Miles Collins

A simple game dish…

As much as I detest pigeons in their natural state i.e alive I am quite partial to them dead and cooked. In England pigeons are a blot on the landscape of any town centre, when I am elected Prime Minister I shall introduce public flogging for anyone caught feeding them bread and solitary confinement for pigeon ‘fanciers’. How can these feathered rats ever be looked upon as an object of affection?

Still, they’re good for the pan and that’s what I am doing at the moment, pigeon with pumpkin and chestnut risotto, parmesan, fried sage leaves and a foamed milk based sauce infused with dried porcini with some dots of reduced pigeon stock for a gamey kick.

It’s all in season, pumpkins and chestnuts smack of late autumn and early winter, pigeon is avaliable year round (more’s the pity) sage is a useful winter herb and cepes have been dried for over wintering so it’s all good and Gordon Ramsay can’t slag me off for not being seasonal, because he is-NOT!!

Pigeons are relatively cheap, get your butcher to whip the breasts and legs off the bone and tell him/her that you want the carcasse. Fry the carcasse in some olive oil until nicely browned, add a little chopped carrot, onion, celery and leek along with a clove of garlic, some peppercorns and a juniper berry or two. When all is well browned add a splash of red wine and cook it until reduced by half, add a fresh bay leaf and a sprig of thyme, cover with water and bring to the boil. Simmer for thirty minutes, pass through a fine sieve and return to a clean pan. Boil down until reduced and the flavours have concentrated then pass it again.

Whilst all of this is going on you need to have a pan of chicken stock on the go for the risotto, keep it simmering whilst you chop an onion and cut a cup full of small diced pumpkin. Heat some olive oil in a pan, swirl a clove of garlic and a couple of sage leaves around to flavour the oil but don’t overdo it. Take them out and add the onion, cook it without colour until soft, now add the risotto rice and mix well because you want the rice to take on the olive oil. You can add a splash of white wine if you want but make sure it’s cooked out. Now add a ladle of stock, one at a time. After each ladle stir the risotto, keep the heat low and let the rice absorb the stock. I throw in a torn bay leaf around about now and then after a couple of minutes the pumpkin goes in. It’s hard to say when to add this, much depends on the rice, the size of the pumpkin and the strength of the heat you’re cooking on. If the pumpkin is slightly overcooked then don’t worry, worse things happen at sea as they say.

I add both grated and chopped chestnuts a couple of minutes before the rice is cooked just so they warm through. Once the risotto is cooked take it of the heat and stir in a good grating of fresh parmesan, a spoon of butter and some seasoning. Stick the pigeon breasts top side down into a hot pan of olive oil and butter, brown nicely then stick them into a hot oven for between four and eight minutes depending on your oven and how you like your meat cooked. If you live in France then about thirty seconds.

Spoon your risotto into a bowl, slice your pigeon into three and lay alongside. Sauce the meat and top the risotto with some shaved parmesan.