Game On!

Cornish Game Hen with Orange Sauce and Wild Rice with Cranberries and Pecans.

 I had a built in "family" when I moved to England in 1984. I went to college with Charles, whose family are farmers in Yorkshire. I had spent time with them when I'd traveled around Europe after college. I'd met Simon, Charles's cousin when I lived in San Francisco. So on weekends, I'd travel up to North Yorkshire for shooting parties. Those were great times, usually about 12 or more of us would stay in the house, with its dozen bedrooms.The guys would shoot game during the day and the girls would accompany the guys. In the evening, we'd have drinks in the drawing room, then supper in the dining room that seated 22. Later, we'd play parlor games. It was a magical, 1940's PBS drama, kind of time. On quieter weekends, Simon would take me out in the Land Rover to inspect the grounds and go "bunny hunting". While it sounds barbaric, rabbits are a nuisance to farmers and needed to be controlled. Simon taught me how to shoot a shotgun and a rifle and the difference between them. Although both the rabbit and game population were completely safe from me, I did learn to love the taste of game. My flatmates in London, were all barristers. Perry, whose family owned our flat, was the son of a lord. When Perry would return from his own shooting weekends on his estate, he'd bring back a few brace of pheasant for us. Before we could eat them, he would hang them in our garage until they were properly "gamey". If I recall correctly, a week or so, was about right. When it was time to actually prepare them, Perry would have to pluck and remove the shot from the birds. This is not generally a popular job, but since I knew I probably wouldn't have many opportunities to learn how to prepare a game bird, I offered to help him. I remember sitting on stools in the garage, plucking pheasant feathers onto newspaper and chatting about life. 
I prepared a couple of pheasant for a dinner party one evening using a recipe I had clipped out of the London Times which called for marinating the birds in strawberries for a couple of days. I think game goes really well with fruit, so I've developed my own easier recipe, using oranges and the crock pot for Cornish Game Hens, which is pretty much the only "game" bird you can get outside of England unless you have friends in game bird country. If you do ever get to eat real wild game, it is not unusual to get some shot in your meat, and completely appropriate to set said shot on your dinner plate.
Cornish Game Hens With Orange Sauce
I used 2 hens for my family of four. I also made them in the crock pot, which made them extra easy!
Zest and juice of one orange
4 tablespoons soy sauce
1 clove of garlic, minced
2 tablespoons of honey
1 tablespoon of brown sugar
1/2 tsp. kosher salt
2 tablespoons butter
1 tablespoons Grand Mariner

1. Mix all the above ingredients together and put in a crock pot.
2. Split the birds down the back and flatten them out and put in crock pot.
3. Cook on high for about 3 hours.
4. Remove birds from crock pot and strain the juices.
5. Heat the remaining juice/marinade over a medium heat until reduced by half and slightly thicker. Remove from heat.
6. Finish sauce by whisking in 3-4 tablespoons butter and 1 tablespoon of Grand Mariner.
7. Finish birds by browning skin under broiler for a couple of minutes until the skin in golden brown.
8. Spoon some sauce over each bird.

Serve with:
Brown And Wild Rice With Cranberries And Pecans
1/4 cup wild rice (Trader Joe's)
3/4 cup brown rice
2 tablespoons butter
1 shallot, minced
1 clove of garlic, minced
2 cans chicken broth
1/3 cup dried cranberries (I like the nice, plump dried cranberries from Trader Joe's)
1/3 cup coarsely chopped, toasted pecans
Kosher salt and pepper

1. Saute shallots in butter over  medium heat for a couple of minutes. Add wild rice and saute another couple of minutes.
2. Add garlic, continue cooking another minute.
3. Add broth, bring to boil. Cover and reduce heat to low.
4. Cook about 35 minutes or until nearly all broth has been absorbed.
5. Add cranberries and pecans, and finish cooking another 5 minutes or so or until rice is fluffy. Turn off heat and cover.