I SUPPOSE I OUGHT to be suspicious when the recipe states that I braise the wood pigeon for 1½ hours.
Most game is remarkably fat-free; it doesn't take to being slow cooked like this - it tends to get rather tough and dry.
As indeed is the case, here. Oh, flavoursome enough, yes, but distinctly overdone. Still, the gravy is nice - rich and thick and tasty.
But I have to report my experimental cook this week isn't my most successful of efforts.
The thing that bugs me, though, even more than the pigeon, is the mashed potatoes - at which I'm usually something of an expert. But each time I've tried to do them recently, no matter how much welly I've given the spuds with the hand masher, they've ended up lumpy.
Wrong variety of spud I suspect.
Actually, we're discussing mashed potato in the Geriatrics' Corner of the Pub.
We're joined by Rob, the chef, who has his own views about how mash should be done. "You boil the potatoes in their skins," he says. "And you peel them while they're hot."
He adds that he's been reading a cook-book by his mate, Heston Blumenthal, and according to Heston you peel the spuds first, chop them into 1 cm cubes, boil them, and then you boil up the peelings - and add the water from the skins to the mash.
At least this sounds a bit less painful a method than peeling spuds while they're still hot, but even so...
It's My Good Lady who suggests yet another method. "Cook them as jacket potatoes," she says. "Then just scrape them out of their skins."
I may try this...
They'll still end up lumpy, I suspect; simply the wrong variety of spud (i.e. cheap ones).
Most game is remarkably fat-free; it doesn't take to being slow cooked like this - it tends to get rather tough and dry.
As indeed is the case, here. Oh, flavoursome enough, yes, but distinctly overdone. Still, the gravy is nice - rich and thick and tasty.
But I have to report my experimental cook this week isn't my most successful of efforts.
The thing that bugs me, though, even more than the pigeon, is the mashed potatoes - at which I'm usually something of an expert. But each time I've tried to do them recently, no matter how much welly I've given the spuds with the hand masher, they've ended up lumpy.
Wrong variety of spud I suspect.
Actually, we're discussing mashed potato in the Geriatrics' Corner of the Pub.
We're joined by Rob, the chef, who has his own views about how mash should be done. "You boil the potatoes in their skins," he says. "And you peel them while they're hot."
He adds that he's been reading a cook-book by his mate, Heston Blumenthal, and according to Heston you peel the spuds first, chop them into 1 cm cubes, boil them, and then you boil up the peelings - and add the water from the skins to the mash.
At least this sounds a bit less painful a method than peeling spuds while they're still hot, but even so...
It's My Good Lady who suggests yet another method. "Cook them as jacket potatoes," she says. "Then just scrape them out of their skins."
I may try this...
They'll still end up lumpy, I suspect; simply the wrong variety of spud (i.e. cheap ones).
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