Pigeon Pate - Don't dispose of the livers and hearts, use them&#33

[Mutt]

Mutt’s Perfect Pigeon Pate

 

 

After a successful 3 hours last Saturday morning on a harvested bean field in Herts, I had 40 woodies to breast for the freezer to add to the ones already stored, and to keep me going over the winter with all sorts of delicious recipes.

 

As I breasted the birds, it occurred to me that most pigeon shooters dispose of the livers and hearts with the rest of the bird once the breasts are removed. I suddenly thought about removing them to make a pigeon pate.

 

The result of my little gourmet experiment is here for you to try, and I must say I thought it was delicious on fresh crusty french bread, especially when topped with a home-made red onion chutney.

 

Ingredients - To make up one 4 inch diameter ramekin - This would serve 2 people generously so just double up everything for every 2 more!

 

Unsalted butter – about 2oz

Half a smallish onion - finely diced.

A pair of pigeon breasts (1 bird) - Sliced to help cook evenly with the livers.

Pigeon livers and hearts – Enough to match the size of the breasts.

About a third of a cup of cream – I used double but single may help keep it lighter, or try crème fresh if you want to save the calories.

1 tbsp of brandy – You could use port just as well (I will on my next attempt!).

Half a tsp of minced garlic (can be omitted, it’s up to you)

Heaped teaspoon of English mustard powder (or slightly less if normal mustard, or can be Dijon)

1 tsp of fresh thyme, or less if using dried.

1 tbsp of dried cranberries – only just chopped to show up in final mix and give a sweet hit, plus 2 or 3 to decorate the top.

Salt and lots of fresh ground black pepper to taste – Check for seasoning at the blending stage and note that the final pate will taste much better than when hot in the blender/food processor.

 

Preparation

• Using a heavy based sauté pan/frying pan, sweat down the diced onion in a good amount of the butter over a lowish heat so as to not burn the butter and hence spoiling the mixture and taste.
  
• Once the onion has softened and is translucent, add the garlic paste (if using) and sliced pigeon breasts and livers and hearts.
  
• Season with salt and ground black pepper whilst cooking.
  
• Keep an eye on the heat to stop the butter burning, and cook for 3 or 4 minutes until lightly coloured one side – don’t keep moving about, just allow it all to cook evenly.
  
• Turn and repeat on the other side.
  
• At this stage add the brandy to cook out the alcohol but leave the flavour – careful as it will flame if you get it anywhere near the heat source. If you know what you are doing you can catch it alight on purpose to speed up this process. Also you can actually add the brandy or port at the blending stage instead, which will give it a much stronger flavour and still have the alcohol kick.
  
• Just when the meat and liver/hearts are cooked add the thyme to just take the residual heat to help it cook a little, then remove the pan from the heat altogether and allow to cool only slightly before blending.
  
• Using a blender or food processor add the entire mix once it has cooled down just a little – you still need some heat as the cream and mustard will cook in with mix in the blender/processor.
  
• To the mix add the mustard and some of the cream, and then pulse blend to your preferred consistency (I like mine slightly rough like an Ardenne style pate). Stop after a couple of pulses and scrap down the side to ensure an even mixture, and add more cream to lighten the consistency too.
  
• Check the seasoning at this stage and add more salt and pepper if needed.
  
• Pour/scrape the mix into a ramekin to about 1 third full and add a thin spread layer of the lightly chopped dried cranberries. Add another third of the mix then another thin layer of dried cranberries, then the rest of the mix and smooth down with the back of a spoon before cleaning up the ramekin edge.
  
• Add 3 whole cranberries on top for decoration, or sprinkle the whole top with more lightly chopped cranberries, and then place in the fridge to set. Then cover with cling film and enjoy with that all important sweet kick of onion chutney - which all supermarkets sell, if you don’t make your own. I may post a recipe for mine too later, if anyone is interested.
  
• You can top with clarified butter once set, so it should last up to 2 weeks (if you can resist dipping in, as I couldn’t!!). For that just heat butter gently in a small pan and skim the top to leave a clear liquid. Pour over just enough to cover and pop back in the fridge to set that too.
  

 

Enjoy with a glass of red wine or port, and please let me know if anyone tries this, and perhaps we can start getting more people to use more of the pigeon than just the breast, as what most of us dispose of generally, is delicious….trust me!

[.philmypower.]

Will have to give that a try, sounds great

[Cosd]

Dribbling all over my keyboard!!!

 

Thanks for sharing, definitely something to try.

 

If you included a picture I would have scored you 10/10, since you didn't you get 9.9/10

 

 

Cos

[Mutt]

Thanks Philmypower and Cosd.

 

The pate was so good I felt compelled to share my recipe with the forum.

 

As I get better with posts i will add pictures to pull in the missing 0.1/10!!

 

Cheers boys and enjoy!

[Jonty]

That sounds good, approximately how many livers & hearts did it take?

