Instructions: Preheat oven to 200c/gas 6. Soak olives in water to remove saltiness.

Season pheasants. Insert a few tiny sprigs of thyme into the breast using the point of a small knife. Melt butter in a large frying pan and sear pheasants on all sides. Remove pheasants from pan and set to one side.

Sear pigs trotter pieces in pan. Chop onion and celeriac and add to pan.

Brown slightly with trotter. Add red wine and sherry to pan and bring to boil. Cook for 10 minutes to drive off alcohol.

Pour contents of pan into roasting tin. Drain olives and rinse. Add olives to roasting tin with bay leaves and cinnamon stick. Place pheasants on top of trotters and vegetables, breast side down, and roast in pre-heated oven for 25 minutes.

Remove roasting tin from oven. Sit pheasant breast side up and cover breasts with pancetta or bacon. Baste well. Return pheasants to oven to complete cooking. This will take between 20 minutes for younger birds and 50 minutes for much older birds. Test by inserting a skewer into thickest part of thigh - juices should run clear when pheasants are cooked through.

Remove cinnamon stick and bay leaves.

Remove pheasants, trotter and olives and keep warm. Place roasting tin on hob and reduce juices by boiling if necessary. Press sauce through a sieve into a clean pan. Heat gently while whisking to give a rich, gelatinous sauce. Season if necessary.

Remove breasts by cutting down either side of the breast bones and working the knife along the rib cage. Cut off legs and thighs at hip joints. Serve breast and leg to each person with a piece of trotter; mashed potatoes with olive oil and a good dollop of crab-apple jelly.

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