Roast pheasant with wild mushroom sauce, mash and puy lentils

Sunday evenings should be all about digging in the freezer and cupboard and finding tasty things to cook up while lazing around in the pajamas that one still hasn't quite gotten out of. Especially if, like me, you're struggling with having horrible deadlines which are chaining you to your laptop and eating is pretty much the only thing (well, apart from impromptu drinking sessions after your football team wins 7-0) that makes life still worth living.

So I was really happy to remember that I still had a pheasant in the freezer. Perfect winter Sunday food. Time enough to defrost it, find a whole load of dried wild mushrooms that just needed to be eaten up, three large potatoes in the bottom of the fridge that also required consuming, and thank my domestic instincts for having lots of jars of pulses around.

It was a supremely good, simple and satisfying meal. Roasted the pheasant for half an hour, made a good wild mushroom sauce (sauted onion, mushrooms, mushroom juice, seasoning) and mustardy mash, dressed the al dente puy lentils with a little lemon and olive oil while the bird rested for ten minutes, adding the roast juices to the mushroom sauce, and voila. Salad for afters, soaking up the gravy left on the plate. And the best thing is, I was on my own, so I get the leftovers for a Monday supper - mash into potato cakes, cold partridge with hot reheated mushrooms, lentils as a salad with loads of parsley if I remember to buy any - I can't wait.