Pigeons
-Remove the heads, and legs of the pigeon leaving a crown, keep all the bones, heads, feet for the sauce. Blowtorch the breast to contract the skin, then place in the fridge to cool.
-once cooled remove the breasts of the pigeon, place a small amount of thyme between the breast and the mini fillet, vacuum in bags with a touch of olive oil.
-Keep in the fridge till needed.
Pigeon sauce
-Put the bones in a hot roasting tray, roast in the oven until golden. Sweat and lightly brown the veg, herbs and spices. Add the wine and reduce. Add the roasted bones, deglaze the tray with the water. Add the stock and top up with water if necessary, simmer for 2 hours, pass through 7 muslins. Reduce to sauce consistency. Chill and store.
Red Cabbage Ketchup
-Mandolin the red cabbage, sweat for at least 10 minutes in foaming butter, season straight away. Add the wine & vinegar, bring to the boil, add the apples & sugar, place a cartouche on top, then a lid, braise at 200 until there is no seepage. Puree in the vitamix until silky smooth, pass through the drum sieve. Place into Paco jet canisters & freeze.
-Churn once frozen then defrost.
Smoked Sardine
We use Smoked sardines from ‘Severn & Wye Smokery’
-Trim the top and the tail of the sardine, then trim the belly and dorsal edge, then cut either side of the pin bones to leave two small rectangles of sardine.
-Store in the fridge till needed.
Baby turnips
-Trim off the tops of the turnips, wash and refresh in ice water, keep these for later.
-Remove the outer layer off the turnips, Blanch in salted water and refresh in ice water.
-Store till needed.
Ras el Hanout Mix
-Dry toast all the whole spices and in a separate pan dry toast all the ground spices, place all the ingredients in a blender and take to a fine powder.
Pigeon Sausage Roll
-Cure the legs in the salt and half the ras el hanout for 1 hour, then wash off and dab dry.
-Confit the legs in the fat and the rest of the spices.
Approximately 3 hours.
-Once cooked, leave to cool a little, then lightly pick the meat, tear the skins a little to break them down.
-Weigh the meat and the skin mix.
10% cooked leg weight toasted coarsely chopped pistachios
10% cooked leg weight of coarsely chopped sultanas
10 cooked pigeon livers
20% cooked leg weight in the spiced duck fat
-Mix all of these together and season with salt and pepper.
-Vacuum in 250g bags, Chill
-1 bag of sausage mix will give 8 portions,
Cut these and squeeze gently to round off and plump up the mix.
-Lay a sheet of filo pastry down and brush with clarified butter, place another sheet directly on top and brush again,
Trim off any ragged edges, place 1 sausage mix onto the filo leaving 1 inch from the bottom and 1 inch from the left cut edge, cut along 1 inch away from the other edge, leaving a long rectangle, fold the edges over and brush with a little butter, roll the filo over the sausage keeping tight to the mix, roll until there is an even couple of layers surrounding the sausage, trim off any excess length of filo.
Brush again with the butter and chill. Repeat till all the sausage mix has finished.
To Finish
-Waterbath the pigeon for 20 minutes at 62 degrees.
-Warm the sauce and finish with a little butter,
Warm the red cabbage ketchup And store in a squeezy bottle.
-Bake the sausage rolls for 10 minutes at 210 degrees, once cooked leave to rest on a wire rack.
-Heat the turnips up in a seasoned butter emulsion,
Once the pigeon is cooked, remove from the bag, dab dry, brush with oil and season, crisp up the skin on the plancha,
Remove the mini fillet and carve the breast in half lengthways.
-Place the Sardines in a bit of flour skin side down, shake off any excess then crisp up on the plancha with a little butter.
-Dress the turnip tops and chicory leaves in a little of the pigeon sauce.
To Plate
-We serve the sausage roll first with a little bit of the ketchup, cut the roll in half to display the centre.
-Start the plate with the two halfs of pigeon breast, cut side facing you. Add a few dots of the red cabbage ketchup.
-Place a piece of the sardine on one of the bits of pigeon, and the mini fillet on the other, dress the plate with the dressed leaves and scatter a few cocoa nibs.
Finish the plate off with a bit of the pigeon sauce.