Hunting & Cooking: Pheasant Mushroom Soup

Last Saturday marked the start of my favorite hunting season: pheasant! When I decided to pursue hunting as a more impassioned hobby, I started with upland game. Much like gardeners feel about their annual harvest, I enjoy the mental and emotional benefits that come from harvesting my own meats; however, building up the mindset I needed to hunt took a lot of practice. I started with upland game birds and wild turkey. 

There is a lot to know about ethically harvesting animals. You need to develop proper pursuit techniques so you don’t disturb everything and everyone in the path to your target. Numerous hours of shooting practice is also necessary. You need to learn how to safely transport and fire each type of different firearm or other weapon, how to care for your hunting tools, and where safe and ethical shots are placed on all the different game you hunt. Finally, you have to learn how to properly care for and field dress your harvest. That all happens before you even make it home!

Pheasant hunting was a great starting place for me. I learned a lot about how to carry a shotgun safely and also how to have it ready for firing. Pheasant hunting usually happens in a group, so you develop a lot of awareness for your surroundings, including your fellow hunters, bystanders, your dogs, buildings, and other structures. Field dressing a pheasant is much easier to master than a big animal, so it’s a great place to start on learning proper processing and preservation skills.

The pheasant hunt runs the entire month of November and is a great way to spend a chilly day with your friends and family. This pheasant mushroom soup is also a great dish to come home to after a cold day of pushing brush and fields in pursuit of pheasant.

Ingredients

Pheasant Mushroom Soup Ingredients

• 3 cups mushroom stock, other other stock of your choice
• 1 pheasant, breast and legs, can still be on carcass
• 1 leek, sliced both white and green
• 2 tablespoons butter
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1 shallot, minced
• 3 carrots, diced
• 32 ounces mushrooms, stems removed and sliced—use a variety
• ¼ cup flour
• ½ cup Marsala wine
• 15 oz can coconut cream
• 1 tablespoon fresh minced rosemary
• Salt and pepper, to taste

Mushroom Stock Ingredients

• Stems from mushrooms set aside for soup
• 2 carrots, roughly chopped
• 2 celery stalks, roughly chopped
• 1 small onion, roughly chopped
• 1 bay leaf
• 4 cups water

Instructions

Mushroom Stock

1. In a medium saucepan, add the mushrooms, carrots, celery, onion, and bay leaf.
2. Sprinkle in teaspoon of salt.
3. Cover with water and bring to a boil.
4. Reduce heat to a simmer and let simmer down for thirty minutes.
5. Strain solids and reserve liquid.

Pheasant Mushroom Soup

1. Poach the pheasant in a large stock pot covered with water, about four cups, for one hour. Bring the water to a boil, cover the pot, and then reduce to low to simmer the pheasant. When finished poaching, shred the pheasant from the bone and set aside for the soup.
2. In a dutch oven or heavy bottomed pot, melt butter and olive oil over medium heat. Once butter is melted, add shallots and cook for two to three minutes.
3. Add leeks and carrots. Cook for two to three minutes.
4. Add mushrooms and cook down for ten minutes.
5. Once mushrooms are golden brown and carrots have started to soften, sprinkle in the flour and stir to coat.
6. Pour the Marsala wine into the pot and stir. Let cook for three to five minutes.
7. Slowly add the mushroom broth, stirring as you pour.
8. Add pheasant meat and let pot gently boil for twenty minutes.
9. Add the rosemary and coconut cream to the pot. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Let heat over medium low heat for ten minutes.
10. Serve up with crusty bread and enjoy!

Lindsey Bartosh, an eighth-generation Moab girl, loves hiking, hunting, fishing, cooking, writing, photography and working on her website www.huntingandcooking.com.