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Woodpigeon bruschetta © Laurie Campbell
In this regular column, Mike Short shares his passion for food and foraging in the countryside
B
ehind my home nestles a small copse surrounded by arable land. The copse is a magnet for woodpigeons and during the autumn and winter months they stream in to gorge on beech mast and ivy berries; or to rest peacefully between bouts of feeding to digest seed and leafy crops plucked from the surrounding farmland. A few winters ago I shot a pigeon in the wood and was amazed at the amount of oilseed rape crammed in its crop, which seemed ready to burst. Curious as to how much leaf matter the greedy-grey had consumed, I slit open its crop and shook out a whopping 45 grammes of neatly torn rape leaves. No wonder the farm manager urges me to shoot pigeons whenever I can, which is rather fortunate, given my unstinting enthusiasm for the delectable almost liverlike flavour of their claret coloured breasts. It baffles me that a bird as delicious as the ubiquitous woodpigeon – scourge to farmers, scallywags to vegetable gardeners, yet savoured by chefs – remains undervalued in most country kitchens, and in trying to understand why, the old adage ‘familiarity breeds contempt’ springs to mind. Some town folk I know dismiss woodpigeon as a potential meal, having let mental images of dirty tube station-living feral pigeons smite their appetites. My London-living mother-inlaw fell into that camp, until she was wowed by the succulent breast meat of a wild woodie ‘harvested’ from our copse. I do love converting the uninitiated. I get very excited about this dish, which sits in my top-10 list of ‘desert island dishes’. It’s basically a jazzed up pigeon on toast affair. Truly wild meat, simply cooked and coated in a sweet, sage-infused sauce, served on crunchy, garlic-rubbed sourdough toast, with the aromatic flavour of truffles. It’s simple to make and utterly delicious. What’s more, arable farmers will probably thank you for trying it.
Succulent woodpigeon breasts, simply cooked and coated in a sweet, sage-infused sauce, on garlicky sourdough toast.
Ingredients Serves 1 (or 2 as a starter): Skinned breasts and liver from a woodpigeon 2 slices of sourdough bread 1 clove of peeled garlic 1 tsp butter 1 tsp olive oil Fresh sage leaves 3 tbsp Marsala wine 2 tsp full fat crème fraîche Truffle oil Black pepper and sea salt
Method 1. Toast the bread on both sides until browned. Place on a small serving plate and keep warm. 2. Cut the pigeon breasts into 5mm wide strips along their length and then crossways in half. Dice the liver. 3. On a medium to high heat, melt the butter in a frying pan with the olive oil. When sizzling hot, add the breast meat, season well and stirfry for two minutes. Remove the meat from
the pan. It should be pink inside. 4. Add a heaped teaspoon of finely chopped sage leaves and the liver to the pan. Use a fork to mash the liver into a rough paste. When the liver starts to brown, add the Marsala and deglaze the pan by scraping the liver around. Let the wine mixture bubble and reduce for a minute. Remove from the heat and stir in the crème fraîche. 5. Add the pigeon breast along with any juices to the pan and mix. Warm if necessary. 6. Cut the clove of garlic in half and rub the cut surface over the upper side of the sourdough toast. Drizzle truffle oil over each slice too. Spoon the pigeon mixture over the toast and garnish with a few whole sage leaves that have been flash-fried in hot butter. Tuck in and enjoy.
Mike Short is a senior field
ecologist specialising in mammal research. He is passionate about harvesting wild food, and here shares his enthusiasm for tasty ingredients found in the great British countryside.
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50 | GAMEWISE AUTUMN/WINTER 2013