Sunday, September 28, 2008

Cooking with Kanibal: Stuffed Cornish Hens

What does Kanibal Home love as much as fabric? Food! So here's to another installment of Cooking with Kanibal. We rarely follow a recipe and most of our dishes are just new takes on preparing some of our favorite ingredients. The following is an easy way to make stuffed cornish hens. We used wild rice, asparagus and prosciutto, but you can substitute any kind of rice and a mix of vegetables and it would come out equally as delicious. Next time we are going to try wild mushrooms and risotto. Enjoy!

Take two cornish hens and brine them for at least two hours before preparing the meal. A brine is basically a salt bath that tenderizes and flavors the meat. Fill a pot with water and dissolve a nice amount of salt then add in other herbs. This brine has peppercorns, thyme and a little rosemary.

To prepare part of the stuffing for the cornish hens saute 2 clove of chopped garlic, one white onion and a little extra virgin olive oil in a pan.  

Once the onion becomes translucent and has softened, add in the cubed prosciutto. Lightly brown the prosciutto and then incorporate in the rinsed and chopped asparagus. Saute until the asparagus has softened, but is still firm.

In a separate pot, boil water and add in the rice. Wild or long grain rice give the dish some texture, but brown or white rice can also be used. Prepare the rice as directed on the box. Remember, the cavity of the cornish hens are not that big, so 1 cup of uncooked rice should be more than enough.

As the rice cooks, take the cornish hens out of the brine and rinse them off. Place in a roasting pan.

In a large bowl, mix together the vegetable mixture with the rice. There might be extra rice, so don't add it in all at once -- you want there to be an even amount of vegetable and starch.

Using a tablespoon, fill the cornish hens with the stuffing. To the bottom of the roasting pan add in 1/2 cup of water and enough chicken stock to line the bottom of the pan (about one to two inches up the side of the pan).

Preheat a barbecue or oven. If using an oven, roast for about one hour (depending on the size of the cornish hens) on 350 degrees. The pan should be covered with aluminum foil to avoid burning. Check and baste halfway through cooking. For the last 15 minutes remove the foil and allow the skin to crisp. We barbecued the cornish hens and wrapped the outside in thinly cut prosciutto for extra flavor. 

Serve the cornish hens on a bed of any of the extra stuffing that didn't make it in the bird drizzled with the juice from the bottom of the roasting pan. 

Stuffed Cornish Hens Recipe

2 cornish hens
1 bunch of asparagus, small variety (rinsed and chopped)
1 cup wild or long grain rice
1 slices of prosciutto, 1/2 inch thick (cubed)
1 medium white onion
2 cloves garlic (chopped)
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
2 cups chicken stock
herbs, to taste (pepper, paprika, rosemary and thyme compliment the ingredients used in this version)

*note that the recipe does not need a lot of extra salt because the brine bath and prosciutto lend the dish salt during cooking







1 comment:

MiRK said...

hey kanibal! whats the big idea here? are you tryin to upstage me?! ;o)