You should use: a cast iron or terracotta pot. A flame breaker.

When cooking a game, it is necessary to marinade the meat for at least 12 hours. In this case we will use a bottle of white dry wine, laurel, pink pepper, 2 whole tangerines. If you’ve got a game to clean do it at least 2 days before, wash it very carefully.

Then cut the pheasant into 2 or 4 parts, as you prefer and put them in a bowl. Add the wine, the aromatic herbs and put it in the fridge or in a cool place for at least 12 hours. At this point, you can start your recipe.

Put the cut fruit together with a glass of rum and a squeezed orange and live it there till they have softened.

Start putting the oil and the chopped onion in the pot together with the butter and

bring it to the right point of frying: now add the pheasant pieces, after having taken them out of the marinade.

Turn the pieces on both sides, so that they brown at the right point of “gold” and finally add the wine together with some rum which was in the fruit marinade. Let the alcohol evaporate completely, add salt, white and black pepper, cover the pot and put the flame at the minimum.

After 20 minutes about add the cut fruit together with the pheasant and finish cooking it (for 1200 gr of meat, calculate 55 minutes to 70, depending on the dimension of the pieces)

Cut the orange peel into thin strips and put them apart.

While the meat finishes to cook, start preparing the bechamel which must be creamy but not too thick; this is why we use a little less flour than in the classic recipe.

Put the butter in a pot and when it has melt, add the flour, start stirring and add the milk, continuing to stir. Add the nutmeg and a little bit of salt.

Continue to stir and when the bechamel starts to boil, get it to the right consistency and turn the flame off. If there are some lumps, use the mixer to correct, at a minimum speed.

Chop the mint and the lemon peel and add them to the bechamel. Serve it warm on the pheasant directly on the dish, organizing a small bowl for each diner so that anyone has the chance to choose the desired quantity.

For the polenta

Put the water and the milk to boil with salt (the same quantity you would add to the water for the pasta). When the liquid starts to boil, add the carved corn flour making it fall a little at a time and continuing to mix it with a whisk, paying attention not to create lumps. When it begins to become creamy, turn the heat at the minimum, cover and every 3 to 4 minutes mix it energetically. If it comes to be too thick, add some milk. You will need about 30 to 40 minutes, depending on the kind of flour and humidity it has inside. Once it is ready, prepare a platter and reverse the polenta on it: take a spoon, wet it under cool water and use it to make the surface smooth and homogeneous. You can serve it like this or you can use a medium pastry ring, cut some discs and settle each on the dish with the pheasant.

How to present the dish: you can serve the polenta with bechamel on the top. You can also serve bechamel in a small bowl aside the polenta and each diner will take the desired quantity, or you can present it as seen in the figure.