Mid-May, the first peas appear on the stalls. This is the exact moment this recipe makes sense — and not before. Pigeon with peas is a combination as old as French cuisine itself, the kind you used to see at grandmothers’ tables and now find in Michelin-starred restaurants.
Ingredients :
- Pigeon — At the butcher or poultry shop, not in supermarkets. One 450 to 500g pigeon per person. The leg should be flexible, the skin without greenish spots. Ask for extra carcasses for the stock — most give them to you if you buy the whole birds.
- Peas — Fresh if it’s May or June, period. Otherwise Extra-Fine frozen — Bonduelle or Picard, nothing else. Canned peas are a no: they have the texture of a purée even before being cooked.
- Reduced poultry stock — Ideally made with roasted pigeon carcasses. If you don’t have time, take a good quality commercial veal stock and reduce it by half before using. A stock that is too liquid will yield a sauce without body or hold.
- Shallots — Two or three, finely sliced. They melt in the butter and bridge the gap between the jus and the vegetables. No onion here — too overpowering for meat as delicate as pigeon.
