Guinea Fowl

Yesterday, I was able to take a little rest from marking exam scripts to have over company. Ahreum and I invited one of friends, Heejo, over.


Heejoo

Heejo and Ahreum


She had just returned from Korea the night before and had kindly brought over some things for us, including some traditional Korean snacks. She really enjoys western food and Sainsbury's had a sale on guinea fowl (a kind of relative of the chicken with vastly superior flavour and succulence), so I decided to do a summer style pot roast.

Guinea fowl browned and ready to roast
The process for such a dish is simple but the results are excellent. To begin get a celery bunch, cut off the top, trim the bottom and cut off the outer stalks. Cut these in half. Cut off the top half of the heart, but leave the bottom of the heart intact. Cut an onion into quarters. Peel one bulb worth of garlic cloves. Cut half a lemon into six pieces. In the meantime, heat a casserole or small oven safe stock pot. Turn the oven up to about 200 degrees centigrade. Cover the bottom with olive oil or butter. Rub salt and pepper over the top and bottom of the bird. When the pan is good and hot (medium to just barely high kind of temperature), put the bird in and brown it on all sides. When that is done put it breast side up and add the onions and the garlic with some salt and pepper. When they have been in for a little bit add the celery the lemons and then poor in a glass of dry white wine. After this has simmered for a minute or two add enough hot water to come up about half way on the bird and cover most of the vegetables. Add some time sprigs, four bay leaves, the celery leaves, and salt and pepper to taste. Cover and put in the oven for 1 to 1 1/4 hours. If you can't find guinea fowl, pheasant would be a nice alternative, a good fairly small free range chicken would also do the trick.

I served the meat spooned over with some of the cooking liquid together with a mixed green salad with raspberry lemon honey mustard dressing. The vegetables this was cooked with are also nice to eat, but you may want to cook the celery a bit longer. If this is necessary, remove the lemons and add a touch of sugar.

Ahreum and Heejo liked this a lot. Give it a try. This is fire and forget cooking that shouldn't disappoint.

Once more into the breach,

Ben