What goes together in life goes together on the plate.

It’s a truism in the cooking world, and this maxim has been my guide over many years. Dishes like Partridge Montana, Snow in Winter, and Rockfish with Kelp Pasta all came out of a close observation of what an animal eats, or the environment in which it lives, and translating that observation into a plate of food.

This, ladies and gentlemen, is a plate of dove… and what doves eat.

Doves are seed eaters by and large. And they happen to appreciate our farm country, stuffing their crops with safflower, sunflower, wheat, millet, corn, soybeans and even peanuts. I read a dozen studies of dove food habits dating back 60 years, from all over the country, and these are the main crops doves seem to like best. They’re also partial to cowpeas, amaranth, sorghum, millet, Indian ricegrass, as well as lots of other seeds we don’t normally eat.

Rolling all this about in the soup of my brain, a dish immediately surfaced. I’d make a quick broth from the carcasses of some doves and use that to cook some wheat berries. You could of course use pre-made broth and just dove breasts. I’d make a pilaf based on the wheat, which seems to be the most common crop doves eat nationwide, and add various other things doves like to eat.

I’d dust the dove breasts in other things doves eat: flour, corn flour (a/k/a fish fry), as well as some peanut flour, which, if you’ve never used it, is an amazing thing to flour meat or fish with.  The oil to use kinda had to be sunflower oil, as sunflowers are a favorite dove food. I used a refined one to fry the doves, a cold-pressed, unrefined sunflower oil for the pilaf.

Finally, I added some Southwestern influences to the dish. After all, the Desert Southwest from SoCal to Texas is the hub of dove hunting in this country. So in went limes, cilantro and a little chile.

I have to say, this dish is a knockout. Even better than I’d expected.

Frying the dove breasts in hot sunflower oil kept them pink on the inside, and every bite of the pilaf was exciting: Sweet corn, hot chiles, tart limes, rich sunflowers and sunflower oil, fresh herbs and edamame, chewy wheat berries.

And you know what’s even better? This is pretty easy to make. It’s just fried dove breasts with a simple grain salad — none of the ingredients except the peanut flour are hard to find, and you can skip the peanut flour if you’d like.

So give this fried dove breast recipe a go this dove season. May you shoot well and eat better!

OTHER GREAT DOVE RECIPES

I have 25 dove recipes here on Hunter Angler Gardener Cook, ranging from Moroccan-inspired bacon-wrapped doves to dove poppers. Some great Labor Day grilling or barbecue options include:

• Doves la Mancha. An irresistible Spanish preparation that has become one of my signature dishes.
• Grilled doves Cajun style. Super easy with a Louisiana flair.
• Smoked doves bathed in a Mexican guajillo sauce. Rich and only moderately spicy.
• Grilled doves with an Arizona desert inspired barbecue sauce.
• Slow and low barbecued doves.