Source: http://allrecipes.com/recipe/cornish-game-hens-with-garlic-and-rosemary/
Time: 1 and 1/2 hours
Ease: 3
Taste: 4
Leftover Value: No Leftovers!
Down the Drain or Keep in the Strainer: Down the Drain!
Sometime before
Christmas, and of course you realize I say 'sometime' because said time could
be as far back as Halloween, my hubby said he'd like me to make Cornish
Hens 'sometime' for dinner. After purchasing the hens, tossing them in
the freezer, and completely forgetting about them they came back to memory when
I still had leftover champagne that I wanted to serve a greater purpose in its
lifetime.
Instead
of shopping around for good recipes involving Cornish hens and champagne, I
went for the first one I found. Although it was mostly ease of finding the recipe that really made me use it, another thing that drew me to it was the fact that
I had most of the ingredients already on hand.
Two out of these
three ingredients I love. One of these I hate.
Let's see....
Olive oil is a
necessary part of life. No discussion needed.
When lemon is
squeezed in a free glass of water at a restaurant it saves you
the obnoxious $2-$5 charge for a soft drink. It's also a nice
flavor to mix with Italian seasonings and spread over chicken (more on that
later). It could possibly even be included in the essentials of life with olive oil. I'll
get back to you on that after proper consideration.
That leaves
rosemary. I have never, ever been a fan. I'm sure this is due
to my first encounter with it. I had ordered a delicious sounding
pesto chicken sandwich at a restaurant that I love. As I bit into the sandwich, I landed on a stick like object and was flooded with
an overpowering taste that will haunt me to the end of my days.
I soon discovered
that a sprig of rosemary had been placed in the sandwich (As extra flavor?
As a garnish? I'm not sure...) and the eater was supposed to
foresee this and remove it before eating.
That is, unless
people actually eat rosemary springs whole.
I really hope that
is not the case.
After finally
removing the spring, I tried to enjoy the rest of the sandwich, yet the flavor
of rosemary remained strong throughout. I had to order some chocolate
cake to console myself.
With that all
said, you may wonder why I chose a recipe using rosemary. I thought that
it might be time to make friends with rosemary again, especially since it seems
that in my dislike of rosemary I am the minority.
And...the recipe said to stuff the lemon and rosemary inside of the hens. For some reason, that seemed like a step bound to make the hens taste delicious.
The recipe also
included garlic, which I figured would make up for the rosemary.
Of course, I
forgot to put in the pan until the hens had already roasted about 20 minutes and it was time to pour the champagne on top.
My hope was that
the hens would emerge from the oven resembling and tasting
like miniature Thanksgiving turkeys. I hoped the meat would peel
off the bone and I would sink my teeth into a juicy piece and instantly be
sitting at my parents' kitchen table on the fourth Thursday of November.
It didn't happen.
And I was mightily
disappointed.
In all fairness,
it wasn't a horrible meal. It just did not meet my expectations. The hens could have gone a little longer so that the skin could crisp more.
The good thing was that rosemary treated me well and didn't overpower what
flavor the meat did give off. I'll more than likely give it and Cornish hens one more try in my kitchen.
No comments:
Post a Comment