 

Cheers

[Mutt]

^{Hi Jonty}

^{Pigeon livers are not huge and they cut out in 2 parts from the bird.}

 

^{If i figure it out, I divided all the livers and hearts from the 40 birds into 5 separate bags for freezing, so I could use them in equal amount portions as and when needed, rather than freezing them in one big lump, as that would obviously limit using them in the future.}

 

^{So I would say it was probably the livers and hearts from 7 or 8 birds added to the breast meat from 1 bird.}

 

^{Hope That helps}

^Cheers

^Mutt

[Thunderbird]

That looks great.

 

We had rabbit liver pate at the Cotswold do in 2011 and it was gorgeous.

[Mutt]

Oh yes, i love rabbit generally and just wish I had more places to shoot them myself! I bet that pate was something as well!

[Thunderbird]

It was mate, but yours looks amazing. I'm going to make me some of that.

[halfbee]

Sounds superb. I don't know wether I can be bothered with the livers of so many birds, I'm tempted to use 1 or 2 rabbit livers.

[Thunderbird]

The recipe for the rabbit liver pate was posted by Hendersons here on PW probably in Autumn 2011.

[pigeon pete]

i was only talking to my mother in law 2 days ago as she make a great live once a week for my tea and i said to her ,do she want me to keep the livers from the pigeons,so if i get any on sat i will try them ;-)

[Mutt]

I am sure that substituting rabbit liver would be perfectly fine, or any other game liver for that matter. Has anyone ever tried pheasant liver? I guess this would depend on how many birds you can get, as most shoots that I have been on only provide a brace to each gun.

 

Makes you think about partridge and grouse livers too! Smaller game like snipe or woodcock would just be too small in my opinion.

 

In response to halfbee who said he didn't know whether he could be bothered with the livers of so many birds, I guess it depends on what each person does with each one. I breast them, some others crown them (I used to do this but I find it awkward and slower than how I cut the breasts straight out).

 

But either way you can access the livers directly from the crowning, and if breasting just slit under the breast cage and lift to reveal both the liver and heart which are then taken in seconds and dropped into an open collection bag.

[Zapp]

Looks well worth a go to me.

[halfbee]

Thanks Mutt, I've only ever breasted pigeon. I don't bother at all any more now my daughter is old enough. ;-)

[John_R]

Mutt, I have done a couple Italian dishes with pheasant where the livers were used. I did not hang the birds more than the night after they were shot.

 

I suspect hanging longer would spoil the liver pretty quickly.

[Thunderbird]

Mallard liver is nice too.

[ace_of_hearts]

Sorry for the numpty question, but I'm doing this for the first time, but is this the heart and liver

[ace_of_hearts]

Well have just made it so will try it out tomorrow it smells great!

[Mutt]

Hi Ace of Hearts - yes you have both the liver and heart out fine, enjoy! Let us all know what you think of it, and a tip for use would be to let it come up nearer to room temperature for a while beffore eating, as it will set fairly firm in the fridge.

 

John R - you are very correct to say just use fresh pheasant livers if intending to hang them at all.

 

Mallard liver too sounds promising, Thunderbird.

 

Got me thinking about geese liver too!

[ace_of_hearts]

Well the whole lot is already gone. Absolutely delicious

 

Just wish I had enough to make some more :(

[Mutt]

Glad you enjoyed it ace-of-hearts, now you will have to get out and shoot some more.

 

I will be out on Saturday morning as the pigeon still seem to be flocking on my permissions. It will be an early morning's pigeon shooting, followed by the bi-weekly clay shoot at the Redbournbury fishery in Hertfordshire at 1230hrs. A great way to start the weekend properly.

[ShropshireSam]

Excellent recipe.

I had a tub of about 20 hearts and livers in the freezer just waiting for inspiration.....followed your recipe but without adding the breast meat.

Wonderful on some wholemeal toast and topped with some damson chutney.....all homemade.

As you said...easy to collect the heart and liver and well worth the effort.

[Mutt]

_{Hello Sam, I guess just the hearts and livers would have made the pate nice and light. I'll try it that way myself soon. I did make some more over the weekend but I substituted a single pheasant breast instead of pigeon breast, to go with the pigeon hearts and livers, and this time I used port instead of brandy, and the result was another great pate. I made some homemade caramelised red onion chutney to go with it too, and the combination on Irish batch loaf toast (this sliced bread makes the best toast ever in my opinion, and it is sold in supermarkets like Asda).}

_{On the shooting front I had a disappointing morning on Saturday with just a few pigeon shot. It was my fault for leaving later than planned and not checking the farms I shoot properly, as I was told later that I missed a wheat stubble field that had lots of birds on. At least I didn't miss a single bird that I did shot at ......which is a rare thing!}

_{On the clay shoot at Redbourbury I had a fair day. I had 4 decent stands only missing the odd one or two, but then 2 stands where I only hit 4/10 on each. One was a super fast right to left crossing middy clay that we shot down on from an earth mound as it flew past us over their trout lake. Most people had trouble with that stand, so it wasn't just me. You needed to swing the gun super fast to have any chance of getting on it and past. Still a nice autumn day all round.}

