Wood pigeon with blueberry jus, beetroot purée and potato crisps
This is a modern British classic wood pigeon recipe by Mark Dodson. Wood pigeon breast is topped with a potato crisp and drizzled with a beetroot purée and blueberry jus - a dish looking as good as it tastes
Serves: 4
Cooking Time: 40 minutes plus slow cooking of beetroot
Ingredients:
Wood pigeon
• 8 wood pigeon breasts, skinned
• olive oil
Beetroot purée
• 2 raw beetroots
• 50g of brown sugar
• 200ml of double cream
• 100ml of red wine vinegar
• salt
• pepper
Blueberry jus
• 50g of caster sugar
• 100ml of Chicken stock
• 40 blueberries
• 50ml of red wine vinegar
Potato crisps
• 1 large potato
• pepper
• oil
• salt
To serve
• 100g of salad leaves
• 1 handful of girolles mushrooms
Method:
1. Put the beetroot in a pan of water (enough to cover it) and cook on a low heat. Add salt, and leave to cook until it has softened, possibly taking up to two hours, the water will need to be topped up throughout the process
2. When finished, drain completely then, back in the pan, stir to evaporate the remnants of the liquid. Cook with some brown sugar, wait for a bit then pour in the red wine vinegar cook until the liquid is a nice caramel colour and then add the double cream, Cook until thickened
3. Then blend the mixture until smooth, season to taste and keep hot
4. For making the jus, place 20 blueberries into a bowl, put the other 20 in a pan with 50g of caster sugar and 50ml of red wine vinegar and reduce, using a fork crush the blueberries as they begin to cook. When the liquid thickens add the stock and cook further until a syrupy sauce consistency has been achieved. Sieve and then add to the reserved blueberries
5. Peel and slice the potatoes thinly, score the slices making a criss-cross pattern. Then rinse with water, dry them by patting and then fry in a pan with hot oil until golden brown. Drain on absorbent paper, season and keep until ready to serve
6. Cook the pigeon breasts in a hot pan; just a couple of minutes on each side to keep pink colour. Leave them to rest a while then slice ready for serving serve
7. Plate up the beetroot purée with some salad leaves and girolles mushrooms. Lay the sliced pigeon on each of the plates, and top with a potato crisp. Finally pouring on the blueberry jus to serve immediately
Recipe courtesy of Great British Chefs. Visit their website for more delicious pigeon recipes.
