Black Forest Pigeon
Tristan Prudden shares his go-to pigeon recipe.
Ingredients
- 8 Pigeon breasts
- 300 g Cherries
- 100 ml Chicken stock
- 100 g Bitter dark chocolate
- 20 Baby red beetroots
- 1 Stripy beetroot
- 1 head Spring cabbage
- Butter
- Oak Moss
- Griottine cherries
- Salt & pepper for seasoning
Sauce
- Thyme
- 1 bulb Garlic
- 4 Shallots
- 1 litre Game stock
- 100 ml Red wine
- 100 ml Madeira
- 100 ml Port
Chocolate soil
- 100 g Caster sugar
- 100 g Ground almonds
- 60 g Plain flour
- 50 g Cocoa powder
- 67.5 g Melted butter
Instructions
The sauce
- Thinly slice two shallots and peel 2/3rds of the bulb of garlic.
- Place in a pan with a small handful of thyme, port, madeira and red wine. Boil and reduce to a syrupy consistency.
- Add this to the game stock and reduce it to a thick sauce consistency before passing.
Chocolate soil
- Mix all ingredients together and spread in a thin layer on a lined baking tray.
- Bake at 160°c for 20 minutes, mixing every five minutes. Once cooked break up and cool.
Vegetables
- Take the bottom off the spring cabbage. Peel off a few of the outside leaves and discard. Choose a few nice leaves and take the remaining woody stalk off. Wash and dry and slice the leaves into strips approximately 3-5cm wide.
- Peel and thinly slice the stripy beetroot. Reserve the slices until plating up.
- For the baby beets, place them in a foil parcel with oil and sea salt. Roast at 180°c until tender. Remove from foil and peel and keep for later.
- Wash the moss. Bring two pans of water to the boil. Blanch the moss for five minutes in one pan then put straight into the other for a further five minutes.
- Drain and dry on a cloth and then deep fry until crisp.
Cherry and chocolate puree
- Finely chop 200g of the cherries and put in a small pan with a little water. Cover and cook until soft.
- Puree the mixture, then pass and reserve in a small pan ready to finish.
Sauce
- Reduce the chicken stock a little and add the remaining cherries.
- Reheat the cherry puree, add the chocolate and mix until it's all melted.
Pigeon
- Season the pigeon and fry in a hot frying pan until you get a nice caramelisation on both sides.
- At this point add the baby beets and a large knob of butter.
- Cook for a further 1-2 minutes depending on the size of the breasts. You want the pigeon to be medium rare.
- Blanch the cabbage in boiling salted water, then drain.
- Plate up with a swipe of the puree and a generous dusting of chocolate soil.
- Arrange the beets, moss and pigeon breasts on top.
- Drape some of the cabbage leaves on and drizzle with the sauce.
- Finally add a few slices of the stripy beetroot and the Griottine cherries and serve.
Notes
Wine pairing
Langhe Nebbiolo, Tibaldi 2020 – £21 A hint of black cherry is the key here, from the Barolo grape, without having to pay top dollar BASC members can obtain a special discount through Tanners, find out more here.
