Newsletter February 2004
Modern Country Living - Domestic Bliss
Game On: a Plucky little Pigeon
Great friends of ours have sold their wonderful
estate and are moving about 25 miles away. For most of you 25
miles are nothing - hop in the car and really they are just a
little further away and it is no big deal. But for us islanders,
25 miles might as well be 2500 miles! To see them will now involve
military organization and over night bags. While it is a great
USP for our business, the ferry can be a pain personally. I do
feel bereft at their leaving and so will our village although
the full on departure hasn’t hit most of it yet because in truth,
they have no idea just how much our local community relies on
the goodwill of a really good squire. In this PC world of ours
we don’t talk about squires -everyone must be deemed to be the
same. But in fact it is about time that we embraced our class
system and made it work for us. In America people are always trying
to better themselves either by reinvention or study – in the back
of a very up market magazine (available to all) called Town and
Country there are ads for etiquette tuition - can you imagine
Harpers and Queen or Tatler advertising such courses? Well maybe
it’s time they did so that people know what it is to be polite
and well mannered. That doesn’t mean you have to become a phoney
or a fake, you just need to become understanding of what makes
the world a nicer place to live in. Those who have more do indeed
have a responsibility to put more back into society. My point
is that I hope the new owners will do as much stealth good works
as the last and I hope that those who have not noticed it will
go on not noticing it but in an appreciative way.
Recipe:
AS Pan Fried Pigeon breasts with Maltaise sauce
Serves 6
12 pigeon breasts -2 per person
Clarified butter
2-3 tbsp flour
Salt and pepper
1 orange – segmented
Watercress to garnish
Maltaise Sauce
Sauce will serve about 6
2 large organic egg yolks
Juice of ½ a lemon
1 tablespoon water
Salt and white pepper
250g unsalted butter cut into cubes
1 whole organic orange – juice and zest
Sauce:
Place the egg yolks, lemon juice, water, sugar, salt and pepper
in a bowl over a pan of simmering water (do not let the bowl come
into contact with the water) and whisk until the mix leaves a
ribbon trail. Whisking constantly, drop in the cubes of butter
one at a time - don’t drop in the next cube until the previous
one has been absorbed. This will take some time.
In another small pan, reduce the juice of the orange
together with the zest by half
When all the butter is gone and you have a thick
velvety sauce add the orange juice reduction and zest. Taste for
seasoning and serve.
Make the Maltaise sauce and keep warm.
Season the flour with salt and pepper and put it
on to a flattish plate. Dust the pigeon breasts in it and shake
off the excess.
Heat a heavy frying pan so that it is searingly
hot. Melt about a tablespoon of clarified butter in it and pan
fry the pigeon breasts in batches for 2 minutes each side or longer
to your liking.
Drain the breasts on some kitchen paper and rest
for 5 minutes in a warm place.
Slice them and arrange on a warm plate and spoon
over some of the sauce and garnish with watercress and an orange
segment.
Tip:
Do something nice for your village, town, street or even a neighbour
today!
This article by Amy Willcock appears
in The Shooting Gazette February 2004, and is reproduced here
with permission.
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