Smoked pigeon & beetroot broth pots

Ingredients

6 pigeon breasts 
½tbs salt 
½tbs sugar 
a few lightly crushed fennel seeds and peppercorns

2 cooked medium beetroot

1 litre game stock

handful of chopped chives

Eat Wild Website

Serves 5

Scrub and bake the beetroots whole with the skin on. You can easily do this when the oven is already on for something else, and then keep them in the fridge once cooked for use as needed. They’re ready when a knife easily enters the flesh.

Mix the salt, sugar and spices together then heavily season the pigeon breasts with the mixture. Don’t worry if you have some left over – it keeps very well, and you can use it for your next smoking effort. 

Leave the pigeon breasts ‘on the cure’ for around 15 minutes, then rinse them off and pat them dry. Leave them exposed to the air for around another 15 minutes or so to allow them to fully dry, then they are ready for a whizz through the hot smoker. A mix of oak and beech wood is best. Leave for around 10 minutes, by which time they should be rare in the middle, cooked on the outside, and gloriously smoky: ideal for our purpose.

Chop the beetroot into small cubes and finely chop a few chives. Heat up the stock and season it well. Cut the pigeon into cubes a little larger than the beetroot, and divide both into serving cups with the chives. Pour hot broth into the cups and serve with teaspoons for ease of consumption