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

 

Marinated Baby Octopus

Marinated Small Octopods

The rub is you must first be able to get small octopods, it isn’t easy so when they are on the market grab them with eight arms.

Having got them, if not cleaned, you will have to do it, not hard but fiddly, Slit the head and remove all of the gung then snip out the beak (a pair of those small curved scissors that you missus has in her pedicure sachet, CLEAN them FIRST).

Put them in a pan of water with a heaped teaspoon of Marigold vegetable stock , bring to the boil and boil for 10 minutes, they should be just done, anymore and they toughen up, if this does happen all is not lost. Pour out most of the liquid and slowly braise until tender.

When they are cooking make the marinade.

2 table spoons of EVO

1 tsp. of raspberry vinegar

2 tsp. balsamic vinegar

2 tbsp. white wine vinegar

½ tsp. each of thyme, rosemary, oregano, marjoram

½ tsp. sea salt

½ tsp. ground black pepper

Place this all in a container and mix well, when the octopods are cooked, remove them with a slotted spoon

 and put in to the marinade, mix well and cover.

 

 Put in the fridge, allow to marinade for 24-36 hours.

 

Shellfish in white wine and Pil Pil prawns

Warm Shell fish in white wine

500g small mussels

500g clams

12 langoustines (Dublin day prawns or Norwegian lobster but it is always Nephrops norvegicus )

200ml of white dry wine

1 tsp of marigold powder.

1 tsp dried herbs

wash your mussels and clams and that are open tap gently, they should close, if not discard along with any broken ones.

Place the shell fish in a pan pour over the wine, add the marigold and herbs when it comes to the boil and the mussels are just starting to open,

place the langustinos on top,

and cook just for a couple of minutes (do not over cook, that is a crime), pour into a bowl and serve with Focaccia along side the rest of the fish and sea food.

 

Pil pil garlic prawns

 

About 20 shell on prawns

Olive oil for frying

1 shallot finely chopped

1 large clove of garlic

3 small hot chillies diced (seeds and everything)

 

Heat the oil in a frying pan and fry the prawns a layer at a time, do not over cook them when they take on colour and the shell starts to brown, take them out of the pan and put the next ones in. In the same pan fry the shallot, garlic and chillies pour over the prawns and allow to marinade.

 

Roasted Italian Vegetables

Antipasti Roasted Italian vegetables (or if your doing Tapas, Spanish ones or Provencal, French ones)

1 bunch of spring onions (whites only)

2 large red onions

1 large Fenchel bulb

2 courgettes

1 large Aubergine

6 large cloves of garlic (leave the parchment skin on)

Fresh herbs (basil, rosemary, thyme and sage)

Course salt and ground pepper

Olive oil.

Slice the Aubergines quite thin length ways, sprinkle with salt and allow to dewater on a plate (this is also to remove any bitterness, though today they are no longer as bitter as in years gone by due to the unnatural selection process.

Slice the courgettes lengthways

Slice the Fenchel bulb into thin slices (and attached stems cut into pieces.

Peel the onions and cut into 1/8ths

 

Remove the aubergine slices and pat dry, place these along with the rest of the vegetables and herbs into a deep roasting tray, splash liberally  with olive oil, add the herbs, grind over the pepper and sprinkle with the sea salt, mix all together (use your hands it’s easiest).


Cover with aluminium foil and put into a pre-heated oven at 200-210°C for 30 minutes, the vegetables should still have a bit of bite in them. When finished transfer to a dish and cover.

 

In the same roasting tray place some small Italian Roma tomatoes (Those small plum shaped ones), sprinkle with salt and roll in the oil left over in the base of the roasting dish, pop into the oven and roast until the skin splits, remove and add to the rest of the vegetables.

Roasted peppers

2 each large red and yellow peppers (Capsicum)

Place in a roasting dish and place in an oven at 200°C for half an hour (check at 25 minutes, the skin should be blistered and blackening in places, if not put them in for another 10 minutes. Remove and pop into a zip-lock bag and allow to sweat (I left them for a good hour). Remove from the bag and the skin will just pull off break open and remove the stem and seeds (best done under running water) tear into pieces.

