Pigeon with Beetroot and Rabbit Risotto

I thought I had better have a practice at getting back into the blogging groove. It will be another 4 weeks until I am back up and running properly.

This recipe is a treat. The sweetness of the beetroot in the risotto provides a freshness against the pigeon breast's depth of flavour.

The Purple Sprouting Broccoli comes from my own garden - having a north facing veg patch means that we get this in abundance over a longer growing season than we might otherwise experience.

Ingredients

250g risotto rice
1 onion
3 cloves of garlic
100g olive oil spread
1 table spoon of brandy
1 large glass of red wine
4 mushrooms
5 cooked baby beetroot
handful of fresh thyme
100g grilled (or BBQ'd!!) rabbit
handful of parsley
1 ltr beef stock
1 bay leaf
1 tablespoon of Mascarpone cheese

3 Pigeon breasts

Purple Sprouting broccoli

Method

Melt the olive oil spread in a heavy bottomed frying pan.

Soften the onion and garlic then add the risotto rice. Make sure this is well coated then add the brandy and flame off the brandy. Give a good stir to the pan and add the red wine.

Simmer off the wine and then the intensive bit of the job starts. Make your stock (I put the bay leaf in this rather than the main pan) and add a little at a time whilst constantly stirring the rice. Do this until the rice has softened - about 45 minutes or so. You may need more stock - it really requires a bit of judgement on behalf of the maker (or chef if you are better than me at it!).

Part way through add the mushrooms and beetroot, sliced to a medium thickness. Then add the thyme - finely chopped.

We had BBQ'd a rabbit last night and there were the hind legs left so I added a bit of that in (not essential though). Rabbit is great - but a bit bony so if you do put dome into this dish make sure no bones get in there - they are an unwelcome addition to a bite of food!!

Just before serving stir in the parsley (finely chopped) and the mascarpone.

Grill the pigeon breasts for a minute on each side. I seasoned with some good salt and nothing else. Let it rest for 5 mins and slice to serve.

The Purple Sprouting Broccoli only takes a minute or two in a pan with a shallow amount of water.

This is a great dish and really enjoyable "something different" meal.

Missing

Andy has been working away for the last year and so hasn't been able to do this blog, anyway he'll be back in August so things should change soon.

New Kitchen

Only a matter of days now till we'll be back up and running

New Kitchen

At the moment we are currently half way through getting our Kitchen re done and so haven't got any updates at the moment. As soon as were back up and running were going to treat ourselves and cook something special.

Fish Pie

Our village has a market on a Wednesday and when time permits in the morning before going to work Andrew likes to go. The fish stall comes from Fleetwood with that days fresh catch so its really as fresh as it gets.

Ingredients

Cod
Sweetcorn
Spinach
Seasoning
White Sauce
Mashed Potatoes
Breadcrumbs

The cod, sweetcorn, spinach and seasoning were mixed together in the white sauce and the the mashed potato was the layered on top with breadcrumbs spinkled on top. This was then all baked in the oven for 30 mins.

Leg of Lamb

Andrew asked that I update his website this week whilst he's away as he thought it would give me something to do, so apologies now for not putting up as much detail as normal. Maybe Andrew will update it soon with the detail.
Anyway my sister-in-law was with us this weekend so we decided that we'd use something local so we choose a leg of lamb from the farm across the road. This was marinaded for a few hours in a range of spices (in a Moroccan style) this was then roast for a couple of hours. Shortly before the lamb was ready we add a couple of tins of Chick pea's so they'd absorb some of the flavours of the meat. To serve we also made a salad with some lettuce from the veg patch as it was a really lovely day we ate outside.

Picture should be here but I can't get the computer to do what i want

Frank Salad

I am not sure if I have any avid fans but just in case I do I need to explain why the blog has been unpopulated over the last month. The reason is that we have moved from our little two bed apartment and purchased an old farmhouse out in the sticks. The place is significantly bigger than what we are used to and needs a bit of effort to scrub it up to my wife's high standards.

Anyway - first job was to plant up the vegetable patch (we moved in at the start of June so were probably a bit late for the growing season but spinach and salad should do ok).

We have some really nice new neighbours and Frank from across the road dropped off some salad leaves and some lettuce for me to plant so fittingly (despite having a lovely range cooker at my disposal - and gas!!!) the first post is dedicated to the humble salad.

Ingredients

Selection of fresh salad leaves
2 tomatoes
4 radish
1 ball of buffalo mozzarella
1 red onion
4 new potatoes
1 oz butter
3 tablespoons red wine vinegar
1 teaspoon of ginger wholegrain mustard
2 tablespoons of honey
1 teaspoon of plum and port conserve
salt

Method

Arrange the salad items (less the red onion) on a plate, leaving a gap in the middle.
layer the mozzarella on the plate with the tomato and put mozzarella in the gap in the middle of the leaves.
Boil the potatoes then drain. Add the butter to the pan and keep on the heat. When the butter is melted add the sliced red onion and then mix the remaining ingredients and reduce the liquid by half.
Place the potatoes with onion and dressing in the middle of the plate, the heat will start to melt the mozzarella and any spare dressing in the bottom of the pan can be drizzled over the leaves.