Wood Pigeon Cured in Apple with Salt-Baked Beetroot & Horseradish
Serves
2
Prep Time
12 hours
Cook Time
1 hour
Serves
2
Prep Time
12 hours
Cook Time
1 hour
‘The wood pigeon spends a life on the wing; its home is tracks of wood and open farmland. There are no chains in the skyway. There are no fences to keep the birds in or keepers to shut them up. They are wild and free and, as a result, benefit from a completely natural diet. What’s more, they’re very common, so their numbers will occasionally be culled. All this makes them one of the most sustainable and healthy forms of meat we could hope to eat. Beyond that… well, they are incredibly delicious.’ -Gill Meller
Recipe Created by Gill Mellor and Photos by Andrew Montgomery.
Ingredients
| For the Brine | |
| 15g ( 1⁄2oz) | Salt |
| 6 | Bay leaves |
| A few | Sprigs of thyme |
| 2 | Garlic cloves, peeled and bashed |
| 300ml (10 1⁄20 oz) | Apple juice |
| For the Beetroot | |
| 350g (12oz) | Brine salt |
| 2 | Egg whites, lightly beaten |
| 2 | Beetroot, scrubbed but not peeled |
| For the Pigeon | |
| 3-4 | Wood pigeon breasts |
| 1tbsp | Extra-virgin olive oil |
| Small | Knob of butter |
| To serve | Horseradish sauce |
| Pinch or 2 | Beetroot powder (optional), to serve |
| To taste | Salt and freshly ground black pepper |
Place all the brine ingredients in a medium pan over a medium heat. Bring to a simmer, then remove from the heat, transfer the liquid to a jug, cool, then put in the fridge to chill.
place the pigeon breasts in a bowl and pour over the chilled brine. Place in the fridge for at least 12 hours, or overnight. Remove the pigeon from the brine and pat dry with kitchen paper, then pop in the fridge until you’re ready to cook.
the beetroots. Heat the oven to 190°C/375°F/gas mark 5. Combine the brine salt with the egg whites to make a thick paste. Mould equal amounts of the paste around each beetroot, then place them on a baking tray and bake for 1 hour, until tender.
set a medium frying pan over a high heat. Add the olive oil and when hot add the brined pigeon breasts. Fry the breasts for 1–2 minutes on each side, add the butter and baste the meat as it bubbles away, until the breasts are browned on the outsides and pink in the middle, then remove them to a plate and allow them to rest for 5 minutes in a warm place.
the salt crust away from the beetroot, slice each root in half and place two halves on each plate. Slice each pigeon breast in half (I like to do this on the diagonal), and divide equally between the plates. Add seasoning, a generous spoonful of horseradish sauce to each plate, and a sprinkling of beetroot powder, if using. Bring to the table and eat at once.
Protein (100g) |
17.5 |
Calories (100g) |
142 |
Fat (100g) |
7.5 |
Cholesterol (100g) |
90 |
Selenium (100g) |
0.13 |