Game
( anglo-saxon / medieval )
Serves 6
225-350g / 8-12oz wholemeal or wholewheat pastry (quantity
depending on whether you want a lid on your crustade)
1 pigeon, prepared
2 chicken joints (2 breasts or 2 whole legs)
150ml /5floz dry white wine
several grinds of black pepper
4 cloves
15g / 1/2oz butter
50g / 2oz mushrooms, washed, trimmed & roughly chopped
25g /1oz raisins
3 large eggs
salt
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
Roll out 225g / 8oz of the pastry and line a 20cm (8 inch) flan dish; bake the crust blind.
Put the pigeon in a pot with the stock, wine, pepper and cloves and cook very slowly for an hour. Add the chicken and continue to cook for a further 45 minutes or till the meat of both birds is really tender. Meanwhile cook the mushrooms lightly in the butter. Remove the birds from the stock and bone them, reserve the cooking juices. Cut the flesh into quite small pieces, mix it with the mushrooms and the raisins and spread them over the prepared base of the flan case. Beat the eggs with a fork and season with the salt, pepper, and ginger; to this add 240ml / 8floz of the cooking juices and pour over the meat in the flan case. If you want to have a lid, roll out the rest of the pastry and cover the flan. Bake it in moderate oven (180C, 350F, Gas Mark4) for 25 minutes if uncovered, 35 minutes if covered.
Serve warm with a good green salad.