_{On Sunday I play golf early, and I had a good foraging round as there were heaps of big Horse Mushrooms, that were screming out to be collected. I also took some apples from one of the course trees to make a apple tartin, and Lee from the Redbournbury fishing/shooting club was good enough to bring me a big batch of enormous Sloes that he had collected from one of our shooting farms. They will go into making a demijohn of Sloe Gin, and Lee got a ramekin of pheasant and pigeon pate as a reward for his generosity.}

[acol gun]

Mutt’s Perfect Pigeon Pate

 

 

After a successful 3 hours last Saturday morning on a harvested bean field in Herts, I had 40 woodies to breast for the freezer to add to the ones already stored, and to keep me going over the winter with all sorts of delicious recipes.

 

As I breasted the birds, it occurred to me that most pigeon shooters dispose of the livers and hearts with the rest of the bird once the breasts are removed. I suddenly thought about removing them to make a pigeon pate.

 

The result of my little gourmet experiment is here for you to try, and I must say I thought it was delicious on fresh crusty french bread, especially when topped with a home-made red onion chutney.

 

Ingredients - To make up one 4 inch diameter ramekin - This would serve 2 people generously so just double up everything for every 2 more!

 

Unsalted butter – about 2oz

Half a smallish onion - finely diced.

A pair of pigeon breasts (1 bird) - Sliced to help cook evenly with the livers.

Pigeon livers and hearts – Enough to match the size of the breasts.

About a third of a cup of cream – I used double but single may help keep it lighter, or try crème fresh if you want to save the calories.

1 tbsp of brandy – You could use port just as well (I will on my next attempt!).

Half a tsp of minced garlic (can be omitted, it’s up to you)

Heaped teaspoon of English mustard powder (or slightly less if normal mustard, or can be Dijon)

1 tsp of fresh thyme, or less if using dried.

1 tbsp of dried cranberries – only just chopped to show up in final mix and give a sweet hit, plus 2 or 3 to decorate the top.

Salt and lots of fresh ground black pepper to taste – Check for seasoning at the blending stage and note that the final pate will taste much better than when hot in the blender/food processor.

 

Preparation

• Using a heavy based sauté pan/frying pan, sweat down the diced onion in a good amount of the butter over a lowish heat so as to not burn the butter and hence spoiling the mixture and taste.
  
• Once the onion has softened and is translucent, add the garlic paste (if using) and sliced pigeon breasts and livers and hearts.
  
• Season with salt and ground black pepper whilst cooking.
  
• Keep an eye on the heat to stop the butter burning, and cook for 3 or 4 minutes until lightly coloured one side – don’t keep moving about, just allow it all to cook evenly.
  
• Turn and repeat on the other side.
  
• At this stage add the brandy to cook out the alcohol but leave the flavour – careful as it will flame if you get it anywhere near the heat source. If you know what you are doing you can catch it alight on purpose to speed up this process. Also you can actually add the brandy or port at the blending stage instead, which will give it a much stronger flavour and still have the alcohol kick.
  
• Just when the meat and liver/hearts are cooked add the thyme to just take the residual heat to help it cook a little, then remove the pan from the heat altogether and allow to cool only slightly before blending.
  
• Using a blender or food processor add the entire mix once it has cooled down just a little – you still need some heat as the cream and mustard will cook in with mix in the blender/processor.
  
• To the mix add the mustard and some of the cream, and then pulse blend to your preferred consistency (I like mine slightly rough like an Ardenne style pate). Stop after a couple of pulses and scrap down the side to ensure an even mixture, and add more cream to lighten the consistency too.
  
• Check the seasoning at this stage and add more salt and pepper if needed.
  
• Pour/scrape the mix into a ramekin to about 1 third full and add a thin spread layer of the lightly chopped dried cranberries. Add another third of the mix then another thin layer of dried cranberries, then the rest of the mix and smooth down with the back of a spoon before cleaning up the ramekin edge.
  
• Add 3 whole cranberries on top for decoration, or sprinkle the whole top with more lightly chopped cranberries, and then place in the fridge to set. Then cover with cling film and enjoy with that all important sweet kick of onion chutney - which all supermarkets sell, if you don’t make your own. I may post a recipe for mine too later, if anyone is interested.
  
• You can top with clarified butter once set, so it should last up to 2 weeks (if you can resist dipping in, as I couldn’t!!). For that just heat butter gently in a small pan and skim the top to leave a clear liquid. Pour over just enough to cover and pop back in the fridge to set that too.
  

Enjoy with a glass of red wine or port, and please let me know if anyone tries this, and perhaps we can start getting more people to use more of the pigeon than just the breast, as what most of us dispose of generally, is delicious….trust me!

 

What a wonerfully simple recipe with a delicious result. I am not a good cook but it was so easy to follow and the results were definitely first class. Thanks