Chunky pigeon broth

The weather is gradually turning colder, the leaves are falling and the pigeons are beginning to flock to their winter roosts.
A lightly-spiced broth is a great winter warmer; the ideal supper to tuck into after an evening’s roost shooting. You can serve it on rice or with chips but I prefer it with a couple of chunks of crusty bread.
Pigeon is a very dark, rich meat and some people find it rather strong but this recipe is subtle enough even for people who don’t like their meat too gamey. Frying the meat in the butter, shallot and garlic at the start infuses it with wonderful, sweet flavours.

To serve two

Ingredients
Breast meat from one or two pigeons (depending on how meaty you want it)
2 medium potatoes
1 medium parsnip
2 large carrots
4 shallots (or one onion)
1 clove of garlic
1 vegetable stock cube
1 knob of butter
½ teaspoon of ground cumin
1 pint of water
Salt and pepper

Method

Finely chop the shallots and roughly dice the carrots, parsnip and potatoes. Cut pigeon breast meat into cubes of between half and one inch.
Melt the knob of butter in a saucepan, add the shallots and fry gently until soft. Then crush in the garlic clove, add the pigeon meat and fry for three or four minutes until it begins to turn brown.
Add the water and chopped vegetables and bring to the boil. Stir in the stock cube and the cumin and reduce the heat to a gentle simmer. Cover and cook for 45 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the vegetables become soft. The finished consistency should be that of a thick stew – not watery like a soup but with enough cooking juice to cover the chunks in a thick sauce.
Add salt and pepper to taste, and maybe a touch more cumin, and serve.

Border Fish and Game

Today I caught up with Jonny White who recently took over Border Fish and Game, based in Yeovil, Somerset. You can see his cheerful mug below...

The business was established more than two decades ago and has a fine reputation for supplying top quality game sourced from local shoots. The range includes pheasant, partridge, venison, duck, hare, rabbit and woodpigeon. As the name suggests, the business also supplies fish, including fresh and smoked trout and salmon, and a wide selection of fresh seafood.
During my visit, Jonny and I paid a visit to the Trent Shoot, near Sherborne, to watch some of the guns in action - and to pick up some fresh supplies for Border Fish and Game. The combination of wonderful steep ground and a steady breeze resulted in plenty of testing high birds for the guns.

Jonny supplies game to pubs, restaurants, farmshops and butchers but you can also buy direct. He runs a delivery service and customers are welcome to visit his premises on Lynx West Trading Estate in Yeovil. Apart from selling game, Jonny is always on the lookout for new suppliers. Whether you're interested in buying or supplying, you can contact him on 01935 429777 or email jonny@freshfishandgame.co.uk

Mackerel and chips

Summer is here (well, sort of) and the 'mackerel bashers' are clogging up the beaches. However, we shouldn't criticise the fair weather feather-chuckers - they're targeting one of the tastiest harvests available from the beach.

A lot of people struggle to do anything more adventurous with mackerel than stick them on the grill but there are so many ways to enjoy this delicious, oily fish. Here's a simple recipe that puts a summery twist on fish and chips.

Serves two as a light meal

You will need
Fillets from two mackerel
Olive oil
Honey
Wholegrain mustard
Fresh fennel
Salt and pepper

For the chips

Two medium potatoes
Olive oil
Fresh thyme
Salt and pepper

Method
Cut potatoes into thin chips. Place in baking tray, add a slosh of olive oil, salt, pepper and finely chopped thyme. Toss the chips with your hands to coat evenly, spread to a single layer in tray and cook in oven for 25 minutes at 200C or until crisp and golden brown.
Place mackerel fillets on a plate and drizzle with olive oil. Add a few twists of salt and pepper then sprinkle with chopped fennel. Toss to coat evenly.
Add a small dash of olive oil to a large frying pan and bring to a medium heat. Add the mackerel fillets skin-side down and cook for four or five minutes until crisp and brown. Before turning, use the back of a teaspoon to spread a covering of wholegrain mustard and honey on the top of each fillet. Flip the mackerel over and cook for a further two minutes.
Place mackerel fillets on a bed of fresh salad (the addition of a few torn mint leaves will give it some extra zip) and serve with chips on the side.

Sit tight in summer woods

I've been trying to do some pest control around the woods and it hasn't been easy. Targeting quarry in trees at this time of year is always difficult because of the dense summer foliage. The simple fact is that wild creatures stand a far better chance of seeing us approaching than we do of spotting them hiding among the leaves. It'll be a lot easier when the leaves start to fall in autumn.

In the meantime, the most effective method is to find an area that appears to hold some quarry - around dreys or trees that show signs of squirrel damage, or perhaps close to crops that are being targeted by pigeons and corvids - and wait. Our prey is adept at spotting movement so keeping still is one of the most effective ways of avoiding detection. Dig in and sit tight, and it's surprising what will venture out into the open.

