Another First For Me

I stand (really sitting on the couch right now) before you at thirty-six years of age and can tell you that up until today, I've never had Cornish hen.  Luckily, that changed.  It turns out that they are thoroughly enjoyable.  I wanted to continue my streak of cooking because as of late I've noticed that The Diet and The Exercise are beginning to work.  So I headed down to Findlay Market because I knew that I could acquire what I needed for the Honey-Lime Glazed Cornish Game Hens on page 264.

Any reader of mine will know that I love themes when cooking.  Since this recipe had a focus on honey, I desired something else with honey for the side.  Earlier this week while I was at Fresh Market, I noticed that they had fresh figs.  Over the years of using Weber's grilling book I've come across a few recipes that used fresh figs, but never knew where to purchase them.  As I looked for a side dish this morning, I noticed that one of the salads that used fresh figs also used honey.  Perfect!  So while I was at Findlay I also picked up some local honey.

Like I said, I've never worked with nor eaten Cornish game hen, but I was giggling at their size.  The chef's knife is included in the picture for comparison.

The first step is to remove the backbone.  My IKEA poultry shears made short work of that.

I was a little suspect of how much rosemary there was in the marinade.  This brought back horrible memories of when I first tried Thumper, because I was nervous about the game hens being too gamey.  Regardless, I took the fresh herbs (thyme and rosemary) from this:

To this:

Which were then added to the other marinade ingredients.

 

The birds were flattened to create more surface area for marinade attachment.

The Ziploc bag technique was used again, and I proceeded to enjoy a couple of hours of working on my basement.

As dinner hour approached, I gathered what was necessary for the side dish, the Grilled Figs With Arugula on page 79.

The recipe actually called for a couple of whiskings of the dressing, which I guess was to ensure that the honey was well distributed.  Thus, the dressing was the first thing to assemble.

The fresh figs (much softer on the outside than what I had anticipated) needed to have the tops removed and then halved lengthwise.

The honey and champagne vinegar were whisked together (separate from the dressing, which also had these ingredients), and then brushed on the cut side of the figs right before grilling.

Another ingredient that I purchased at Findlay was some domestic aged Asiago cheese.  The Guide instructs you to use a vegetable peeler to make ribbons of cheese to top the salad.

It worked pretty darned well!

The Cornish game hens were indeed quite done, and the honey had done what most sugar-based ingredients will do...it "caramelized."  The birds were so tender/juicy that one of them had a little difficulty coming off the grill in one piece.

The figs take only two minutes on the grill, so they were quickly done while the birds were resting.

Finally, I was able to plate and sit down with The Bride for a nice meal.

I truly enjoyed this meal.  First of all, Cornish game hen has absolutely no gamey taste at all.  In fact, if blindfolded, I would tell you it was just chicken.  What I really liked about the bird was that because it was so small, you get to eat the entire bird.  You can enjoy all the parts, flavors, and textures that make up the bird without getting too full in the process.  Regarding the flavors, I didn't really pick up on the honey, but the lime certainly came though, with just a hint of rosemary.  The Bride and I both ate all of our birds.  There is also something rather primal about the process of picking a whole bird clean, which added an element of intrigue to the meal.  The honey was also a little lost in the salad, but the champagne vinegar was a bit of a star, and the dressing was also quite tasty with the bird.  In all, the meal was a lot of fun and a positive first experience with a new food.