Put the ripped pieces of sweet grilled peppers on top of the other roast vegetables, that’s it ready to serve.

Sardine parcels (after Antonio Carlucci’s recipe)

First get a hold of some sardines, unfortunately there was no fresh to be had at the market, but in such a case I am quite willing to get them out of the deep freeze, they have been frozen in prime condition with everything intact.

Next defrost (I did this in a bowl of cold water over a period of about an hour) these were quite large ones and as there was  7 to the kilo, I decided to do them all, even though only needing 6 ( a stroke of luck as I will reveal later).When they are defrosted de-scale them, these come off easily by using your thumb, rubbing it under the scales and pushing from tail to head. But do it under water or you will be finding scales for the next month in places that you never thought that they could reach.

Now slit them down the belly from gills to vent, removing the entrails with your thumb, snip off all of the fins. Then it’s off with their head as the queen said to Alice (and the tails), I use kitchen scissors for this, now place on a board belly side down and with the heel of the hand push down firmly you will feel the bones loosen from the flesh, turn over and carefully pull out the backbone, with luck all of the connecting rib bones will come away with it. Any remaining can be picked out with either finger nails or fish tweezers. Lay the filets on the board skin side down and trim the bits off that are either don’t look nice or are inedible (belly flaps and any remaining bones) wash them under running water pat dry, salt and pepper them set aside while you make the filling.

 

 

The filling

A mixture of fresh herbs, I used basil, rosemary, thyme, oregano and sage.

1 clove of garlic

1 shallot (or small onion)

Green of some spring onions (Antonio says chives but I had none)

A few walnuts

Olive oil

Salt and pepper.

 

Chop the herbs, spring onion greens and shallot, crush the garlic and mix well together chop the walnuts and add to the mixture mix in some olive oil to a course paste, season with salt and pepper.

 

 

Spread this mixture on one side of the filets and fold over and place in an ovenproof form.

 

To finish

Olive oil

Zest of 1 lemon (Bio)

 

1 tsp of pine kernels

Salt and pepper.

Panko crumbs pounded in a pestle and mortar.

 

Sprinkle with olive oil, lemon zest and pine kernels, a bit of ground seas salt and black pepper, sprinkle with the bread crumbs and into a pre-heated oven at 200°C for about 10 minutes. That’s it smashing, a great starter or as in this case as part of a Anti Pasti

 

Italian evening to finish the summer

It had been decided that we would be having an Italian evening to finish off the Summer, due to holidays and work and prior engagments , we hadn't been all together since May, so were better to do a bit of an foody get together than at our dear friend Carolyn's and what better way to finish off a not too wonderful Summer than with an Italian evening of feasting (Carolyn had spent some time flirting with the Don Giovanni's).

So the Evening was to be started with Prosecco with Aperol  (Aperol con Prosecco) from a Lady in Red and Kalle had made some very nice cheese talers to start us off, a sort of light the blue touch paper.

As I was first out of the starting blocks and having done most of the food up front during the day, I had been up since 05:00 travelling first from NRW and then off to the market, then to Citti Markt to get all of the supplies.  Some like the Tuna and the baby Octopods, I had prepared at home. (the Tuna had been smoked at 05:00 on Thursday morning)

Carolyn being the host does the mains, so it was to be Arrosto di vitello al latte and as Linda had bagged the pasta (what she will not say, but I do know she is dying to try out her brand new pasta machine). So at the speed of light I got in and laid claim to the Antipasti. Then along came Martin with the Dolce.

My antipasti was made up of a fish platter, a meat and cheese platter and a vegetable platter, a warm shell fish dish and a marinated  prawn dish.

