Recipe: Pigeon Carpaccio

Pigeon is such a rich and full flavoured meat, and when it super fresh and in prime condition there are few meats to rival it for sweetness. Pigeon breasts are often served pink after a light roasting, like a rare steak, and they are very nice indeed like this but truly prime examples work very well with even less cookery and the addition of a cheeky garnish. 

Serves 2 as a starter

Ingredients:

1. 4 super fresh, shot free and pristine wood pigeon breasts, skin removed

2. Salt and pepper

3. Fresh thyme, just a few leaves                           

4. A little hard cheese for shaving                         

5. Washed watercress

6. Rape seed oil 

7. Lemon juice

Method:

1. So lightly oil the breasts with a little rape seed oil and season with chopped thyme, salt and pepper. 

2. Get a non stick frying pan good and hot and just sear the breasts briefly on all sides without allowing them to begin cooking on the inside, they should be completely raw really with just the very outside of each breast coloured by the pan.

3. Then, slice the breasts longways as thin as a 2 pence piece and arrange the slices on a couple of plates.

4. Season again, drizzle with more rape seed oil and lemon juice, add the watercress in a scattered over the top sort of fashion and do the same with some shaved hard cheese, a good parmesan will work very well indeed.

5. Serve with some crusty bread and a nice hearty Italian red wine.

Tim Maddams in conjunction with Vale House Kitchen
Find out more about Vale House Kitcken shoot & game cookery courses

Recipes are written by Celebrity Chef Tim Maddams in conjunction with Vale House Kitchen, who run fantastic courses incorporating shoot days and game cookery courses for novices and experienced guns.

Tim has worked under such culinary luminaries as Fergus Henderson, Alistair Little, Marco Pierre White and Mark Hix, as well as leading the VIP catering team for the Ferrari F1 team in Europe. The lure of his country roots was never far away and so Tim returned to the South West and started work at River Cottage.