It may come as a surprise that cooking with game is a great budget choice for feeding a family with good, free-range meat. Unlike grouse, pheasants are easy to breed and have much more meat, feeding three comfortably.

My farmers' market in Queen's Park, northwest London, was selling pheasants at £3.75 a bird last year, ready for cooking. They vary in cost, with butchers offering best value and supermarkets trailing as they tend to mark them up. In the country, you can probably buy them from a local shoot for £3 a brace, but you'll have to gut and pluck them.

If you're worried about getting a tough bird, talk to your butcher and ask for a young one. Pan-frying (as in the recipe right) and cooking gently on a low heat also helps to keep the pheasant juicy. Make a stock with the pheasant bones in the recipe and use it to make a game soup with pearl barley, carrots and parsnips. The leftovers from the main recipe will give you a satisfying supper during the week. All that plus the soup, which should feed six, and you end up with three dishes at an average cost of £1.40 a head. You can't say fairer than that.

Pheasant feat

Serves 6

Preparation time: 20-25 min

Cooking time: 25 min

2 pheasant

25g butter

1 tbsp salt and freshly ground black pepper

1 heaped tsp redcurrant jelly

240ml glass of red wine

For the couscous

160g hazelnuts

1-2 tbsp olive oil

1 large onion, finely chopped

220g streaky, unsmoked bacon, chopped

3 plump garlic cloves, crushed

200g dried apricots, roughly chopped

A few branches of fresh thyme

500g couscous

Remove any yellow fat that is attached to the meat. This fat is peculiar to pheasant and has a nasty, bitter flavour. Without it, pheasant is a delicious treat.

Ask the butcher to cut the birds into segments or do it yourself with a pair of game scissors and a knife. Cut through the backbone, open out the bird and cut along the breastbone. Cut each half into three along the line of the wing, the breast and the thighbone.

Season the joints well with salt and pepper. Heat the butter on high in a wide heavy-bottomed pan with a tight-fitting lid. Put the joints, three or four at a time, skin side down in the butter. Brown on all sides for a few minutes. When they have all been browned and set to one side, turn the heat to its lowest setting, add the red wine and redcurrant jelly to the pan and mix thoroughly with the juices.

Return the pheasant to the pan and cover with kitchen foil and the lid - the liquid should barely be breaking a bubble on the surface.

Meanwhile, lightly toast the hazelnuts in a dry frying pan. Wrap them in a teatowel and rub vigorously to remove the skins. Chop into rough pieces.

Heat the oil in a saucepan and add the onions and bacon. Sweat over a medium heat until the onion is translucent and the bacon is releasing its fat. Boil a kettle of water. Add the garlic, thyme and apricots to the onions and bacon, and continue cooking until the garlic is beginning to brown.

Stir in the couscous to coat in the fats, season with freshly ground pepper. Turn off the heat and pour over enough boiling water to cover by a centimetre.

Stir the couscous with a fork, let it sit for a few minutes and stir again to break up the clumps.

Check on the pheasant;it may need another 5-10 minutes depending on the size of the joints. The flesh should be juicy, having just lost its pinkness without looking dried out. If in doubt, carve a little off a joint.

Pour the meat juices into the couscous and stir again. If it is looking dry, add a little more hot water.

Serve the joints on beds of couscous and have a watercress salad to follow.

Nutritionist's verdict by Amanda Ursell

The combination of couscous and pheasant make this a great dish for the mineral iron, which helps to maintain energy levels and good mood. Given that many women in the UK eat less than the recommended intake of iron, it is a useful combination for the fairer sex. It is also good for zinc, a mineral that plays a vital role in the health of our immune systems. If you divide the dish between six, you would notch up 917 calories each, so you should take Thomasina's advice and have lots of leftovers. Serving with watercress will mean the meal provides two servings of fruit and veg from your five-a-day. (www.amandaursell.com)

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