What's for supper? April 6, 2010

Cornish Game Hens with Roasted Cauliflower, Carrot, and Garlic Puree, and sauteed Spinach

Cornish Hens were on sale the other day at the grocery store, so I picked up a few of them. They are a great, faster alternative to a roast chicken, and I especially loved cooking one just for Noah and myself to share when Dave was gone for his army training.
I treat the hens basically the same as I would a regular chicken when cooking them. First and foremost, you want to take them out of the wrapper and rinse them well under cold water. Pull off any stray feathers, run water into the cavity and just really rinse it out.
After that, you'll want to pick a baking pan that is an appropriate size for the number of hens you will be roasting. I am roasting 3 hens, so I am using a 9 x 13 glass baking dish. Place the rinsed hens into the pan, and pat them dry.

Next, you'll want to stuff the cavity with whatever you'd like. Since I'm on the Paleo diet and am not eating grains or bread, I stuffed each of these simply with some chunks of onion, some pieces of celery, a couple of baby carrots, a couple of cloves of garlic, and some dried rosemary leaves.

You won't want to leave the birds floppy during baking; in order for them to bake nice and evenly, you should truss them. You don't have to use twine or anything else to truss them, you can do it completely without anything extra or special. First, flip the wings up and behind the hen's neck. I always think of it like the chicken is relaxing, holding its head with its hands... Anyway, the wings will look like this picture if you do them right:

To truss the legs, you'll want to find the excess skin that is between the base of the cavity and the legs, and you'll make a hole in that skin, either with your finger or a knife.

Now put the legs through the holes you've made on each side of the chicken, so that the chicken is crossing its legs and they are secure.

Now, to season the bird. My absolute favorite way to do a roast chicken is to rub it all over with butter. Since I am not doing dairy (and I don't want to die of a heart attack, as much as I love doing it the butter way), I used olive oil instead. Rub all over the outside of the chicken, and then lift up the skin and rub under the skin as well. This helps make the skin extra crispy, and keeps the meat really moist, too.

After you have the hen nicely rubbed down with oil, season it with the spices of your choice. I mixed up a spice rub that is a combination of lots of different spices, including garlic powder, thyme, marjoram, paprika, salt, pepper, and a little bit of a *secret* ingredient- cinnamon. Again, rub the spices both on the outside and under the skin.

Now your game hens are ready to roast!

Put them in the oven at 350 degrees for about an hour to an hour and 15 minutes, depending on the size of the birds. To brown the skin, turn the oven up to 400 degrees for the last 5-10 minutes of roasting time.

To roast the veggies for the puree, simply clean them, cut them into pieces (they can be fairly large), and spread them on a baking sheet. Remember to save any of the parts you cut off to use in stock! For tonight's supper, I am roasting cauliflower and carrots, and a head of garlic to puree with them to make mock mashed potatoes.

Drizzle or brush the veggies with olive oil, sprinkle with salt and pepper, and roast them in the oven at 400 degrees until they are done (maybe 15 minutes).

Let the veggies cool, then put them into your food processor and pulse it to make a rough puree. I don't know about other husbands, but mine doesn't want to feel like he's eating baby food, so I just puree the veggies to the point where they're still pretty chunky. Put them in a serving bowl, and warm them before you eat!

To make the spinach, wash the leaves well, pull off the stems, and throw them into a big, hot pan with some olive oil and garlic (and whatever else you want in it- the other day I did some turkey bacon, garlic, and onion). It will take A LOT of spinach to cook into an amount that will feed more than one person. I can feed Dave and I each a small side of spinach from one big bunch. Since Noah doesn't eat it, that works well for us.
Put a lid on the pan, and just let the spinach wilt down. Once it is mostly wilted, then you can stir it around and mix the olive oil and flavorings into it. Sprinkle with salt or whatever other spices you want, and serve. Spinach only takes maybe 5-10 minutes total to prepare and cook, so save this for the last thing you do, right before you serve supper.

Enjoy your supper! I know we will enjoy ours :)

Here are the leftover carcasses and the veggie bits and pieces, turning into stock!