Wednesday, March 25, 2009

Whisk Wednesdays—Pintade à la Cévenole (Guinea Hen with Mushrooms and Chestnuts)

Pintade à la Cévenole (Guinea Hen with Mushrooms and Chestnuts)
Photographing poultry is not easy. Desserts are so much prettier.

Try this:
Click here for images of chicken.
Click here for images of dessert.
I rest my case.

This is the last in the series about poultry (next week is frog legs!), and the recipe calls for guinea hen (or guinea fowl). I like my white meat, and this bird is generally dark meat so I had a feeling I wouldn't like this meal.

For this dish, you will have to sauté and set aside many times, which for some reason reminded me of square dancing calls (not that I square dance, but I have watched relatives!).

Circle right.
Bacon, blanch and fry.
Set aside.
Pearl onions, peel and sauté.
Set aside.
Mushrooms, sauté.
Set aside.
Guinea hen, dry, dredge and sauté.
Set aside.
With half the wine, deglaze.
Half Sashay.
Add Bouquet Garni, lardons, pearl onions and mushrooms.
Split Two.
Cover and bake.
Promenade.
Pan drippings, reserve.
California Twirl.
Chestnuts, sauté.
Set aside.
Arrange chestnuts, lardons, pearl onions, mushrooms and guinea hen in casserole and bake.
Couples Circulate.
For the sauce, shallots, sauté.
Rollaway.
With the last of the wine, deglaze.
Dosado to a wave.
Pan drippings, pour in.
Weave the Ring.
Reduce.
Pass thru.
Whisk in butter and serve.
Alamo Style.

Recipe

Serves 6 (picture shows half a recipe)

Pintade à la Cévenole (Guinea Hen with Mushrooms and Chestnuts) mise en place
¾ pound slab bacon, sliced ¼ inch thick
12 tablespoons unsalted butter
½ pound pearl onions, peeled
1 pound oyster mushrooms, trimmed, rinsed, and dried
¾ pound button or quartered large mushrooms, trimmed, rinsed and dried
Salt and freshly ground pepper
2 guinea hens, 2 pounds each
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
2 cups red wine
1
Bouquet Garni
¾ pound whole shelled chestnuts
3 shallots, chopped fine
1 tablespoon parsley, chopped

Flour for guinea hens
Unsalted butter, softened, for parchment paper

You can find the recipe for Pintade à la Cévenole (Guinea Hen with Mushrooms and Chestnuts) in the book Le Cordon Bleu at Home. To see how the rest of the Whisk Wednesdays group fared with their recipe, click here (or check out the sidebar) and then click on each blogger!

Pintade à la Cévenole (Guinea Hen with Mushrooms and Chestnuts)Tasting Notes
This dish needs whole chestnuts. (Do.not.use.puréed.chestnuts.that.smell.like.cat.food.) I learned this week I'm not a fan of guinea hen and puréed chestnuts. I may try making this dish again using chicken and whole chestnuts (as called for in the recipe).

The sauce is the star of the dish. It's a beurre rouge that is rich, velvety and easy.
Ladies do and the gents you know,
It’s right by right by wrong you go,
And you can’t go to heaven while you carry on so,
And it’s home little gal and do-si-do,
And it may be the last time, I don’t know,
And oh by gosh and oh by Joe.
—(Ernest Legg, WV)

Barn DanceNext Class
• Cuisses de Grenouille aux Herbes (Herbed Frog Legs) from Chocolate & Zucchini

. . . . . . . . . .

Running total: $1,161.36 + $22.93 (guinea hen) + $23.72 (other ingredients) = $1,208.01

Butter used so far: 10 pounds, 4 tablespoons

. . . . . . . . . .
::Whisk Wednesdays::
We're cooking our way through a cooking school curriculum using the Le Cordon Bleu at Home cookbook. The "classes" are based on the Le Cordon Bleu curriculum found online and used as a guideline. Not all the items in the curriculum are in the cookbook, but most are. Where the items are not in the book, we try to find a suitable substitution. Find out more here.
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  • 22 comments:

    Melissa said...

    Shari! That is beautiful. I love how you capture perfect pictures with the sauce! That can only be done once! Wonderful. I really enjoyed the sneak peek of the camera set-up...how cool is that.

    La Bella Cooks said...

    Can you please send me a bucket sized portion of that sauce? Ah, heaven! It looks fabulous and I got a kick out of your dancing directions ;)

    Monica H said...

    i haven't had frog legs in years. I liked them as a kid, but not so sure if I still would.

    Your chicken looks delicious even if it's still not as pretty as dessert :-)

    Avental da Micas said...

    Simply delicious! Congratulations.

    Anonymous said...

    Great photo of the hen and sauce. And, the square dance thing was lots of fun...you are a riot! It will be interesting to see if you like the chicken/whole chestnut set up better. Your dish looks fantastic!

    Sippity Sup said...

    This Whisk Wednesdays is kinda new to me...I am not really a joiner. You know the Woody Allen joke right? Well with me it's no joke. But I can see I will learn a lot just by reading along. How many have there been? Will it be terribly daunting to go back to the beginning and read them straight through? GREG

    PS Don't like DARK meat. You shock me. Next you are going to say you don't like flavor!!!

    Elyse said...

    Ha, this recipe does sound like an intricate square dance--but a great one!! It's like square dancing with a fabulous partner...okay, in my weird metaphor, the fabulous partner would be this delicious looking poultry you're working with. What a fabulous sounding recipe!!

    natalia said...

    You are a great cook and photographer !!

    Jan said...

    Love all those ingredients. Great photos too!

    Anonymous said...

    Actually, your photos are beautiful. Sounds delicious so I'm adding it to my list of "need to try." Don't know too much about square dancing, but the analogy is pretty funny. Frog's legs, huh? Hmmm...

    Cathy said...

    LOL at your square dancing calls; I think you are a natural square dance caller, Shari. You can add that to your list of talents! And you somehow DO manage to make poultry look pretty. See, there is another one.

    pam said...

    I love the action shot of the sauce being poured over the guinea hen, and your squaredance calls are hilarious!

    Treehouse Chef said...

    This is a feast!!! The photos are beautiful.

    jesse said...

    Haha, I don't what you're talking about... I can't think of a dessert that photographs more beautifully than those guinea hens. What a delectable, sexay dish!

    Nazarina A said...

    A lovely recipe! I think you captured that perfect sauce pouring moment. Really delicious!

    Anonymous said...

    I wondered what was in the parfait glass...I'm still looking forward to trying this. It looks like I found a different packaging of chestnuts, so we'll see! Thanks as always for letting us tag along!

    Anonymous said...

    what? NO! this looks AMAZING! I just wanted to lick my screen.
    I LOVE chestnuts, but have never tried them with chicken or mushrooms, so am very interested to try this out!

    Jamie said...

    It is really beautiful and it looks rich, flavorful and delicious!

    Irene said...

    How did I miss this yummy dish?? Looks sooooo good!

    CookiePie said...

    I think your poultry photos are gorgeous! And that dish looks amazing!!

    Y said...

    Dancing while you cook? What a great idea! ;)

    Jude said...

    Mm mushrooms and chestnuts. Very earthy I would imagine and perfect with the stronger flavors of guinea hen.
    Looks like we have the same tripod :)