Candes Saint-Martin, my favourite spot in La Touraine.

Thursday 26 December 2013

Can you tell?

Here are some photos of the stuffed guinea fowl we had on Christmas Day. It's boned and stuffed with minced meat flavoured with apples caramelized in salted butter.

Before

It sat in the oven for 90 minutes, topped with a generous layer of salty butter and some chicken stock in the bottom of the dish. When it was ready, I got it out of the oven, poured off the backing juices (which I kept, off course), packed up the whole lot ... and set out for my mother's, 50 metres down the road.

During

We first had a glass of Champagne and some warm zakouskis, followed by scallops in Champagne béchamel sauce, slightly grilled in the oven. 

While I made the sauce to go with the guinea fowl (which we kept warm in the oven), my mother cut up the bird. I served it with braised Belgian Endives and pine cone shaped 'pommes croquettes'. It was lovely, as the sweetness of the stuffing went beautifully well with the bitterness of the endives. Yes, authentic Belgian endives are slightly bitter. 

I don't have a photo of the finished dish ... however ...


Can you tell ... that I cheated?  I didn't bone and stuff the bird myself ... but had some help from my friend 'Maître Coq'. In my defense I want to say that it is not easy to cook festive 'meals on wheels' for just two people. I hope you will forgive me! Ken did a much better job with his 'pintade' ...

P.S. I'm off to my mum's now to warm up and share the leftovers. As you can read on the box, this 'Pintade' serves 5 to 6 ... we still have a lot of eating to do. Tomorrow I shall post a photo of our dessert! You'll love it!

8 comments:

Susan said...

We had boned stuffed guinea fowl too. I bought it from the local poultry and rabbit producer. It was stuffed with rabbit mince. We didn't think the end result was a great success, so you and Ken have both done better than us.

Amanda said...

That looks lovely and very appetizing Martine! After reading Ken and your blog, I better have breakfast right now. I am starving!

GaynorB said...

I agree that it looks good and with the 'meals on wheels' aspect of your meal.
I took some shortcuts this year with a frozen ALDI roast which was actually delicious.

Niall & Antoinette said...

We had guinea fowl as well; I put lemon,apple and rosemary in the cavity and then roasted it on a bed of apple slices. We were very pleased with the result.

Tim said...

Pintade...
Ken's and yours look wonderful...
so did Gaynor and Tim's...
but, the next stage for yours is...
pintade sandwiches...
closely followed by...
pintade vol-au-vents....
and then...
pintade soup...
at least that is what my mother always did with the left-over bird...
and occasionally rissotto and then curry if there was enough left before the soup stage...
that takes you nicely into the new year!!
I like Niall & Antoinettes' method, too.

VirginiaC said...

I like the sound of apples caramelized in salted butter stuffed in baked poultry...yummy.
Glad you enjoyed your Christmas lunch..can't wait until you post the dessert.

Ken Broadhurst said...

Martine, that pintade farcie does look good. You know, I do my cooking as a hobby, and usually I just cook for myself and Walt. We always enjoy the leftovers of our big feasts. Our pintade is all gone now, except for the scraps that we saved to give to Callie over the next few days.

ladybird said...

Susan, I'm surprised you didn't enjoy the rabbit meat stuffing. I had grilled rabbit chipolatas decades ago, and they were delicious.

Nadege, Photos of two pintades on a empty stomach are certainly enough to work up an appetite!

Gaynor, I saw the photo of your Aldi pintade and it looked delicious. Hope you are having fun now that it has started to snow in the Alps.

N&A, That sounds like a great recipe. No wonder you were very pleased with the result.

Tim, Two or three days maybe, but no longer I guess, because we have a visiting kitty, that drops in every day and likes a nice morsel of poultry... And my mother is absolutely smitten with it!

Virginia, Dessert is about to be served! Enjoy!

Ken, Cooking used to be a hobby of mine too and I used to spend a lot of time in the kitchen. I still like cooking, but find it a bit of a strain now that I have to organize my cooking times over two locations (my kitchen and my mother's). It spoils some of the fun. P.S. I'm sure Callie will enjoy the scraps of your Christmas pintade :)