This Mark Dodson wood pigeon recipe is a modern British classic. Breast of wood pigeon is topped with a potato crisp and drizzled with a blueberry jus and beetroot purée - a dish which looks just as good as it tastes.
Place the beetroot in a pan and cover with water, cook on a low heat. Add a pinch of salt, and leave to cook until soft, this could take up to two hours, you will need to top up the water throughout the process
When soft, drain well and return to the pan, stir them round to evaporate the last of the liquid. Cook with a little with the brown sugar and then pour in the red wine vinegar, cook further until the liquid is a nice caramel colour and then add the double cream, leave to cook and thicken
50g of brown sugar
100ml of red wine vinegar
200ml of double cream
3
Place the mixture into a blender and blend until smooth, season to taste, reserve and keep hot
For the jus, put 20 blueberries in a bowl, throw the 20 remaining in a pan and reduce together with 50g of caster sugar and 50ml of red wine vinegar, crush the blueberries with a fork as you begin to cook. When the liquid is syrupy add the stock and cook further until a syrupy sauce consistency forms. Pass through a sieve and then add to the reserved blueberries
Peel and then slice the potatoes thinly, score the slices into a criss-cross pattern. Rinse them in water, pat them dry and then fry them in a pan with hot oil until golden. Drain on absorbent paper, season and reserve until serving
Place the beetroot purée onto the plate along with some salad leaves and girolles mushrooms. Slice the pigeon and lay on each of the plates, topping with a potato crisp. Pour on the blueberry jus and serve immediately
Mark Dodson speaks the language of comfort food with Shakespearean fluency, turning perfectly formed elements into down-to-earth (but heavenly) compositions.
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Wood pigeon with blueberry jus, beetroot purée and potato crisps
