Pheasant Groundnut Stew

Yesterday I planned for a true “bloggers” day to make pheasant groundnut stew. I heard about groundnut stew the week before and it sounded interesting. It is a staple meal from West Africa, but is popular in other parts of the world as well, and it usually contains peanut butter, hence the name “groundnut.” Most the recipes I looked at were for chicken, and this made me think that groundnut stew sounded like a great twist for a pheasant recipe.

The best part of ending a “bloggers” day is sitting down to actually eat the dish. The pheasant groundnut stew smelled amazing. The kitchen had a slight hint of almond butter and coriander in the air. I had taste tested the stew all day, and was really excited to share a bowl with my family. And then the phone rang.

My dad had shot a cow elk and needed help getting it to the truck. Dinner plans were changed, and I was a bit disappointed. I put away the bowls and spoons, found my boots and gloves, and went to the truck. In a last minute decision, I decided to pour some of the stew into a thermos and grabbed a few plastic spoons

The Cow elk

Two hours later we reached my dad. The ground was covered in several inches of snow, it was dark, and the temperature was quickly dropping to zero. I stepped out of the truck and gasped at how quickly the cold air hit my face and filled my lungs. This was definitely a new, and not necessarily good, experience in my books.

We hiked the relatively short distance up a snow covered hill to where my dad was cleaning the cow. I laughed out loud as he turned to greet us and his lengthy grey beard was dripping with long, dangling icicles.

“Oh my gosh! You must be freezing!” I said.

“Nope. I am not even cold, it’s crazy,” he replied.

He already had the elk quartered, so I grabbed a hind quarter, threw it over my shoulder, and headed back down the snowy slope to the truck. Usually hauling animals builds so much heat that I am wishing I could take my coat off, but packing out animals during January nights is a much different story. I could feel my feet and hands getting colder as I walked. This might have been a much shorter pack than I had done in the past, but it was definitely one of the harder ones.

A few trips later, and the cow was loaded in the truck bed. I let out a big sigh, stretched my arms above my head to create a little relief for my back, and looked upward. The sky was amazing. Standing out there in the pitch black night, no sounds or lights around, and just looking up was breathtaking. The stars were huge. And so bright.

“Soup! Let’s have soup,” I said.

And so we stood in the cold snow, under that beautiful sky, eating pheasant groundnut stew from a thermos. Now that was a good bowl of soup.

The wonderful thing about egg rolls is you can add basically anything you like and create a fun little bite with the flavor of practically an entire mine.  I kept things pretty traditional and simple for this dove egg roll: cabbage, carrots, green onions, and water chestnut. I even made it easy on myself by purchasing the pre-shredded cabbage and carrot mixture used to make coleslaw.

the recipe for pheasant groundnut stew

Well, let’s go over how to make this stew! Pre-heat a heavy bottomed soup pot over medium high heat, and add in a few tablespoons of your favorite cooking oil. I generally like to use olive oil for browning meat, but I actually used avocado oil this time. It worked great.

Pat dry the pheasant. I used an entire bird for this pot of stew. I actually just skinned the bird and left it on the bones to cook. When slow cooking meat like for this stew the bones will add flavor to the base of the stew, but if you already removed the meat from the bones you can still use that meat. Separate the bird into four quarters, salt and pepper, and add the meat to the hot oil for browning. Cook the pheasant in small batches so the oil will stay hot. Brown each side three to four minutes, then flip and do the other. Set the pheasant aside, but leave the drippings in the pot to create even more flavor for the stew.

Reduce the heat to medium and add one large diced onion. Cook for three to four minutes, and then add five cloves of chopped garlic. Cook an additional two minutes. To the onions and garlic, stir in two tablespoons tomato paste, a tablespoon of coriander, a teaspoon of ground ginger, and a teaspoon of mace. Also add a half teaspoon of ground cayenne. I started with a half teaspoon of the cayenne and then added more at the end, adjusting it to my personal heat level preference, which is fairly hot. A half teaspoon is a nice mild heat and a great place to start.

Also add a can of crushed roasted tomatoes and a quart of stock. I have this weird quirk where it bothers me to add chicken stock to pheasant or turkey recipes. If you aren’t weird like me, chicken stock works great for this recipe. If you are weird like me, I added a quart of vegetable stock. I usually like to do pheasant stock with my pheasant meals, but I didn’t have any on hand so vegetable it was. You could also add water, but you won’t have quite the flavor profile from water.

Bring the pot to a rolling boil for a minute, reduce, the heat to a simmer, and add back in the whole pieces of browned pheasant. Cover the pot and allow to cook for 90 minutes. At the 90 minute mark, check to see if the pheasant is tender and falling off the bone. If not, cook until it is.

Pull the pheasant from the pot and shred the meat. Add the pheasant, a half cup of almond butter, and the okra to the pot. Cover and cook for an additional ten minutes. If you so desire you can serve this over rice, but it is thick and tasty enough to eat without.

So, that is how you whip up this pheasant groundnut stew. It is a very savory dish with definite comfort food highlights. The almond butter adds a silky texture to the stew, the okra is refreshing and pairs great against the tomatoes. And of course the pheasant is tender and delicious! Enjoy!

Happy Hunting!