134: Pot-roast pigeon with luganega sausage, p307

This is days late - a) been very busy and haven't had a chance to write it up, and b) it's taken this long to get over the disastrous evening that it involved... Bad day at work, home not too late, both of us in, I decided to treat us to two Nigel recipes for dinner to destress. Hah.

I've used my Denby casserole dish on the hob many times, as in so many recipes, to brown meat / boil up ingredients with wine/stock before putting it in the oven. This time, after browning the sausages (not luganega, but the recipe says herby chipolatas are fine) and then the pigeons, and softening the onions, I added the stock, and two minutes later there was the most almighty crack from the kitchen and my lovely casserole dish had shattered on the hob into a dozen pieces, depositing two pigeons, six sausages, a chopped onion, and 500ml of hot stock all over my hob. After much swearing, the solid ingredients were chucked into my mum's old pot-roast pot and a fresh batch of stock poured in and the whole lot shoved in the oven, ignoring the 'bring to the boil on the hob first' instruction. Clearing up the stock that was everywhere wasn't quite as easy...

Unfortunately I messed up again though and giving the pigeons an extra 10-15mins on account of the lack of boiling first stage was too long and they were a bit overcooked. Rats. And they are a bit of a sod to eat, fiddly little bony things, but the herby sausages and gravy were delicious, especially with a heap of mashed potato.

Unfortunately, the disasters for the evening didn't stop there...