Eat Wild's Pot Roast Partridge

This delicious whole roasted partridge crown with celeriac purée and braised cabbage is a real winter warmer and has kindly been shared with us by Eat Wild.

Serves: 2
Prep Time: 35 mins
Cook Time: 2 hrs

Ingredients:

• 1x Whole partridge crown
• 1x Whole garlic, cut into halves
• 1x Celeriac
• 1x Savoy cabbage
• 100g Chorizo
• 250g Butter
• 100g Cream
• 100ml Chicken stock
• 50g Redcurrant Jelly
• Few sprigs of thyme

Equipment:

• Blender or food processor
• Large, lidded saucepan
• Oven-proof pan

Method:

1. Start with the cabbage, it needs a while to cook. Set the stem of the cabbage aside and then finely slice the rest.
2. Chop the chorizo into small pieces and sauté in a large lidded saucepan. Add the sliced cabbage, chicken stock and redcurrant jelly, cover with the lid and leave to cook down on a very low heat for 2 hours. The longer it has to braise, the better.
3. While the cabbage is cooking, start preparing the celeriac purée. This earthy root vegetable also benefits from a long, slow cook and a little milk or cream - but you don't need to add anything else.
4. Chop off the top and tail of the celeriac, then peel carefully around the sides. Dice the celeriac as small as you can, add to a pan with 50g of butter, and cook on a low heat for about 10 minutes to allow it to caramelise. Leave this and the cabbage to cook while you work on the partridge crown.
5. Set the oven to 160°C and leave it to warm up. Add a little oil to an oven-proof pan and, when hot, sear each side of the crown.
6. Add 200g of butter, the garlic halves, and 4 sprigs of thyme to the pan. Season with a touch of salt then move the whole thing to the pre-heated oven. Set to bake for 25 minutes.
7. One the crown is in the oven, check on the celeriac. When it is soft, add the cream, stir, and leave the mixture to reduce by half. If you accidentally reduce it too much, just add a little water to get the consistency right.
8. Next, blitz the whole thing in a blender or food processor until smooth.
9. As soon as everything is ready, place a large spoonful of braised cabbage in the centre of the serving plate and sit the roasted bird on top. Finish by garnishing with some celeriac purée.