Friday night in to yourself? Crack open your favourite beer, take over the kitchen and cook up this gorgeously sweet and smoky roasted pigeon. We’ve paired it with a fresh and fruity salad; top any leftover plums and raspberries with fresh whipped cream for a simple dessert.
For the marinade
For the salad
Stir the marinade ingredients together.
Place the whole pigeon in a mixing bowl and brush it with the marinade. Season with salt, pepper and smoked paprika then set aside in the fridge for 20 minutes.
Preheat the oven to 180 degrees. While you’re waiting for the oven to heat up, rub the skins of the plums with a little oil and sugar and place them on a roasting tray.
Once hot, move the marinated pigeon onto a separate lightly greased tray with the garlic and thyme and cook for 20 minutes until nicely browned. Put the plums into the oven at the same time, cooking for around 4 minutes until just beginning to bleed.
Remove the pigeon from the oven and leave to rest. Prepare the salad while the meat’s relaxing, pausing every now and then to baste the pigeon with the juices from the roasting tray.
For the salad, simply dress the watercress with a drizzle of rapeseed oil, then rip up the fresh raspberries and scatter them among the leaves. Cut up the plums.
Serve the rested bird on a plate or board. Arrange the salad around the pigeon, top with the pieces of plum, and sprinkle grated parmesan liberally over the top.
Thank you to Game Alliance for sharing this recipe with us.
Tart rhubarb chutney is the perfect companion for the pan-fried pigeon breasts flavoured with classic Middle Eastern spices.
