Three-Bird Wellington

35 minutes prep, 55 minutes cook

Serves 10

Ingredients

9 long slices of streaky bacon

3 skinned pheasant breasts

260g Cumberland sausage meat

90g dried apricots

20g pistachio nuts, shell removed

4 skinned pigeon breasts

4 skinned partridge breasts

1kg puff pastry

1 egg, beaten for egg wash

Method

Preheat the oven to 180°C/ Fan 160°C/Gas 4. Lay the bacon slices vertically on a large piece of Clingfilm, so that they overlap slightly. Starting from the edge of the bacon, lay the three pheasant breasts horizontally on top, again, overlapping |them slightly.

Divide the sausage meat in half. Put each half between two pieces of Clingfilm and roll out until they’re the size of the three breasts. Place the first piece of sausage meat onto the pheasant breasts and sprinkle with half the pistachios and apricots. Then, put the four pigeon breasts on top, followed by the second piece of sausage meat, and the rest of the pistachios and apricots. Finally, top everything off with the four partridge breasts.

Carefully roll everything up, wrapping the bacon around the breasts and sausage meat. Then, roll everything in Clingfilm, twist the ends to give you a long sausage-shaped joint and put in the fridge for 20 minutes.

On another piece of Clingfilm, roll out a piece of puff pastry to a 3mm to 4mm thickness. It must be long enough to cover the meat and overlap by 2cm underneath, and about 5cm wider. Brush a little water over the top end and along the edges to help it seal later. Take the meat out of the fridge, remove the Clingfilm and place it at that the bottom edge of the pastry. Roll the meat in the pastry until you meet the top edge. Tighten the roll and seal the dough on the sides by gripping the Clingfilm on each side and squeezing slightly. Remove the Clingfilm and pierce any air pockets to ensure the pastry is well set around joint. Lay the joint on a well-greased tray with the seal on the bottom and brush the top with egg wash.