The Big Easy and Cornish Hens

Week 11:

Rosemary Cornish Hens
Couscous with Dried Fruit

I made it back from New Orleans very late last night. The south definitely has their own way of cooking, and maybe sometime soon I'll draw some inspiration from this trip. For today, I was just happy to have food on my plate that was not looking back at me (I'll have to post a picture of the crawfish from our lunch in the French Quarter.)

The presentation (which is the reason that I was in New Orleans)went very well! About 80 people attended and we had a lot of great feedback. It was nice to see so much interest in our topic and have some great discussion with so many people.

So as for dinner, you may remember that Jason was supposed to be in charge this week since I was away. This included both finding a recipe and doing the grocery shopping. What he came up with was a "recipe" he created himself... his very own version of couscous. While that was a noble effort, I needed more food than that so I stepped in to contribute part of our meal. I made the Cornish hens to go with Jason's couscous. Here are the recipes:

Rosemary Cornish Hens:

Ingredients:

2 Cornish Hens
1 TB dried rosemary
1 TB garlic
2 TB lemon juice
2 TB olive oil
1/3 cup white wine
Freshly ground pepper to taste

Directions:
1. Mix together the rosemary, garlic, lemon juice, olive oil, wine, and pepper.
2. Leaving the skin on, use a knife to separate the skin from the hen to create a "pocket" in which to place the herbed mixture.
3. Using a spoon, insert several spoonfuls of herbed mixture between the skin and the meat. Place left over mixture inside the cavity of each hen.
4. Place hens, breast side down, in a roasting pan.
5. Broil for 45 minutes, turning the hen over at the half way point.

Jason's Couscous with Dried Fruit

Ingredients:

1 box Near East Toasted Pine Nut Couscous
1 TB minced garlic
1 1/4 cups water
1 TB olive oil
Dried cherries
Dried cranberries

Directions:
1. Combine water, olive oil and garlic and bring to boil. Add coscous and cook according to directions on box.
2. Add desired amount of dried ingredients to coscous and serve.

My Commentary:

The Cornish hens turned out very well...juicy and flavorful. In the future, though, I'll probably do just a few things differently. I'd prefer to use fresh rosemary as well as fresh lemon juice. I've read a variation of this recipe that places a quarter of a lemon and sprigs of rosemary inside the hen. I think that would really add to the flavor. As for the couscous, I think that Jason was subconsciously paying hommage to my Apricot Pistachio Wild Rice Salad from Week 6. :) I have a few other recipes that look great for Cornish Hens, so I'm sure this little bird will be the topic of some future posts.