Pan Fried Wood Pigeon

Pan Fried Wood Pigeon

by Shopify API

Pan Fried Wood Pigeon with Beetroot, Quinoa & Wild Mushrooms, by Rob Green

Preheat the oven to 100°C/80°C/gas mark ¼ and put 3 plates into the oven to warm.

Put the beets, skin on, into a pan of water and bring to the boil. Cook until tender (approx. 30 minutes). Drain and cool. Peel, top and tail.

Put the beetroot back into the pan, adding the sugar and orange juice. Cook for 20 minutes over a medium heat. Then blend the whole lot until smooth. Keep to one side until you’re ready to serve.

First rinse the quinoa in cold water, place into a pan with 200ml of water and bring to the boil for 5 minutes, then turn the heat down and simmer for 15 minutes. Turn off and leave the quinoa to rest until it plumps up. Once cooled down, add the oil, hazelnuts, chives, garlic and season. Add a little sherry vinegar to taste at the end.

Wash, pat dry with kitchen paper and roughly chop all the mushrooms. Put the butter into a frying pan and melt (being sure not to allow it to go brown). Sauté the mushrooms, along with the thyme sprig, until cooked – this shouldn’t take more than 5 minutes. Discard the sprig of thyme, remove the pan from the heat, put a lid onto it and keep warm until you’re ready to serve.

Season the pigeon breasts. Add a splash of oil to a frying pan and, when hot, sear the breasts on both sides for 1 minute each. Turn down the heat and add the butter. Baste with the butter and continue to cook for a further minute. Take the pigeon breasts out of the pan and put them onto one of the warm plates, covering them with tinfoil, allowing them to rest for 3 minutes.

To serve, carve each breast into three slices. Put a couple of spoons of quinoa into the centre of each warm plate and arrange the pigeon slices on top. Put the mushrooms on top and around the plate. Spoon some of the beetroot purée around the plate and garnish with a few mixed baby herb shoots.

Recipe created by Rob Green, image by Michael Powell. 

The Eat Game Awards aim to celebrate the best of wild British produce by recognizing great culinary achievements and other contributions to the cooking and eating of game.  They offer those less familiar with game the chance to get a better understanding of how to cook it and the confidence to include it in their regular culinary repertoires.

Learn more about the Eat Game Awards here

Ingredients

Serves: 2

For the pigeon:

2 wood pigeon breasts

25ml rapeseed oil

A large knob (approx. 25g) butter

Salt flakes & freshly ground black pepper

Baby herb shoots (optional)

For the beetroot purée:

200g (roughly 2 medium sized) fresh beetroot

150g sugar

250ml orange juice

For the quinoa:

100g quinoa

200ml water

1 tbsp hazelnuts, chopped

1 tbsp chives finely, chopped

1 wild garlic leaf (if in season), finely sliced or ½ clove of garlic, peeled and chopped

Salt flakes & freshly ground black pepper

A splash of sherry vinegar

For the wild mushrooms:

1 sprig of thyme

A large knob (approx. 25g) butter

100g mixed wild mushrooms