Pot Roasted Guinea Fowl With Sage Celery And Blood Orange Food

ROASTED GUINEA FOWL WITH CHAPELURE DE LEGUMES AND APPLE CIDER SAUCE

Steps:

• Preheat the oven to 150 degrees F.
• To make the vegetable flakes, set a mandoline over a large bowl. Slice 1 fennel bulb paper-thin, then slice 1 onion, 1/2 of the celery root, and 1 of the apples to the same thickness. Switch to a vegetable peeler, and working over the same bowl, peel 1 carrot into thin ribbons. Mix the vegetables and spread them evenly on a baking sheet. Place the sheet in the oven to dry the vegetables until completely brittle, about 2 1/2 hours. (If you have an oven with a convection function, this will shorten the drying time to 1 hour.)
• Transfer the vegetables to the work bowl of a food processor fitted with the metal blade and pulse until reduced to flakes. Store, covered, at room temperature. This can be done 1 day ahead.
• Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.
• To prepare the birds, halve the remaining fennel, onion, carrot, and celery root, then cut them again into several small wedges. Place them in a large baking dish along with the potatoes and garlic. Generously season with salt and pepper. Drizzle with 3 tablespoons of the olive oil and mix to coat.
• Season the guinea fowl with salt and pepper inside and out. Stuff the cavities with whole sprigs of thyme. Rub them all over with the remaining 2 tablespoons of olive oil. Place the birds on the bed of vegetables. Roast, uncovered, for 45 minutes, basting occasionally with pan juices.
• Cut the remaining apple into several wedges and add it to the roasting pan. Continue roasting and basting until the skin on the birds turns golden brown, another 20 minutes. Remove the birds from the oven, sprinkle them generously with dried vegetable flakes, then continue to roast until the juices run clear, another 10 minutes. Transfer the birds and roasted vegetables to a serving platter. Cover loosely with foil and let rest while preparing the sauce.
• To make the pan sauce, pour the pan juices into a small saucepan. Skim and discard as much fat off the top as possible. Over medium-low heat, deglaze the roasting pan with the cider and simmer for 5 minutes, scraping the bottom of the roasting pan to loosen the browned bits. Add the hot cider from the roasting pan to the pan juices, and over high heat, reduce the liquid by half. Stir in the butter, season with salt and pepper, and pour it into a sauce boat. Sprinkle the birds and the vegetables with persillade. Carve the guinea fowl at the table and serve with the cider sauce.

POT-ROASTED GUINEA FOWL WITH SAGE, CELERY AND BLOOD ORANGE

Steps:

• Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F.
• Remove any excess fat from the cavity of each guinea fowl. Wash thoroughly inside and out and pat dry with paper towels. Rub the cavity with a little salt. Cut off the two ends of the oranges, stand them on end and carefully slice off the skin (once you have removed one piece of skin you can see where the flesh meets the skin). Slice the oranges into five or six rounds each. Remove the tougher outside ribs of the celery until you reach the white, dense bulb and slice across thinly.
• Put in a bowl, mix in the thyme and a small pinch of salt and pepper, then stuff the cavity of each guinea fowl with this filling. Pull the skin at the front of each guinea fowl's cavity forward, to cover the filling, and tightly tie/truss up.
• Heat a thick-bottomed pan and add the olive oil and the guinea fowl, the skin of which has been rubbed in sea salt and pepper. Cook until lightly golden on all sides, then add the garlic, butter and sage and cook for 3-4 minutes until golden brown. Add the wine at intervals, enough to keep the pan slightly moist at all times. Place in the oven for 45 minutes, checking every 10-15 minutes and just topping up the wine as necessary. The guinea fowl will be roasted and partially steamed.
• When cooked, carefully remove from the oven and place upside down on a dish, allowing all the juices and moisture to relax back into the breast meat for at least 5 minutes. While your meat is resting, make the gravy.
• Remove all the fat from the roasting pan and place the pan on gentle heat. In the bottom of the pan will be your cooked, soft, sweet, whole garlic cloves and some gorgeous sticky stuff--when this gets hot, scoop out the stuffing from the guinea fowl cavity and add to the pan with about 2/3 cup of wine. As the wine boils and steams, scrape all the goodness with a spoon from the bottom of the pan into the liquor. When it has all dissolved, leave to simmer gently. Squash the cooked garlic out of their skins with a spoon (discard the skins); this will also thicken the gravy slightly, as well as give it flavor. Pour any of the juices that have drained out of the rested birds into the pan with the gravy, simmer and season to taste. Serve the guinea fowl with roast potatoes and any simply cooked green vegetable--spinach, kale, bok choy or broccoli.