Bit of an odd dinner yesterday but no less delicious for it. On Sunday I found a wood pigeon on the grass verge, just at the end of the street. It didn't look like it had been hit by a car, but was cold and post-rigor mortis, with just a single neck wound. Odd thing for a cat to do, but I couldn't place what predator had got it and just left it. Probably whatever had got it had been disturbed, but never mind I thought, its loss is our gain. I took off the two nice, plump breasts and put them in the fridge.
Just before I was about to cook dinner there was a knock on the door, and three of the neighbourhood kids were there. The oldest is about 9, the youngest about 6, and they were playing outside in the alley by the house where they'd found a dead bird. One of them had clearly been crying about it, so I thought I'd better have a look. I should add that you can't go out of our front door without the kids playing out in the court talking to you, its great really but you also have to be ready to answer whatever questions they have. I'm the weirdo with the front garden full of berries that they nick and chickens in the back garden, so its entirely natural for them to consult me about the dead bird. Anyway, it was another wood pigeon, and it was obvious how this one had died - its neck was ripped and it had a three pronged wound in one breast made by the talons of a small bird of prey. A sparrowhawk had got it, but as the kids were going to be playing out for another hour at least (having had their tea and it still being light) there wasn't any point leaving the pigeon there, the sparrowhawk wouldn't be able to come back for it. Talked to the children who were horrified I'd picked up a dead bird, asked why its different to eating chicken (which they all do), gave them some pretty tail feathers, and took the bird in for disposal rather than leaving it there. And, of course, thanked them for telling me, I don't really want dead animals lying on the ground next to my house! So suddenly we were up to two pigeon breasts each.
The plan was a light pigeon breast salad with a mix of other tasty salads. When I went past the fishmongers stall at lunchtime I spotted he had some nice little bass, so I snaffled one of those too, took it home, filleted and skinned it, and left it marinating in a little lemon juice and salt.
We had a lentil and seed salad yesterday and it was delicious, so I took the leftovers (brown lentils cooked until nearly soft, with toasted quinoa, sesame, sunflower and pumpkin seeds tossed in with a little salt and pepper, lemon juice and olive oil) and added in some couscous and more lemon juice. Thats great with fish. We also had plenty of greens left over (chard, Alexanders, rocket and three cornered leek) so I put that aside to go with the pigeon breast salad.
I also made another couple of salads. I grilled some halved peppers for 25 minutes or so in the skillet, and added sliced tomatoes, olive oil, seasoning and oregano, and left it to cool and for the flavours to infuse. A really simple and rich dish. And as I've also got the last of my beetroot crop from last year in (red, white, some yellow, a mix of the remnants from last years crop) I microwaved those beets whole until tender, and after cooling peeled them, diced them and added some to a bowl with feta cheese, three cornered leek (a delicious oniony wild green), and a dash of oil. Thats a salad thats always good whichever green you add - its especially good with rocket in it, but I fancied something sharp. 
So when the couscous was almost cool I seasoned (you want lots of salt and pepper for this) and cooked the pigeon breasts very briefly on either side in a skillet as hot as I could get it, before letting it rest while deglazing the pan with wine and butter to make a hot dressing for the green salad, and then cooked the sliced up and marinated bass in a cornflour coating. The sliced pigeon breast was served on the green salad and the fish on top of the couscous.
And that was it. One of those dinners that looks absurdly complex but really isn't, made up of a mix of randomly obtained freebies (wild greens, pigeons a sparrowhawk didn't get to chow down on), easy salads, and essentially almost free ingredients cooked very simply indeed. Delicious Spring cooking.
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