Spicy Pigeons With Olives

Portions:2
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Equipment

Ingredients

  • 1 tablespoon tomato paste
  • 1 teaspoon sugar
  • 1 teaspoon paprika
  • 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
  • 1 teaspoon ground cumin
  • 1 teaspoon ground coriander
  • 1½ tablespoons smen or ghee
  • 2 fresh wood pigeons prepared by a butcher, cleaned and left whole
  • 4 bay leaves
  • 4 cloves
  • juice of 1 lemon
  • 300 ml water
  • 10 cracked green olives
  • sea salt and black pepper

Instructions

  • Mix together the tomato paste with the sugar and spices in a small bowl and set aside.
  • Melt the smen, or ghee in the base of a tagine or a large, heavy-based saucepan over a medium heat.
  • Place the pigeons, breast-side down, in the tagine or saucepan and cook for 3 minutes until the breasts are lightly brown.
  • Transfer the pigeons to a plate.
  • Add the spicy tomato paste, bay leaves, cloves, lemon juice and measurement water to the tagine or saucepan and stir to mix well.
  • Return the pigeons to the tagine or saucepan, cover and cook gently for about 1 hour, turning the pigeons in the sauce from time to time until they are tender.
  • Add the olives and cook gently for a further 15 minutes.
  • Season with salt and pepper and serve hot with chunks of bread to mop up the sauce, if liked.

Notes / Tips / Wine Advice:

For spicy quails with olives,

brown and cook 2–4 oven-ready quails in the same way as for the pigeons in the recipe for Spicy pigeons with olives, reducing the cooking time to 40 minutes before adding the olives together with the finely chopped rind of one preserved lemon.
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Course Pigeons
Cuisine Arabic / Moroccan