Partridge, bacon, pear and watercress

This year's Christmas TV ads are already old news and it's only a matter of days before Christmas jumpers get dug out from the depths of our wardrobes, so I figured, why not get in there with this season's festive sarny. Don't let the lack of turkey put you off – partridges may be small but they're chock full of flavour.

INGREDIENTS

Serves 2

—

1 partridge

2 rashers of bacon

1 pear, cored and sliced

15g unsalted butter

1 tbsp thyme, fine chopped

1½ tbsp honey

1½ tbsp olive oil

A small handful of watercress

4 slices of dark sourdough

Pre-heat the oven to 170ºC.

Melt the butter in the bottom of a roasting tin. 

Place the partridge in the middle, surrounding it with the slices of pear. Lay the two rashers of bacon, lengthwise, on top of the partridge.

Mix together the honey, olive oil and thyme in a small bowl and season with a good pinch of salt and pepper.

Drizzle two tablespoons of the honey and thyme dressing over the partridge, keeping back about 1 tablespoon for later.

Roast for 30–40 minutes, depending on the size of your bird, basting it every now and again.

Once cooked, remove from the oven and loosely cover with foil. Leave to rest for 10 minutes.

Now that it's rested, remove the bacon and pear from the tin and carve the partridge into small slices.

Divide the ingredients between the two sandwiches, layering them as shown in the image above. Finally, drizzle the remaining dressing over each sarny, close up and dig in.