Pigeon Pie!
Comments from the author:
“This article has been dragged, kicking and screaming, from the old BretonDiary.”
Michelle, the landlady of my local bar, gave me a brace of pigeons last Monday. She then spent 10 minutes explaining how to cook them. Then the rest of the customers joined in. At that point I had about a dozen ways of cooking my 2 pigeons. The next day, at work, I asked Denis (who is constantly trying to teach me French - not the language, you understand, but how to be French - much more important!) as he started to explain, some of my other colleagues joined in. Now I have about 40 methods for cooking my 2 pigeons.
As it looked like war was about to break out - "My Grandomother did it this way!", "My Grandmother used shallots rather than onions". "What, you crush your Garlic - it needs to be sliced, don't you know anything?" etc. I slipped away - food and cooking are taken so seriously here, in France!
Roast Pigeon with Pork
This recipe is based on Denis's advice. He suggested that you need to stuff the pigeon with pork sausage meat. He said that this makes it heavier (and thus, easier to roast) and also added some fat which helps to baste the pigeon and also adds to the taste.
Thus, I needed some sausage meat. We sell it at work but I would have to wait a week (we only do staff orders once a week) - so, off to the supermarket. The only packs of sausage meat were far to large for may purposes and there was a long queue at the butchers counter. So, I did the only thing possible. I bought a pack of 4 good quality pork sausages. Two of these, I put aside for breakfast, the next day. The remaining two, I slit open, scraped out the meat and mixed it, in a bowl, with some crushed garlic, some sliced shallots and a dash of white wine - purely to make it easier to mix (I don't think it hurt, though).
I then stuffed the pigeon with the resulting mixture and put the bird in a roasting tin. I surrounded it with potatoes (chopped into smaller chunks than I would normally use for Roast Potatoes) and and few carrots and onions, chopped in half.
The tin went into the oven (on a low heat) and left for an hour (apart from two little peeks to see how it was getting on).
And how was it? Better than I expected. The breast were lovely (but, breasts are, aren't they?), the rest of the bird was fiddly but nice enough. The pork stuffing was gorgeous. It was a bit much for one (even one as greedy as me!). Next time I think that I will add some chopped onion to the sausage meat mix and maybe try to find a fruit that I can add as well (apricots, maybe?). A couple of strips of bacon laid across the bird (or wrapped around it) would make it heaven!
Am now looking for another few pigeons to experiment on. Cats - out you go. Get to work!
Pigeon a la Michelle
With the second pigeon, I tried Michelle's recipe. I split the pigeon, almost in two, and put it into a cast iron crock pot. I had already warmed the pot and smeared about a third of a pat of butter around the bottom. I cut up some potatoes into 1 inch chuncks, put those around the bird and threw in a few carrots, as well. I spinkled a few spigs of Rosemary and Thyme on top of it all and, finally, I put in a half head of garlic (unpeeled), put the lid on and put the pot into the pre-warmed oven.
After about 40 minutes, I put in a couple of sliced onions. The pigeon was looking a bit dry and I was tempted to chuck in a glass of white wine. I didn't as I remebered that the alcohol dries the meat even further.
After just over an hour, I took the pot out of the oven and let it stand for five minutes. Once again, it tasted better than I thought such a little bird could taste. I did prefer Denis's method, though (especially with my planned enhancements).
Thanks, Michelle, for those pigeons - just need to buy a gun of my own now, so that I'll have a ready supply!
Pigeon Thoughts
I like Pigeon. A chicken is too large for one (and I don't like the way that they are reared). At least a Pigeon lives it's life as it was meant to be lived and, when it dies, it is generally quick and clean - no stressfull journey to the abattoir in a cage. I'm sure that they taste better for this. I have started to think of lots of other things I could try out. I have started thinking about buying a Garden Gun so that I can help myself to some of the pigeons that inhabit my cherry tree each summer. In the meantime, I'll have to rely on the cats!
