March's C of Cooking - Guinea Fowl Goulash

We never ate guinea fowl in the UK, in fact I would have been hard pressed to identify one fully dressed as it were let alone trussed and packaged on the shelf in the butchers.

Since moving to France we have kept these every year - and we are all guinea fowl meat converts.  They are yummy, almost pheasanty and not at all dry.

We call them bollock heads:

- can you see why?

They are not a backyard pet because they are incredibly noisy - which makes them super guard birds - even better than geese as they only shout and don't attack.  They are however flighty and will roost in any available tree if allowed, so we always end up trimming their flight feathers and then encouraging them to shelter with the ducks.  As we usually buy them as chicks at the same time they soon get used to living with each other.

Anyway - I love guinea fowl and I understand that it is starting to gain in popularity across the UK too.

Here is my:        Guinea Fowl Goulash

Take one plucked and cleaned guinea fowl and joint to leave two breasts with wings attached, two legs and the section from between the legs - this bit is surprisingly meaty and worth keeping and cooking, then remove all the skin except for on the wings.

In a tablespoon of olive oil two onions with two cloves of garlic and three tablespoons of paprika, then add the meat and brown on all sides.

I am not using peppers for this goulash as I don't have any and they are not in season, but if you have them available then slice a medium red pepper and fry alongside the onions.

When the meat has been browned, add a generous amount of black pepper, fry the pepper briefly to release the flavour then pour over enough boiling water to just cover the meat and a pinch of salt.

Slice 3 large potatoes thinly then add to the pot along with a cup of frozen green beans, a cup of sliced mushrooms and a couple of thinly sliced carrots, finish with two tablespoons of tomato puree.

As I am the queen of lazy one pot cooking, just use the water you added as the stock instead of adding any chicken or veg stock, and leave everything to simmer for 30 minutes without covering to reduce and thicken the sauce.  Sprinkly over some dried parsley to finish, and serve in large bowl with fresh bread.

First Christmas dinner of the season

Complete with crackers, plastic toys, glasses of wine and snow.

I love Christmas.

Last night's menu was very French:

Charcuterie platter
Guinea fowl in creamy pepper sauce
Celeriac mash
Chocolate Creme Brulee.

Creme Brulee is not that hard to make, the biggest disaster is if you cook the egg yolks too quickly, they will curdle if the cream is too hot.

500ml double cream
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
75g caster sugar
25g vanilla sugar (I just have a glass jar of caster sugar with a vanilla pod in it)
6 egg yolks
4 chunks of rich patissier chocolate

Preheat the oven to 150°c

Break the chunks up and place on a plate in the oven while it preheats to soften.

Bring the cream and vanilla to the boil in a saucepan then reduce the heat and simmer for 5 minutes.

Beat the sugar and egg yolks together in a large heat proof bowl until light and fluffy.

Heat the cream back up to just short of boiling, then pour over the sugar and egg mixture, whisking continuously until it starts to thicken.  For a super smooth creme brulee, you can seive the mixture now.

Pour the mixture into 4 ramekins and place in a bain marie (an oven tray with hot water upto about half way on the ramekins), drop a chunk of chocolate into each ramekin, stir with a skewer to swirl the chocolate through the mixture.

Bake in the centre of the oven for about 40 to 45 minutes until the custard is set but slightly wobbly.  Leave to cool or refridgerate until about to serve.

To finish, sprinkle with caster sugar - and this is where my recipe fell apart last night.  I don't have a chef's blowtorch (Brendan offered me his plumbing one but I declined).  I tried to do the grill version of caramelising the sugar, but it just left the set custard runny.  So looks like a blowtorch is on my wish list now.