Name: Pigeons aux Trois Herbes sur Lit de Riz (Pigeon with Three Herbs on a Bed of Rice)
Yield: Serves 2–3.
Cuisine: France
Ingredients: about 300 ml(10–18 fl oz) stock or water; 2 woodpigeons; fresh thyme, rosemary and marjoram; 225 g(8 oz) brown round-grain rice; salt, milled pepper; 1 slice of lard fumé or smoked streaky bacon; 55 g(2 oz) butter; 1 shallot, finely chopped

Preparation info

Serves
2–3
.

Difficulty
Medium

Appears in

French Country Kitchen

By Geraldene Holt

Published 1987

About

Plump harvest woodpigeons are at their best in August and September. I devised this dish in order to turn what I normally regard as the tediously long cooking time of brown rice to advantage, but when we came to eat the dish we found the combination of riz complet with pigeons unexpectedly good.

Ingredients

2 woodpigeons
fresh thyme, rosemary and marjoram
55 g(2

Method

Have the pigeons plucked and dressed for the oven. Tuck most of the herbs into the body cavities.

Melt the butter in a cast-iron casserole and cook the lard fumé and shallot in it for 2 minutes. Add the pigeons and turn them in the butter until browned all over. Transfer the pigeons to a plate and season with salt and pepper.

Stir the rice into the butter remaining in the