The fish platter consisted of:

Marinaded Baby Octopi (Moscadini)

and  smoked-tuna-fish-two-ways an Italian herb and pepper and an Oriental, oyster sauce and a sesame crust.

accompanied by:


 Baked stuffed Anchovies (Acciughe Ripiene al Forno) (but unlike Antonio I used sardines)

 

warm mussels, clams and langustines

pil pil prawns and shell fish in white wine

roasted-italian-vegetables

I took a lot of inspiration from Kieth Floyd and Antonio Carluccio and have addapted quite a few of their recipes to suit what I could find at the market, as with the exception of the meat and cheese platter (for obvious reasons) I wanted to make as much as possible from scratch.

Charcuterie and Cheese platter.

 

 

You will require a good selection of Italian speciality hams, salamis and sausages sliced paper thin (I let the girls at the deli do this as they have the professional machine and the skill, a sharp knife and my amateur impatience is just no substitute).

I had Milan salami, Bologna Mortadella, San Daniel air dried ham, Pancetta Coppata, South Tirol smoked  bacon (Sud-Tirol speck), Genoese sausage (salame genovese di Sant'Olcese) and  Soppressata the dried salami from the bottom of the boot, in the regions of Basilicata, Calabria and Apulia, I first had this hard air dried salami, stuffed with hazel nuts when visiting Bari on a ship back in 1974.

The cheeses to add to the platter mini mozzarella balls, Gorgonzola, that blue veined cheese so loved by all blue cheese connoisseurs and hated by all others , a Cravanzina, a soft creamy yellow cheese from Piedmont and finally a Vinschgauer a hardish mountain cheese from the South Tyrol area (very good for fondue). The platter was decorated with small plum tomatoes, fig quarters, grapes and a bit of torn basil and parsley, it did look ever so pretty almost too good to eat but that is another story.

To finish it all off Linda had made a tomato, rosemary focaccia to the theme of the Hairy Bikers, this recipe has always worked and is so easy to make. This time linda used her own mini tomatoes grown on her balcony.

We had a surprise guest, well it was surprise to Linda and I in the form of Reinard an old friend of the rest of the crew and a founding member of the cookery club, he had moved to Canada quite a few years previous but had now returned to Europe and was living in Paris but still working for a firm in Montreal. Lucky that a kilo of sardines contains 7 fish.

Linda made the Focaccia at the same time as making her pasta (wonderful things these Birthday presents ;-)

 The filling was cepes, and minced chicken breasts

 Served with wilted spinach and a cepes, shallot sauce

 

It went down a treat.

 

 

Next came the veal cooked in milk, this is a speciality of Northern Italy I do believe Lombardy, were Carolyn had worked many years ago.

 

 

Arrosto di vitello al latte

Veal braised in milk

Ingredients (serves 6)

1500 g veal (topside, rump or similar)

50 g lean bacon

300 ml milk

Butter

Flour

Salt, pepper

 Method:

Cut bacon into strips.

Lard veal by making incisions in meat and inserting bacon into them.

Salt, pepper and lightly flour meat.

Melt butter in pot and brown meat on all sides at medium heat.

Heat milk and pour half of quantity over meat.

Lower heat, cover and braise meat for approx. 2 hours, adding more milk when needed.

Serve sliced, with sauce made from milk and meat juices and thickened with a Beurre manié.

 

It was accompanied by carrots and fenchel flavoured with orange.

 

The meat was perfect and the wonderful flavoured carrots just perfect. The complete recipe I shall post at a later date as poor Carolyn is up to her neck in work at the moment, but she has promised as soon as she has a spare minute she will translate it from the Italian.

 

To finish off the meal martin has made a Panna cotta with damsons poached in rum with almond nibblets.

1 ltr of cream

3 table spoons of vanille sugar (with the seeds in)

4 leaves of Gelatine softened in cold water

 

Bring the cream to the boil with the vanille sugar, lower the heat and allow to simmer for 10 minutes, squeeze the water out of the gelantine add to the cream and disolve. Pour into moulds and put into the refrigerator to set (qbout 6-7 hours),

 

Poach the damsons and almonds nibblets in rum and allow to cool. Put a layer onto a desert plate and turn the Pannacotta onto it.

 

 

it was served with a sweet white wine that I being a good boy didn't drink, but Kalle did!!!