During one of my latest outings, there were a lot of pigeons flitting around among the canopy. Their cooing could easily be heard but they were very hard to spot. I decided to use my pigeon caller in an attempt to draw them in and actually managed to bag one - though I'm not sure whether it was actually responding to my calls. It was a good day's shooting that resulted in a mixed bag - I've filed a full report for a future edition of Airgun Shooter.

Airgun Universe Spring Gathering

I was kindly invited to drop in and see the lads from web forum Airgun Universe over the bank holiday weekend, and what a treat it was. These folks must be one of the friendliest groups of airgun shooters I have ever met.
Unlike many of the online forums, Airgun Universe members are fortunate enough to have a regular opportunity to meet face to face, thanks to moderator Barry Hutchins. Barry organises the annual gathering in beautiful Dorset countryside where members can pitch up a tent and shoot a wide range of targets while enjoying lots of banter and good food. They also had a visit from master airgun tuner Lyn Lewington, who gave everyone a chance to sample the results of his work on the range.
Although the heatwave conditions may not have been ideal for shooting, it was certainly more suited to camping than typical spring weather and everyone seemed to be having a terrific time. Targets included a seriously impressive plinking range and an HFT-style course. Apart from the target ranges, with air supplies provided courtesy of Best Fittings, there was also an opportunity for members to take part in hunting trips. Nothing was wasted, and shot quarry, including squirrels, ended up being put to good use on the barbecue.
I'll file a more comprehensive report with more pics for a future edition of Airgun Shooter magazine. In the meantime, you can see what they got up to at http://www.airgununiverse.co.uk/
Thanks to all for making me feel so welcome. It was a thoroughly enjoyable couple of hours and I'm planning to stick around for longer next time.
Cheers
Mat




Some of the Airgun Universe gang - they don't just eat pies...



Dogfish recipe

Last time I said I'd share my very simple and delicios recipe for dogfish - here it is.

To serve two
You will need
Three dogfish (prepared for the table)
Olive Oil
White wine vinegar
One lemon
One clove of garlic
Fresh parsley and fennel
Salt and pepper

Method
Begin by making the marinade. Pour olive oil (about two tablespoons), white wine vinegar (about two tablespoons), juice from half lemon, crushed garlic and chopped parsley and fennel into a jar. Add a good grind of salt and pepper, screw on the lid and shake to mix the marinade.
Next, chop the dogfish into chunks of between one and two inches in length. Place into a bowl, pour the marinade over the top and mix until evenly coated. Cover bowl with clingfilm and place in the fridge - for a couple of hours if you can wait.

To cook, simply heat a dash of olive oil in a pan, tip in the chunks of marinated dogfish and cook until golden brown, turning once or twice to ensure they're evenly cooked. They shouldn't take much more than five minutes.

The tasty brown chunks of fish will retain all the flavours of the marinade and taste delicious served on a bed of green salad leaves with a squeeze of lemon and a dollop of mayonnaise. Serve with crusty bread and butter.

Dogfish preparation

A lot of shore anglers don't eat dogfish, which is a real pity. They chuck them back because they'd rather be catching some of the more highly regarded (and more scarce) fish such as plaice, black bream and so on. The trouble is that by chucking doggies, which are scavenging predators, back into the sea, you're helping to conserve them and allowing their swelling numbers to continue munching their way through the fish we'd all rather be catching...
A lot of anglers don't eat dogfish because their rough, sandpapery skin is tricky to remove, but hidden underneath is tasty meat commonly sold be fishmongers as huss or rock salmon. And the knack of skinning them is actually pretty easy once you've done a few.

To prepare a dogfish, begin by giving it several hard whacks across the head to ensure a swift death as soon as you beach it.
Next, you need to remove that skin, which is somewhat like peeling a very rough banana. It's best done on the beach rather than in the kitchen...
Use your heel to pin the fish's head to the ground and, using a very sharp knife, cut down into the skin at the top of the fish, just in front of the tail. Continue this cut along the length of the fish to remove a thin, shallow length of skin from tail to head, removing the dorsal fin as you go. Then turn the fish over and repeat along the underside, making a shallow cut from the tail and following the length of the fish, cutting deeper at the belly to remove the guts and underside fins as you go. Cut the whole lot away when you reach the head.
You have now removed flaps of the tough skin from the top and bottom on the fish - but the main areas of skin remain on the sides.
Now make cuts behind the gills to free the remaining side flaps of skin and, keeping your heel on the fish's head, use pliers to grip the end of each side flap of skin and pull firmly upwards to peel away towards the tail. With both flaps removed, you just need to cut off the head and tail and your dogfish meat is prepared.

The long, pink lenghs of meat look quite serpentine but make wonderful eating. Best of all, because dogfish are cartilaginous like other members of the shark family, they don't have any small pin-bones. The meat is of a firm texture, similar to monkfish, and holds up well on kebabs. Next time I'll share a very quick recipe to turn dogfish into a delicious meal.