Partridge stroganoff: Eat Wild chef’s 30-minute recipe for Game Week

If there is a brace of redlegs in the larder this week, Eat Wild’s Leon Challis-Davies has a job for them. Writing in Sporting Gun, the chef and Eat Wild board director has published a partridge stroganoff that takes six breasts, a pan of chestnut mushrooms and a pot of sour cream from the chopping board to the table in 30 minutes, served over pappardelle. It went live on Wednesday, 4 November, in the middle of Great British Game Week, which runs to 9 November, and it is the kind of weeknight supper that uses the birds a keeper, a beater or a Gun brings home without a day’s cooking.

What does Eat Wild’s chef say about cooking partridge?

Challis-Davies makes the case for the bird in a sentence. “Partridge’s delicate breast meat works really well with the mushrooms and creamy sauce in this stroganoff, so give it a go next time you bring home a brace or two,” he writes in Sporting Gun. The sharp ingredients are there on purpose: “Gherkins, capers and mustard add a sharp contrast, while parsley, chives and dill provide a fresh finish.” And the point that matters most with a lean gamebird is the timing: “Brown the meat quickly, then return it to the sauce towards the end of cooking to keep it tender.” The recipe is rated easy and serves four, with 10 minutes of preparation and 20 minutes of cooking.

What do you need for partridge stroganoff for four?

The partridge comes first: six skinless breasts, cut into 2cm strips, which is three birds. The rest, as Challis-Davies lists it in Sporting Gun, is 350g of pappardelle; 250g of chestnut mushrooms, halved; one large onion, thinly sliced; two garlic cloves, finely chopped; 2tbsp of gherkins or cornichons, finely diced, plus 1tbsp of their brine; 1tbsp of capers, drained; 150ml of sour cream or full-fat crème fraîche; 200ml of beef or game stock; 1tbsp of Dijon mustard and 1tsp of wholegrain mustard; 1tsp of sweet smoked paprika; 1tbsp of olive oil, 2tbsp of unsalted butter and 1tbsp of plain flour; salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste; and 2tbsp of chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley, 1tbsp of chopped fresh chives and 1tbsp of chopped fresh dill to finish. None of it is hard to find, and the stock can be game stock from the freezer if you keep it.

How do you cook the partridge stroganoff?

Paraphrasing the Sporting Gun method, start with the meat. Pat the strips dry with kitchen paper, season them with salt and pepper and dust them lightly with the flour. Heat the olive oil and half the butter in a large frying pan over a high heat and brown the partridge in batches, “for one to two minutes”, then lift it on to a plate. Melt the rest of the butter in the same pan over a medium heat, add the onion and mushrooms and cook for six to eight minutes until softened and golden, then stir in the garlic and paprika for one minute. Add the stock, both mustards and the gherkin brine, scraping up the browned bits from the bottom of the pan, bring to a gentle boil and simmer for three to four minutes until reduced by half.

While the sauce reduces, cook the pappardelle in a large pan of salted boiling water to the packet instructions, until al dente. Turn the heat down under the sauce and stir in the sour cream or crème fraîche, the gherkins and the capers, bringing it to a gentle simmer, “without boiling”, as Challis-Davies puts it, and stir in half the parsley, chives and dill. Then the bird goes back in. “Return the partridge and any juices to the pan,” he writes. “Stir gently and simmer for three to four minutes, or until the meat is cooked through.” Drain the pasta, divide it between four plates, spoon the stroganoff over, scatter the remaining herbs and serve straight away. For the reader who feeds a family on the bag, it is one frying pan, one pasta pan and half an hour, and it does not waste a bird.

Why is Eat Wild in the news this week?

Challis-Davies is a board director of Eat Wild, the sector body that promotes British wild game, and the recipe lands in a week the body has made its own. As Shooting Times reported today, Eat Wild has just put wild game dishes on the menu at 202 Fuller’s pubs and hotels, the biggest route to market it has yet opened, with Great British Game Week running to 9 November. For the shoot and the keeper, that is the larger point: every bird shot needs a market, and a sector body putting game in front of mainstream diners while its own director shows the home cook what to do with a brace is the demand side of the game chain being worked at both ends.

What happens next

Great British Game Week runs to 9 November, and the partridge season runs to 1 February, so the larder will keep filling. Challis-Davies’ full recipe is published in Sporting Gun and linked below, with ShootingUK’s own partridge recipes and today’s Fuller’s story alongside it.