Pigeon d Anjou pastilla, mirabelle, apricot, green almonds and cobnut🦆🍴

As the game season arrives, pigeon makes a wonderful centrepiece for an autumnal dish. Rich, deeply flavoured and wonderfully tender when cooked carefully, it lends itself to the earthy flavours of the season.

‍Our Fine Foods Product Development Manager David Duverger has created a dish using our Fresh Almonds, Apricots, Mirabelle Cobnuts and Pigeon from Fine Foods.

‍Check out the squab pigeon breast recipe below 👇🏽😍

Ingredients

2 medium squab pigeons (400 – 600 g)

sugar

saffron

2 cloves

1 star anis

1 egg white

• Jus

  Pigeon carcass

  Pigeon wings

  250 ml brown chicken stock                   

  ¼ onion

  50 g carrots

• Pastilla

  ‍Pigeon legs

  ½ onion

  2 garlic cloves

  1 g ground cinnamon

  1 g ground turmeric

  1 g ground ginger

  2 sprigs of coriander

  2 g orange zest

  4 g Ras El Hanout

  400 ml water

  2 sheets of filo pastry

  1 egg white

  20 g almonds, flaked

  30 g pistachio

  10 ml oil

• Garnish

  8 baby turnips

  orange juice 

  saffron

  20 g butter

  150 g rainbow swiss chard

• Onion purée

  ¼ onions

  olive oil

  80 g dates

  4 quail eggs

Method

1. Butcher the pigeons

1. Remove the legs and wings; keep the breast on the crown

2. Manchonner the wings

2. The jus

1. Emulsify egg yolks and sugar

2. Add flour and mix

3. Incorporate milk, rum, and beurre noisette (brown butter)

4. Whisk egg whites to soft peaks

5. Gently fold egg whites into the batter

3. Pastilla farce

1. In a pan, sear the legs in olive oil, decant

2. In the same pan ciselé the onions and garlic, then sweat them gently

3. Add the spices, cover with water

4. Add the legs and cook until tender

5. Once cooked, remove the legs and shred the meat. Put aside

6. Reduce the liquid until thickened, then add the reserved meat

5. Pastilla assemblage

1. Brush 1 sheet of filo with egg white

2. Arrange the stuffing, sprinkle with nuts, and roll into a rectangular shape

3. Pan-fry in oil until golden brown

6. Garnish

1. Peel the turnips. Glace à blanc with orange juice, saffron, and butter

 2. Wash, blanch, and refresh the Swiss chard

7. Onion puree

1. Peel and ciselé the onions, sweat in olive oil

2. Add the diced dates and cook for 5 minutes. Pass through a chinois and reserve for service

8. Cooking the pigeon.

1. Toast the pistachio and almond, then grind them in a spice grinder

2. Roast the pigeon crown pink in the oven with the spices

3. Remove the breasts, then skin them. Brush with egg white, then coat with the prepared nut mixture

10. Finishing

      Poach the quail eggs for 6 min at 72 degrees in a water bath