4pure

Thursday, October 6, 2011

French friday with Dorie: Olive-olive cornish hens

I've become a proud member of a new cook group: french fridays with Dorie. A group of people whom every week cooking the same recipe from the book: Around my French Table from Dorie Greenspan.
This book contains over 300 recipes, so as a group, cooking one recipe a week you'll participate around SIX YEARS. That's a long time. Participation is free, you publish on Friday and as a rule you can't write the recipe down on your blog (sorry!!).
For a while now I'm a big fan of Dorie. I've got another book of her: Baking from my home to yours, which also got his own group: Theusdays with Dorie. But that group is closed (they are already a few years baking). I loved to join that group, but probably it's for the best (for my waist) that I'm not.

So the recipe for this week: olive-olive cornish hens. Cornish hens, that's not something very common in my country, so I've took the liberty of taken another species. It became the "Mechelse Koekoek", which our own farmshop got. This chickens is free range, with a lot of space. And honoustly you can taste it. You've got a real bite, not as our supermarket chicken. And it got a lot of taste. Conclusion: a number one score.

It was a very simple recipe with olive tapenade and chicken. Well baked in the oven, with a crunchy skin.  To get a full meal, I baked Roseval potatoes in the oven. You don't peel them, just wash them. I cooked them for 12 minutes in boiling salted water. Then I put them 15 minutes in the oven with the chicken. The juices of the chicken combine with the potatoes. A pinch of fresh rosemary and they are done.

And we got beans with them. I cooked them untill they still had a bit of a bite. I took a slice of ham and rolled a few beans in the ham. I garnished the dish with lemon wedges and the simple recipe (by work and time) was done.
It was truly delicious (everybody agreed) and a good start for this group.

Now I'm cooking a stock with the chicken bones. I find it very handy to have stock in my freezer and I use everything of this chicken. The potatoes that were left are sliced and are going to be baked tomorrow. I can't wait.

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi and welcome to the group! Nice to have a few more representatives cooking from europe (I'm over the border from you in Germany). Your first recipe looks great.

Ei said...

Welcome to the group! I was too late to join Tuesdays with Dorie, too, but I also came to the conclusion that it was for the best. My husband isn't a big fan of sweets, and my hips don't need me to eat an entire batch of delicious baked goods every week.

Your chicken looks gorgeous!

Elaine said...

Welcome to French Fridays with Dorie! Your side dishes sound so good with this dish. It looks like a perfect comfort meal.

Cher Rockwell said...

Welcome aboard! This has been a fun group to cook along with - hope you enjoy.

Lovely looking meal.

Frankly Entertaining said...

Welcome to the group. I'm sure you're going to love it!

Genkinaonna said...

Welcome to FFwD! I missed out on Tuesdays with Dorie too, but I'm cooking my way through the book on my own. That way, I can make recipes on my own schedule and give them to my friends! That chicken looks wonderful, great picture!

luciacara said...

Welcome to FFWD! So good that you liked your first week's recipe :)

Your photos are wonderful. We used a chicken and served with potatoes, too - nice meal.

Anonymous said...

welcome to the group!!! I was so excited when I got my copy of AMFT in the mail so I could start cooking along with everyone and cant wait til Friday to share my thoughts and look at everyones pictures and read how they liked the recipe too. Even my husband gets excited for the FFwD meals!!! Its just so much fun!
It looks like your birds came out tasting delicious! :) We liked our birds, we had to use poussins, but didn't love love love the tapenade *shrug*, it happens but we finished every bite! :)
Cant wait to read your next FFwD post!

Anonymous said...

Welcome to the group! It's been a really fun first year and I'm looking forward to the next. Your birds turned out beautifully. I especially like that you roasted your potatoes with them.