Sous vide pigeon with textures of beetroot

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Pigeon and beetroot are the stars of this earthy main. Preparing this dish exactly as Colin McGurran does in his restaurant will require some skill as well as some specialist equipment - you could always take this pigeon and beetroot recipe as inspiration and prepare one or two of the components rather than the complete dish. Colin recommends making a pigeon jus or gravy to use as a sauce.

First published in 2015

Ingredients

Metric

Imperial

Pigeon

Beetroot purée

Smoked beetroot

Beetroot powder

Beetroot relish

Pickled beetroot leaves

Pear

  • 1 pear, fresh and ripe

Equipment

  • Blender
  • Pastry cutter
  • Fine chinoise
  • Sous vide equipment
  • Pastry comb

Method

1
To make the onion oil for this recipe, simply place 100ml of rapeseed or vegetable oil in a pot with 1/4 of a chopped onion
2
Place on a medium heat for 5 minutes, remove and allow to infuse for 1-12 hours. Strain and set aside
3
Preheat the oven to 100°C set to steam
4
For the beetroot powder, vac pac the beetroot and cook in the steam oven for 30 minutes
5
Remove from the oven, slice thinly and dry in a dehydrator overnight until very crispy
6
Blitz for 3 minutes in a blender on a high speed and then store until ready to serve
7
Preheat the oven to 100°C/gas mark 1/4
8
For the smoked beetroot, wash the beetroot before sealing in a large vac pac bag. Place in the oven and cook for 90 minutes
9
Remove from the oven and allow to cool before cutting into 3mm slices. Using a 4cm pastry cutter, cut the discs down further into a uniform size
10
Use a smoker with the chips to smoke the beetroot for 2 hours and set aside. The beetroot will need to be smoked again 30 minutes before serving
  • 50g of wood chips
11
For the purée, wash and peel the beetroot before chopping into small cubes. Place in a vacuum bag with sugar and salt, seal and cook in the oven at 100°C for 80 minutes
12
Remove from the bag and blitz in a blender before passing through a chinoise. Store in a vacuum pac bag and keep warm until needed, or simply re-heat in a pan before serving
13
For the relish, heat the oil in a pan over a medium heat and add the shallots. Fry until golden brown
  • 100g of shallots, finely chopped
  • 50ml of oil
14
Add the grated beetroot, vinegar, salt and pepper to the pan. Allow to cool a little then seal in a vac pac bag until ready to use
15
Prepare the pigeon by first removing the skin, then the breasts
16
Place each breast into its own vac pac bag with 5ml of onion oil, some thyme, salt and pepper in each. Seal and cook in water bath for 15 minutes at 58°C
17
Remove the breasts from the bag and keep warm until needed
18
To make the pickled beetroot leaves, first wash and prep the leaves- if you are using large leaves cut out discs, or just use baby leaves
19
Whilst preparing the other elements for plating, place the beetroot leaves into the sherry vinegar to lightly pickle
20
To serve, peel the pear and cut it into quarters. Using a small sieve, cover the pear with beetroot powder and slice just before serving
  • 1 pear, fresh and ripe
21
Place a spoonful of the warm beetroot puree on the plate and use a pastry comb to create a streaky effect across the base of the plate
22
Place the warm sliced pigeon breast at either end of the streak and place the pear in the middle. Follow with the discs of smoked beetroot, a few extra dollops of puree and the pickled beetroot leaves
First published in 2015

Colin McGurran began his career with a burning ambition to own a red Mercedes. Almost 20 years on and he has fulfilled that ambition and much more besides.

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