Pigeon Pie, that was meant to be a hare pie?

  Well now, I had left Rheda on Friday morning, it was dark and I couldn't see into my deep freezer, I had grabbed a couple of frozen hare legs or so I thought!!!! They turned out to be 3 pigeons? Never mind it is game isn't it?

My Pigeon Pie

3 wood pigeons, drawn and plucked

2 carrots diced small

2 onions sliced

1 clove of garlic crushed and chopped

Enough puff pastry to make a pie lid (there will always be enough cuttings to decorate)

1 egg beaten

Sauce to cover

Sauce

Carcass and trimmings from 3 pigeons roughly chopped

1 small onion diced

1 parsley root diced

2 litres of good chicken stock (Linda’s was very good)

5 cloves

3 bay leaves

2 heaped table spoons of dried root vegetables (Getrocknete Suppengrün)

5 cm piece of cinnamon

5 juniper berries

2 teaspoons of game spice (see recipe)

20 ml of strong red wine (or port)

Buerre marnie to thicken (50-50 butter/flour)

Method

Wash and skin the pigeons and remove the breasts and legs, break open and remove the hearts (any who had a heart, bum, bum).

Break up the carcass. Heat a little oil in a pan

add the carcasses and trimmings, brown, add the stock, the dried veg, cinnamon, juniper berries and game spices. cover with water.

Lid on, cooking at a rolling boil, skimming any scum that rises to the surface.

Bubble up and push through a sieve, return stock to the pan, and thicken with a beurre manie (I made more than enough’ as I find that it freezes great and is fantastic for quickly thickening any sauce). Adjust seasoning.

Making the Filling

Making the Filling

Season the breasts, legs and hearts with salt and pepper, cutting each breast in half, soften the carrot, onion and garlic in oil, when translucent add the pigeon and colour. Add the wine and cook, DO NOT over cook, they should still be juicy.

Put the pigeon and veg into a pie dish, pour over the sauce. Cut some strips off the sheet of puff pastry to form a bed on the pie dish rim, brush the puff pastry strips with the egg

and place the rolled sheet of top pushing down to make a seal, cut off any overhanging pastry and fork around the edge. Cut out pretty leaves and other poncy things, placing these around a hole that you formed in the centre of the pie crust. Brush with the beaten egg.

Pop into a pre-heated oven at 220°C for 15 minutes.

We ate it with Brussel sprouts and creamy mash, all washed down with a bit of French dry red.

Fantastic, The yorkies are out of Lindas freezer, they had been their since coming back from England in June and she thought it as good a time as any to use them up. She does have some good ideas that lass!

A smashing Autumn meal at under a fiver including wine