🌎 The World Cookbook

Breast meat from 12 to 16 doves
Salt
1 to 1 1/2 pounds chanterelles or other fresh mushrooms, cleaned and roughly chopped
1/2 yellow onion, roughly chopped
5 tablespoons bacon fat, lard or butter, divided
Flour for dusting (optional)
2 tablespoons flour
1 cup dove, duck or beef stock
1 or 2 tablespoons sour cream
2 tablespoons chopped parsley
Black pepper to taste

Place each dove breast between two pieces of plastic wrap and pound until it is about 1/8 inch thick. Do this firmly, but don’t wail on the meat or you will tear it. Set a large frying pan over high heat for 1 minute, then add the mushrooms to the hot, dry pan. Shake them around so they don’t stick too much and cook the mushrooms until they give up their water, about 3 or 4 minutes. Add 2 tablespoons of the bacon fat and onions and stir-fry everything until the onions begin to brown, about 4 minutes. Remove the mushrooms and onions and set aside. Dust the dove breasts in flour if you want to. Add the remaining fat to the pan and let it heat over medium-high heat. Do not let it smoke. Sear the cutlets for 1 minute on the first side. Keep them from curling up with a spatula. Flip the cutlets and sear another minute for medium doneness. Remove the cutlets to a plate and put them in an oven set to "warm." Add the 2 tablespoons flour and mix with the fat in the pan. Turn the heat to medium and let the flour-and-fat mixture cook until it is the color of coffee-with-cream. Slowly pour in the stock, plus any juices that have come off the cutlets while they rest. You should have a thick gravy. If it is thin, let this boil down a minute or two. If it is really thick, turn off the heat, wait for the sauce to stop bubbling and stir in the sour cream. Add the mushrooms and onions back to the pan and toss to coat in the sauce. Add salt and black pepper to taste. Pour this over the cutlets and serve at once. Garnish with a little parsley.