Ingredients
Confit and smoked pigeon
1 whole pigeon (including head and claws)
Hay
Rapeseed oil
Bay leaves
Peppercorns
Allspice
Juniper berries
Pigeon giblets
Pigeon stomachs
Pigeon fat
Pigeon stock
Pigeon liver
Madeira
Sherry
Red port
Pickling salt
Pepper
Nettle spinach
150g blanched nettles
1 tbsp béchamelsauce
Salt
Nutmeg
Freshly ground pepper
Sautéed nettles
Nettles
Spinach
Shallots
125ml nettle stock
Olive oil
Salt
Pepper
Medlar
10 pieces of medlar
200ml water
200ml sugar
Method
Confit and smoked pigeon
Tie the fresh pigeon together at its legs and hang upside down in the cold store. After two weeks take out the giblets and the drumsticks, and set them aside. Cut off the head. Then, fill the body with hay and slightly smoke it. Vacuum-pack the pigeon and store it again in the cold store. After another week take out the pigeon and briefly fry on the skin side. Confit it for about 40 minutes in a 68°C warm spice oil – made from bay leaves, peppercorns, allspice, juniper berries and smoked rapeseed oil. Take out the two breasts and grill them on a wood-burning stove. Also grill the drumsticks with claws before braising them in the spice oil. Remove the drumsticks carefully from the oil and let them cool down. Finish them on the grill until golden brown.
Pigeon giblets
Clean the stomachs and slightly stew them for two hours in a mixture of half pigeon fat, half pigeon stock. Finally, roll them in nettle dust.For the liver mousse mix the raw pigeon liver with Madeira, sherry and red port, and season with pickling salt and pepper. Refrigerate it.
Nettle spinach
Freeze all ingredients in a Pacojet tumbler and process it at least five times in a Pacojet food processor.
Sautéed nettles
Brown the shallot brunoises and add the nettles. Pour in the nettle stock – therefore, mix apple juice and nettles together with ice cubes, and pass through a sieve – and slightly reduce it. Add the spinach and season with salt, pepper and olive oil.
Medlar
Peel and core the medlars. Marinate them in sugar syrup – therefore, boil up water with sugar and let reduce until syrupy – and store them in the cold store for two weeks. Then, mix the juice with the molecular gelling agent Kappa (5g per 500ml) in order to produce a medlar gel.
To serve
Place the pigeon breast and drumstick together with the stomach on the plate. Put the liver mousse and the spinach cream next to it and serve with the sautéed nettles. Garnish with marinated medlars and its gel. Decorate the plate with dried nettle chips and dust.
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