It is always going to be difficult to resist a packet of rook’s breast once spotted. They are only available for a short six week season around May. It is only the breast that is eaten and they are either shot or plucked from a nest by someone intrepid enough to climb up a tree and into the depths of a rookery to do it.

To go with them I bought a good piece of bread and a bag of mixed salad. I made a dressing for the salad with olive oil, balsamic vinegar and some hot red currant sauce I found in the back of the frisge. The red currant sauce looked like it had been there some some time and was hard with sugar crystals.

The rook breasts took as long to took as it took me to mix the dressing into the salad and arrange it on a plate and then slice the bread into thick chunks. There were six breasts and I seasoned them lightly with salt and pepper and turned them once. Once cooked I put them on to of the salad and breads and poured over the remaining juices in the pan.

They were not dissimilar to pigeon breast although perhaps not as livery. I will certainly have them again.

I was alone as I ate them listening to the New Zealand dream pop of The Phoenix Foundation.