Name: Roast pigeon & ale pie
Yield: Serves 6
Ingredients: 1 bay leaf; 3 medium carrots, peeled and roughly chopped (but not too big); 1 large onion, peeled (reserve skin and trimmings for stock) and finely chopped; 350 g smoked lardons or bacon rashers, chopped; 2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce; 10 black peppercorns; 1 tablespoon sunflower oil; flaked sea salt; 1 tablespoon malt vinegar; breasts from 6 pigeons, carcasses reserved for stock; 3 tablespoons plain flour; ½ tablespoon chopped thyme leaves (reserve stalks for stock); 4 cloves; 125 g butter, frozen for at least 1 hour, coarsely grated; 1 teaspoon crumbled flaked sea salt; 250 g plain flour, plus extra for dusting; flaked sea salt (optional); 85-100 ml cold water; 1 medium free-range egg, beaten; 40 g butter

Preparation info

Serves
6

Difficulty
Medium

Appears in

The Good Table

By Valentine Warner

Published 2013

About

Pigeons remind me of all our seasons, whether cooing me awake on wet spring mornings or slapping away in their arcing displays come summer evenings. They bob and bow over the fallen grains of the autumn and clatter from bare winter branches in great whooshing flocks at the slightest cough. And I think as I look up at them: what a very British bird you are! And when looking down upon the spoon breaking through the crust of the pie, I think: how totally delicious you are! Pigeons make good ea