30th April 2014

Guinea fowl on a bed of vegetables and fruit

By MaitreMarcel

Guinea fowl is widely available in France and I find slightly more tasty than chicken and also belief their production is less intensive. I could be wrong of course as the one I bought for this recipe came from a leading supermarket poultry brand (Loué). But it is supposed to be less fat than a chicken and have more vitamins and minerals.

A classical French recipe is called Pintade au chou, guinea fowl with green cabbage. Apples are also used and towards Christmas there are roast birds with chestnuts.

The classical cabbage recipe uses bacon and white wine or cider, and sometimes the cabbage is cooked for a long time. I, however, did not want to use alcohol and preferred to keep the vitamins of the cabbage. Therefore, I first blanched the cabbage for a short time in boiling water.

I kept the apple taste with real apples and added some prunes as well. I used some carrots as in the classical recipe and added some chestnuts. Finally, because cabbage can have a boring taste, I spiced it up with some chorizo and garlic.

Ingredients

  • One guinea fowl
  • One green cabbage
  • Two apples
  • Three cloves of garlic
  • Eight dried prunes
  • Six slices of chorizo
  • A dozen cooked chestnuts (from a tin)

 

Steps

  1. Clean the guinea fowl and preheat the oven to 200 °C.
  2. Put a large pan with water on the fire and heat still boiling.
  3. Clean a green cabbage – first remove the outer leaves, then take off the leaves and wash in water.
  4. When the water is boiling, add the leaves, return to boiling and cook for several minutes. Drain.
  5. Put the bird in the oven at 170 °C and cook for 45 minutes to an hour, turning every 15-20 minutes.
  6. Let the leaves cool and dry, squeeze the leaves and cut off the middle bones. Keep in paper towels.
  7. Clean and cut the apples, the carrots, the garlic, the prunes, slice the chorizo.
  8. Cut the cabbage into strips.
  9. Heat butter in a pan, add the apples and garlic, stir.
  10. Add the cabbage and stir, add the prunes and chestnuts and stir
  11. Add the chorizo and cook for several minutes, keep warm.
  12. Remove bird from oven and let it cool.
  13. Put a bed of the vegetable and fruit mix in a serving dish and present the bird on top.