January 2004

Roast Guinea Fowl With A Braised Vegetable Broth.

This a fabulous recipe now that the weather is closing in and getting a lot more wintry. It can also be changed and adapted to suit your own taste.

The guinea fowl was simply trimmed of excess fat. It was sealed in a hot pan to make the skin go golden, seasoned with salt and pepper and then roasted fore fourteen minutes until cooked but still juicy. It was then allowed to sit for ten minutes before serving.

The broth Takes a little longer to produce so should be started well before the guinea fowl is cooked. The vegetables we have used here were onion, both white and red, carrots, leaks, celery, suede , tomato and some potato. Any of these can be removed or changed for anything you prefer.

We heated some oil in a pan. Here we used sun dried tomato oil. It gives a richer flavor but you have to be careful with the seasoning as it can make the dish taste salty if you are not careful. When this was warm all the vegetables were added. These were all cut into cubes. These were all cooked gently for about ten minutes over quite a gentle heat. Into the pot was added a little garlic and some fresh rosemary. A splash of red wine was added and a good big spoon of tomato puree. If you are wanting something to really warm you up, you could replace the wine with a nice splash of whisky.

Cook this for a further five minutes and then add some sauce. This could be anything from some home made tomato sauce, maybe some home made gravy or for those who want an easy life, some bisto gravy already made up. Mix this into the vegetables and bring up to heat. This now needs to be simmered until all the vegetables are cooked. This can be done either on the stove over a gentle heat with a lid on remembering to stir it now and again or the whole lot can be poured into an oven proof dish, covered and put into a medium oven for about fourty five minutes. I prefer the second method as while it is cooking you have time to then prepare and cook the guinea fowl.

When all the broth is cooked and the fowl is ready simply serve in a dish and enjoy. In this cold weather there really is nothing better.

Paul Vincent, Head Chef.