Pigeon breast and chocolate mole with red currants and parmesan mash

Signe Johansen’s winning recipe from a recent bloggers' food and wine matching event which required her to create a dish to pair with a Chilean Cabernet Sauvignon

Serves 4

For the pigeon and the jus reduction:
Allow 2-3 pigeon breasts per person, ideally with the skin still on
4 tbsp crab apple jelly or redcurrant jelly
1 cup Cabernet Sauvignon
4 tsp grated cacao (I used Willie’s Venezuelan Black - don't use a sweetened chocolate for this)
Salt & pepper
Oil for frying the pigeon
A little chilled butter for finishing the dish
A sprig of redcurrants for each plate

For the mash:
4 large King Edward potatoes, peeled and cut into even-sized pieces
200ml double cream
75g butter
50g grated parmesan
pinch of nutmeg
salt & pepper

First bring the potatoes to a boil in salted water. Cook until tender, drain off the water and shake the potatoes in the hot pan to dry them out. In a separate pan reduce the cream by half, add the butter and blend together. Mash the potatoes to break them up, then add the parmesan and the reduced cream and melted butter. Season to taste and set aside to be re-heated just before serving.

Next put a tablespoon of oil in a medium saut pan (or 2 tbsp in a large one) and saute the pigeon breasts skin-side down over a medium heat for 2-3 minutes, rendering the fat to make it crispy, then turn the pigeon over for a further minute. Remove the pigeon breasts from the saute pan and keep covered in a low oven (100°C or less). Add the red wine to the saute pan and reduce by two thirds, until a deep crimson colour and a viscous consistency. Add the crab apple or redcurrant jelly and warm through to melt the jelly. Finally stir through the grated cacao, and check the seasoning. Finish the jus off with a piece of cold butter to give it extra gloss

Re-heat the parmesan mash, serve on a plate and surround with sliced pigeon, a generous drizzle of the mole jus and garnish with the redcurrant sprig

For more of Signe's recipes visit her blog Scandilicious

A quick, easy way to make a delicious pie

I love pies but you can’t get away from the fact that they’re fiddly and time-consuming so here’s a neat idea for cutting the time they take by at least half and possibly trimming a few calories off the meal into the bargain.

All you need do is buy a pack of ready-rolled pastry, cut it into six - or eight - equal-sized pieces, glaze with beaten egg, prick lightly with a fork and bake in a pre-heated hot oven (225°C/425°F/Gas 7) for about 15 minutes until gloriously golden and puffy. (Turn down the heat a setting if the pastry looks as if it might burn) Then simply serve the lids you’ve created with a stew (which you could easily have made ahead and reheated while the pastry is cooking) or a simple saut.

Apart from the time saving - you no longer have to cool the filling, roll out the pastry to the exact size of your dish, knock up the edges and decorate the pie then cook the whole dish - the lack of moisture underneath the pastry and in the oven makes for a much crisper, flakier result. And if you’re making a pie filling from leftovers such as chicken or with par-cooked vegetables it means you don’t have to cook the filling as long which improves the taste and texture.You can also skip potatoes which will make you feel more virtuous about the whole enterprise!

The best pastry to use if you don’t make your own (and who does, these days?) is Dorset Pastry’s all-butter puff pastry (see their website for stockists) but Jus-Rol is perfectly good, if you can’t track it down.

I’ve made a couple of pies like this recently, a steak and kidney pie and a chicken and asparagus pie (pictured) but of course there’s no reason why you shouldn’t do it with fruit such as apples and plums, both particularly good at the moment. Just sift a little icing sugar over the pastry to dress it up and sweeten it a little.

Chicken with Chardonnay and Chanterelles

I spotted some chanterelles in our local deli yesterday which reminded me I hadn't made this stylish little recipe for a while which comes from my book Cooking with Wine. It is basically an indulgent spin on chicken in white wine and mushroom sauce using wild mushrooms (dried ones work perfectly well) and a decent Chardonnay instead of the dreaded 'cooking wine'. It's worth the extravagance, believe me.

Serves 2
75g fresh or 15g dried chanterelles
40-55 g butter
2 boneless chicken breasts (about 350-400g)
1 tbsp plain flour seasoned with salt and pepper
2 tbsp olive oil
3-4 shallots (about 75g), finely sliced
150 ml subtly oaked new world Chardonnay or white Burgundy*
A good pinch of Spanish sweet smoked paprika (pimenton)
90ml chicken stock (if using fresh chanterelles)
3 tbsp double cream
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
Two coils of dried pappardelle all’uovo or otherwide-ribboned egg pasta (about 100g)
A little freshly grated nutmeg
1 tbsp very finely chopped parsley

Preheat the oven to 200°C/400°F/Gas 6.

If using dried chanterelles soak them for 10 minutes in just enough lukewarm water to cover. Drain them, reserving their soaking liquid which you should pass through a fine sieve. If using fresh chanterelles, brush them lightly with a soft brush, trim the bases and slice them then saute them lightly in 15g of butter.

Dip the chicken breasts in the seasoned flour. Heat a medium-sized frying pan over a moderate heat, add 1 tbsp of olive oil and 15g of butter and place the chicken breasts in skin side down. Fry for about 2 1/2 -3 minutes until the skin is brown and crisp, turn the chicken over and lightly brown the other side. Remove the chicken from the pan, place in an ovenproof dish, transfer to the oven and cook for 20 minutes.

Discard the fat, wipe the pan and replace it over a low heat. Add the remaining oil, another 15g of butter and cook the sliced shallots gently for about 5-6 minutes or until soft

Add the paprika, stir, turn up the heat and pour in the Chardonnay. When the sizzling has died down add 90ml of the reserved mushroom water or chicken stock. Turn the heat down again and leave to simmer for 10 minutes until the liquid is reduced by half then strain the sauce into a bowl through a fine sieve. Return the strained sauce to the pan, add the soaked or sauted mushrooms, cover and simmer for another 5-6 minutes.

Check the chicken. If it’s cooked turn off the oven. If not give it another 5 minutes. Put the pasta on to cook. Take the mushrooms off the heat, stir in the cream and check the seasoning, adding salt and pepper to taste. Replace over a very low heat to thicken, stirring occasionally.

When the pasta is cooked drain thoroughly, stir in a small knob of butter and season with a little pepper and freshly grated nutmeg. Place the chicken breasts on a chopping board and cut with a sharp knife into five or six thick diagonal slices. Transfer them to warm plates, arrange the pasta alongside and spoon over the mushrooms and cream. Sprinkle with a little finely chopped parsley.

What to drink: The same wine you use for the recipe. I'd suggest something like a mid-priced South African, Chilean or New Zealand Chardonnay. Nothing overly oaky but with some richness and fullness.

A stylishly presented alternative cheese board

We tend to get stuck in a bit of a groove when it comes to serving cheese, picking five or six and serving them on a big cheeseboard but if you’re serious about trying to find a good wine match that isn’t the best strategy.

Almost certainly the blues, any washed rinded cheese such as Munster or Epoisses or a mature Camembert or Brie will pose problems for the wine you’re drinking, particularly if it’s a red.

One answer is to limit your selection to two or three cheeses of a similar type as our local tapas bar did the other day (right). This is a red wine-friendly selection of a medium-matured goats' cheese and two hard Spanish sheep's cheeses none of which caused our accompanying glass of Rioja any problems.

Note the other nice aspects of the presentation. The cheese is arranged on a varnished slice of wood which gives the 'board' an appealingly rustic look and accompanied by crisp flat bread rather than crusty bread which makes it lighter and more digestible at the end of a heavy meal. Very stylish!