I love pigeon. I have eaten it in some pretty high ranking restaurants. I have high standards for my pigeon. It is my absolute preferred protein with wings.
They are hard to come by here. Not sure why as they are a Middle Eastern favourite. When we first moved to Dubai they were commonly available but now it's rare so when I see them I cannot resist.
The farmed birds I get are 350gms each and for a main course one each is required. I take time and care with my pigeon as I hold them in very high esteem. I therefore like to spend time over butchering to enjoy the whole bird. This time I fully deboned two wings, keeping two wings as is, I took off the breast fillets, removed the legs and thigh bone, frenching the little leg bone so for each person I had two breasts, two boned french legs, one boned out wing and one wing bone in.
My jus was made with the carcass and like the boning this takes time. Chopping the bones and roasting them in the oven for an hour is the key to developed flavours. I used duck fat to help it along as well, then deglazed with red wine and port, added water, cooked it for another hour on the stove top then refrigerated it to take off the fat layer, strained it through a new cloth, reheated to reduce to sauce consistency adjusting with good sherry vinegar, salt and sugar at the end. This was a serious sauce that I'm pretty sure most cooks would be proud of.
I dusted the pigeon with Chinese 5 spice and salt and roasted the wings in the oven, adding the little legs near the end as they only took 10 minutes to cook. I wanted the bone in wings to cook until crispy.
The breasts and the deboned wings were done in a pan with duck fat. Pigeon breasts have a very small window of perfection. In my opinion once the skin is rendered they should be turned over, removed from the heat and left to rest. No more cooking than that. This results in sweet tender perfectly rested rare meat that is melting. Even taking them to medium or the slightly rarer side of medium will result in a livery taste which is unpleasant and you'd be left wondering why anybody would like them.
Beetroot and pigeon work very well together. I roasted some beetroot off, fried some sage leaf until crisp and made a smooth creamy turnip puree. The result was a sublime balance of slightly bitter/sweet/creamy turnip, rich deep jus with the right balance of acid vs sweet, earthy beetroot, sweet pigeon, crispy skin and sage. It was a show stopper even for me and I am so SO critical on myself.
They are hard to come by here. Not sure why as they are a Middle Eastern favourite. When we first moved to Dubai they were commonly available but now it's rare so when I see them I cannot resist.
The farmed birds I get are 350gms each and for a main course one each is required. I take time and care with my pigeon as I hold them in very high esteem. I therefore like to spend time over butchering to enjoy the whole bird. This time I fully deboned two wings, keeping two wings as is, I took off the breast fillets, removed the legs and thigh bone, frenching the little leg bone so for each person I had two breasts, two boned french legs, one boned out wing and one wing bone in.
My jus was made with the carcass and like the boning this takes time. Chopping the bones and roasting them in the oven for an hour is the key to developed flavours. I used duck fat to help it along as well, then deglazed with red wine and port, added water, cooked it for another hour on the stove top then refrigerated it to take off the fat layer, strained it through a new cloth, reheated to reduce to sauce consistency adjusting with good sherry vinegar, salt and sugar at the end. This was a serious sauce that I'm pretty sure most cooks would be proud of.
I dusted the pigeon with Chinese 5 spice and salt and roasted the wings in the oven, adding the little legs near the end as they only took 10 minutes to cook. I wanted the bone in wings to cook until crispy.
The breasts and the deboned wings were done in a pan with duck fat. Pigeon breasts have a very small window of perfection. In my opinion once the skin is rendered they should be turned over, removed from the heat and left to rest. No more cooking than that. This results in sweet tender perfectly rested rare meat that is melting. Even taking them to medium or the slightly rarer side of medium will result in a livery taste which is unpleasant and you'd be left wondering why anybody would like them.
Beetroot and pigeon work very well together. I roasted some beetroot off, fried some sage leaf until crisp and made a smooth creamy turnip puree. The result was a sublime balance of slightly bitter/sweet/creamy turnip, rich deep jus with the right balance of acid vs sweet, earthy beetroot, sweet pigeon, crispy skin and sage. It was a show stopper even for me and I am so SO critical on myself.
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