Woodpigeon Pastrami with Fresh Radishes and Watercress on Sour Dough Bread
Woodpigeon Pastrami with Fresh Radishes and Watercress on Sour Dough Bread

Woodpigeon Pastrami with Fresh Radishes and Watercress on Sour Dough Bread

  • Prep time:

  • Cook time:

  • Total time:

  • Portion/Yield:

    Serves 4

  • Difficulty:

    Experienced

We love traveling but have not done much of that the past 5 years. We both love New York and visited several times. We are always buzzing with inspiration on our return. Our New York gourmet extravaganza are always pretty good and it’s trips neither of us will forget. We tried everything from upmarket restaurants such as WD50 all the way to Carnegie Deli with their giant pastrami sandwiches. Eating is usually at the order of the day and so were the various pastrami techniques. Wylie Dufresne served us a duck pastrami dish and this inspired me to make this pigeon pastrami.

Making pastrami is a tried and tested old technique. There is nothing new or inventive in the method but I have taken the idea and applied it by using my modern equipment and voila! we have a pretty good looking tasty dish. It’s a time consuming process, first you must cure the meat in a spice blend for eight hours then it requires smoking and finally the woodpigeon pastrami is ready to serve.

Woodpigeons might be annoying this time of the year in the garden and freshly sown fields but they eat incredibly well with their rich, dark meat. It’s great to see that they are more regularly available and being sold at most farmers markets and quality butchers. Woodpigeon requires very little cooking and is well paired with other earthy flavours such as the curing spices of juniper berries, coriander seeds and pink peppercorns.

For me the perfect sandwich consists of good quality fresh bread, tasty meat and something crisp, fresh and complimentary. The watercress is the perfect leafy accompaniment to cut through the rich dark pigeon meat, along with the fresh crisp radishes, another seasonal best.photo of Woodpigeon Pastrami with Fresh Radishes and Watercress on Sour Dough Breadphoto of Woodpigeon Pastrami with Fresh Radishes and Watercress on Sour Dough Breadphoto of Woodpigeon Pastrami with Fresh Radishes and Watercress on Sour Dough Breadphoto of Woodpigeon Pastrami with Fresh Radishes and Watercress on Sour Dough Bread

Ingredients & Method

For the pigeon pastrami

  • 1tbs coriander seeds
  • ½tsp black peppercorns
  • ½tsp white peppercorns
  • ½tsp juniper berries
  • 25g coarse sea salt
  • 25g dark muscavado sugar
  • 1 clove of garlic
  • 1tsp thyme leaves
  • 2 whole woodpigeons
  • For the smoking: 1tbs pink peppercorns 200g rice 2 large sprigs of thyme 1tbs juniper berries

For the pickled red cabbage

  • 700g finely sliced red cabbage
  • 1 cinnamon stick
  • Pinch of crushed dried chilies
  • 6 cloves
  • 6 whole juniper berries
  • 2 in number black peppercorns
  • ½ tsp coarse sea salt
  • 1 clove of garlic
  • 50ml balsamic vinegar
  • 50ml malt vinegar

To serve

  • 4 slices of sourdough bread
  • 4 cornichons, sliced
  • 4 caper berries, cut in half
  • 4 breakfast radishes, finely sliced
  • Fresh watercress & Mustard cress

First cure the pigeon breast and legs. To do this make a curing spice mix by grinding together the curing spices, salt, garlic, thyme and sugar. Remove the pigeon breast and legs from the carcass. Rub the curing spice mix into the breast and legs. Vacuum-pack the breast and legs with the spice mix and leave to cure for eight hours.

For the picked red cabbage. Using a pestle and mortar, finely grind the spices for the pickled cabbage, add the salt and garlic and grind until a smooth paste. Transfer the finely sliced cabbage, ground spices and both vinegars to a bag, vacuum-pack tightly and refrigerate for 6 hours. The cabbage pickle is now ready to be used.

Wash the cured pigeon legs and breast and pat dry using kitchen paper. Crush the pink peppercorns and cover the pigeon breast and legs.

Once you are ready to smoke the pigeon, make a smoker using a deep oven tray, metal cooling rack and tin foil. Line the baking tray with a layer of the foil, spread the dry rice, sprigs of thyme and juniper berries and position the cooling rack over the rice mixture. Place the pigeon breast and legs skin-side down on to the cooling rack. Place the tray over heat and start the smoking process. Cover the rack with foil and, once the rice starts to smoke, turn the heat off and leave the pigeon breast to smoke for six minutes and the legs for 12 minutes.

To serve, drain the pickled cabbage and toast the sourdough bread in a griddle pan. Place the warm toasted bread on a serving plate, spoon on 50g of the pickled cabbage, slice the smoked pigeon breast and set out on top. Complete with an arrangement of the sliced cornichons, radishes, watercress and mustard cress. Skewer one pigeon’s leg with two halves of caper berries and serve it on the same plate.