Pigeon Breast Filo Parcels

Pigeon breasts in filo pastry served on sautéed beetroot, an artichoke puree and a blackberry sauce.

I made this for a dinner party starter for 12, but you can make it for any number, just remember that the pigeon has 2 breasts.

First get yourself 6 pigeons, (wood pigeons have far more taste, but home reared will do perfectly well)

Cut off the breasts, legs, remove the liver, crops and hearts (the rest goes into the oven to brown, then into a pot with onion, dried root vegetables and a few litres of vegetable stock to make a pigeon soup)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Marinade the breasts in a freezer bag along with the legs (these are to be part of the pigeon soup with liver dumplings and fresh cepes for tomorrows lunch starter).

1tbsp. Olive oil

1 sprig of Rosemary

2tsp. Honey

A few sprigs of Thyme

1dsp. Raspberry vinegar

Salt and vinegar

 

Seal the bag and put in a cool place for a few hours, remove from the bag (keep the marinade you will use it in the sauce), wipe off the excess marinade and sauté in butter, DO NOT overcook they should still be very pink inside (they are going into the oven later). Remove from the heat and store in a plastic box until ready to use.

Beetroot

Peel 2 large beetroots, cut in half and slice on a mandolin and fry a few at a time in butter until soft.  Drain  on  kitchen paper and set aside until required.

Artichoke puree

2 potatoes peeled and cut in 4

1 jar of artichokes preserved in oil

Salt and pepper

Boil the potatoes until soft then blend together with the artichokes, add a knob of butter and season to taste.

 

Blackberry sauce

First pick yourself about 30 blackberries (not worth picking 30 so take them out of the kilo that you picked)

In the pan that you have fried the breasts deglaze with a ladleful of pigeon stock (you have that simmering away on the stove). Add a small glass of wine 0.2ltr, add the blackberries and poach, reducing the liquid by half.

 

Push all through a sieve and return to a small saucepan and thicken with beurre manier, transfer to a piping bottle.

I used strudel pastry as herein Germany it is readily available in any self-respecting supermarket or corner shop for that matter.

Slice the sheets into 3 cm strips, you will require 36 strips. Melt some butter  in a small saucepan and brush a strip of pastry with butter place another strip on top, brush this with butter and place another piece on top of this (3 layers), now starting at one end lay a pigeon breast in 1 corner of the long strip and wrap it around until the whole breast is enclosed. Place on a baking tray, when all of the 12 are done, brush with the remaining butter and place in a preheated oven at 180°C for about 20 minutes (keep an eye on them, they should be golden brown).

The plate of food

When they are in the oven, dress your plates, form the beetroot slices into an over lapping base for the pigeon parcel. Heat the artichoke puree in the microwave, place a dessert spoon of the puree opposite the beetroot, spread a little and pipe a line of blackberry sauce on top.

Pile some beetroot shoots to one side, when the parcels are ready, place on top of the beetroot base and decorate with more of the blackberry sauce, sprinkle over with crispy fried smoked speck, pancetta or thin sliced dry cured smoked bacon, that has either been fried long and over a low heat or done in the oven between two plates at a low heat.

Serve immediately and to drink? A good heavy red wine (Primativo), if you notice I had been doing a little wine tasting while in the kichen!

The guests enjoyed it (well at least they said they did and the plates were clean

 

Pigeon breasts on a bed of roses (pardina) lentils

Pigeon breasts on lentils

I was lying in bed early Saturday morning, when the phone rang, 06:00 just getting light, who the hell is ringing at this time in the morning? It was one of my shooting mates, we are out pigeon shooting get your gear together and will meet you at kleineraschhoff in an hour. Zoom, out of bed, under the shower, green stuff on and out. It was a 4rather nice day, the weather was a little damp but no rain, and in fact it was a very nice morning. We positioned at the edge of the woods and waited for the pigeons to come out of their roosts to feed and come they did, we shot near on 50 within 2 hours. I only wanted a couple for the weekend, it turned out to be 10 (I hadn't planned to, but as they had been talking about lentils on the wild food board, I decided to do lentils with pigeon breasts).

On the way home I went to the market, it was still before most people where out and about and bought a kilo of chicken carcasses and some soup veg to make the stock for the lentils and also for the risotto that I was making for Sunday lunch, more of that later.

First pluck your pigeons

you will have a sack of feathers, how you get rid of them thats your problem

Give them a bath (shower actually, but don't tell Linda she gets a bit funny about sharing the shower)

pick out two with nice plump breasts, vacuum pack the rest for a rainy day

The stock ingredients

1 kilo of chicken carcasses

The 2 pigeon carcasses

Piece of leek, white only roughly chopped

1 large carrot roughly chopped

Piece of celeriac chopped

Stalk of parsley

1 onion halved skin left on and browned in a skillet

1 bay leaf pinned to the onion with 2 cloves

5 juniper berries

5 all spice berries

A piece of mace

10 pepper corns

3 green cardamom pods

2 cm piece of cinnamon bark

1 dried chilli ( one of the last from my balcony harvest)

I had removed the pigeon breasts and made a marinade of shallot, garlic, sherry vinegar, raspberry balsamico, ground game spices, ground pepper, lemon oil and olive oil, plunked them in this and allowed to soak in their bath while the stock was cooking.

 

I browned the onion halves in an oiled skillet

Put the lot into a pressure cooker, pour on 2 ltrs of cold water and 1 ltr of stock (I used low salt Marigold).

Bring to a rolling boil

and skim the grunge that rises to the surface lid on at full pressure for 40 minutes, switch off and allow to cool then there you have your stock , you can adjust the seasoning at this point if needed, but no salt!

Lentils

Sauté a finely diced shallot in a little oil and add some very small diced carrot, leek, celeriac and speck. Pour in about 600ml of boiling stock (you can add more later if required) now add 250g of lentils (I used Pardina) and cook until soft. When soft add a few splashes of raspberry balsamico and stir in

Marinating the breasts



adding the sherry vinegar



Adding the home made sherry vinegar



The breasts in the marinade, cover and leave while the stock is finished and the lentils are cooked

Fry the legs and some shallots to the right you can see the lentils cooking

Heat a little oil in a skillet , remove the breasts from marinade, pat dry and flash fry until they are just how you like them,

remove from the pan and wrap in aluminium foil strain the marinade into the skillet and reduce, adjust seasoning

Remove from the foil, slice pour any juices  into the jus, arrange the sliced breast on top of the lentils and pour the reduction over.

The plate with food

Hey Hoh Thanks for getting me out of bed!!!!!



The plate without food





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