve

• The zest of 2 limes
• 2 finely chopped cloves of garlic
• 2 tbs finely chopped coriander

Give your pheasant a quick wash then place in a large saucepan with some roughly chopped red chili with seeds and membrane in tact (the amount depends on how hot you like it), the cardamom pods, caraway, fennel seeds, the spring onions ends and the ginger and some salt and pepper.

Fill with cold water to just cover the pheasant then place on a medium heat and bring to a simmer.

Cook for about 30 minutes – the pheasant should just be cooked the best place to check is inside the leg then leave with the heat turned off for ten mins.

Remove the pheasant and cover loosely with foil.

Strain the liquid into another pot then reduce by about a 1/3 then check for seasoning and chili heat. Add the rest of the spring onions finely chopped on an angle.

In a small bowl mix the lime zest, garlic and coriander.

To serve, slice the breasts and take the meat from the leg bones. On a low heat gently warm the meat in the stock.

Ladle some poached pheasant meat and liquid into your serving bowl and sprinkle with the garlic mix.