Thursday, June 27, 2013

Recipe 2 (Goal #33) - Cornish Hens


Cornish hens were always a mystery to me, are they chickens? hens? a small duck? I had no idea even after I purchased them. I had always seen them featured in menus at fancy restaurants and since I started shopping at Farm Boy I always saw them in the poultry fridge. One day I was browsing my favourite cooking book - Nigella Express (the best!!) and I came across a deliciously looking dish that called for poussins. Once again I was at a lost, I had never heard of this chicken looking animal, who knew they were so many?! I started doing a bit of research and with the help of Wikipedia I discovered that poussins are cornish hens and that they are a chicken variety bred in the United States. As Frank Costanza from Seinfeld once put it cornish hens are just "little chickens" (see picture below). The advantages of cornish hens are: 1) They are super cute 2) It sounds fancier than roast chicken 3) Most of them are not factory farmed raised since their production is small 4) They are as easy to cook as regular sized chickens. 

I prepared mine as I usually make my sunday roast chicken, rubbed down with olive oil garlic powder, Kosher salt, paprika and peach jam. As a side I roasted potatoes, carrots and yams and since I had it handy I also baked a couple of plantains. I usually roast the veggies separately and when the bird is about to be done I transfer them to the same dish so they get a bit of the juices and flavour.

This was a dish that looked and tasted amazing and super easy to make just stuck everything in the oven for 40 min at 420F and served with a nice glass of Riesling.  

Love,

Maria

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