Poached Dove

Last night the wild turkey breast I had thawed turned out to be 20 dove breasts, and I was left with the much more challenging task of making the gamiest bird in my experience approachable. What's more, it was under pressure to perform.

I am not sure if it was the company (a wonderful girl) or sheer luck, but the dish I ended up with was one of the best I have ever made.

I started by cutting the breast meat from the bone for each of these dark meat breasts, and then, after deliberating over sauces and cooking techniques, I settled on poaching the breasts in the whole milk I had gotten the day before at the farmer's market from Cruze Farm. My experience with bittersweet cocoa and venison led me to the same path, and in spite of always associating chocolate with winter, I made my first chocolate sauce. I had even entertained making a chocolate milk for poaching, but could not see a siginificant difference in taste, and the butter, bittersweet cocoa, and wild rasberry compote lent all the flavor that the lightly poached doves were looking for. Served next to a truffle oil arugula salad, the mixture became the perfect complement for the beautiful day.

Thank you Allen for sharing your dove harvest with me and teaching me how to harvest my own.

Thank you Bea for the wild rasberrry compote that I accepted so greedily when you offered it to me some time ago.

Thank you Rocio for a great beginning to a friendship.