Mannablog - Food In South Devon

Those of my generation will remember Dasterdly and Mutley’s interminable and always fruitless pursuit of “the Pigeon” back in the day and I have a fond memory of Pigeons being dropped off at the house by friends of my dad and me and mum trussing them in the porch.  (“Writing that has just reminded me of the word “truss” which I haven’t used in a while, but it’s got a lovely ring to it, hasn’t it”. ) 

The pigeon’s we got hold of today came for Jilly’s Farm Shop in Dartmouth and were shot by Jilly’s brother.  I don’t know what the RSPB’s view on the health of the pigeon population is but they seem like a very successful species to me, I see dozens when I’m walking the dogs, probably more than any other bird other than rooks.  If that is the case then a small number taken for food should be very sustainable, and certainly popular with farmers.

As you can see for this dish Holly has hacked the breasts off with a rather rustic looking knife (she said it made it feel more authentically like an Algerian peasant dish).  I hope the rest is being boiled up for soup or something.  The recipe for Algerian Braised Pigeon is below and this link http://bit.ly/1g8HNr will take you to an excellent video called pigeon impossible on YouTube if you have 6 minutes to spare.

Always check you wild pigeon for lead shot of course.

Algerian Braised Pigeon:     

• 4 whole  pigeon breast, skinned
• a good slosh of olive oil
• 1 onion, sliced
• I clove garlic
• 1/2  red chilli, chopped
• 1tbsp quince paste
• 1 teaspoon South Devon Chilli Farm Chilli Jam
• 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp ground cumin
• 1 tin chickpeas
• chopped coriander
• 250ml chicken stock
• salt and pepper

1. Gently soften the onions and garlic in the olive oil along with the cinnamon, chilli and cumin for 5 minutes.
2. Add the quince paste, chilli jam and 205ml chicken stock, cover and simmer for 15 – 20 minutes
3. Add the chickpeas and the pigeon breast and continue to simmer for a further 20 minutes, adding a little more stock if it looks like it’s drying out.
4. Served with a little chopped coriander.  We ate it with potatoes but cous-cous would give it and even more authentic North African touch.   This dish was so delicious that I spontaneously announced to Holly that enjoyed every mouthful and that it would have worked equally well as a vegetarian dish by leaving out the pigeon altogether and using vegetable stock.

Whilst picking up cooking class supplies in Luscombes butchers in Totnes I spied a tray of pinky, blobby looking things.  “Are they sweetbreads?”, I said.  “Yes”, said Elliot the excellent and helpful butcher.  A quick conversation ascertained that they were lambs sweetbreads and what the butcher called throat glands, or thymus if you want to be more scientific.  For those not familiar with these little fellows they are very soft little glands, with a delicate taste which some liken to a mild bacon.  The main attraction, I think, is their melting texture when cooked, imagine perfectly prepared calves livers and then imagine it only twice as soft.

They are something of a rarity here although they will definitely be seen on the menu of restaurants run by any chef influenced by Fergus Henderson, and this dish was  was inspired by a recipe by Mark Hix.  They may also be well known to those born before 1950 when frugality in the kitchen was the norm rather than the exception.   There are probably a number of reasons why they are not prepared at home very often:

1. They are pinky, blobby things that just don’t look attractive (though arguably a vegetarian would say something similar about any piece of meat)

2. They are a gland and therefore unpopular in most UK kitchens where even liver and kidneys struggle for acceptance.   I imaging “eeeuuuccckkk!!  Grrrrrossssss!” would be the reaction of many less adventurous eaters.

3. There are a little painstaking to prepare: soak for some hours or even overnight to wash out blood and enzymes; blanch; devein and removed fat and membrane; then cook them.   Hence my initial question, “Are they worth the effort?”.

In many parts of Europe they are scoffed far more readily and certainly feature regularly in Spanish and Eastern Mediterranean cooking.  I’ve cooked hem before and was delighted to see them in the butchers so I guess I’m in the fan club.

For this dish  I soaked them overnight then blanched them in boiling, salty water for two minutes, this makes removing the outer membrane and other bits much easier.  I made a sauce of red onions, mushrooms, thyme, grain mustard, chicken stock and cream.  To cook the sweetbreads I heated a pan with a little olive oil, sliced the sweetbreads in 5cm strips and tossed them into the hot pan.  I fried them on a high heat for a couple of minutes then reduced the heat a little and added a good knob of butter, frying them until they were a nice colour and just a little crisp.  This sweetbread stroganoff  was served with a tabbouleh with a lemon dressing (a little acid works well with sweetbreads I think).

The tasters liked the results (well it’s certainly different to your average working lunch) and definitely worth the effort for the the creamy texture.  So if you haven’t tried them I urge you to give it a go.   Mark Hix’s original recipe is here

We’ve just had a great weekend at the Cooking School.  On Saturday we had three young boys and their Dad learning how to cook great food on a budget; ideal for teenagers about to head off to college or similar.  On Sunday we ran an Eastern Mediterranean day as part of our Mediterranean Odyssey.  These days are always great fun but the food of this region, Syria, Lebanon, Asian Turkey, etc. is just so colourful and full of surprising flavours that Holly and I got really excited about it.  The food as it was presented looked amazing and I grabbed the camera to take a few snaps before the hungry hoard had a chance to get their forks into it.

Dishes included mutton and pistachio koftas (beautifully moist), blood orange and onion salad (looked stunning) , chicken with pomegranate, hummus with lemon and coriander, tabbouleh, pita and mannaeesh breads and a fabulous rice pudding flavoured with cardamom and served with apricot compote.  This is a fantastic but less well known cuisine and one we’ll definitely be doing lots more of especially during the summer, although the feast we produced was a very good way of brightening up a dull February day.

Also, there’s something about cooking whilst nibbling a few olives and some feta, or tasting dukkah coated grilled mackerel that just makes for a lovely relaxed atmosphere and easy conversation.  What a great way to spend a day!