Thursday, November 25, 2004

Four and Twenty Blackbirds

Blackbird, by Kereth

2 Rock Cornish Game Hens without giblets
1 500 mL bottle Tomasello Blackberry Wine
2 cloves garlic
1 small fresh ginger root (you won't use all of it)
salt
sugar
rosemary
pepper blend
cardamom
jerk seasoning
garlic powder
glass saucepan
glass roasting pan
optional: honey, teriyaki sauce, Arizona green tea, and similar "oops, too much something-- cut that" ingredients. For mad chefs like me.

Thaw the birds overnight.
Preheat oven to 350 F.
Finely chop the garlic and an approximately equal amount of ginger; reserve to the side.
Pour the bottle of wine into a GLASS saucepan and start to simmer. Chop another three or four pieces of ginger and add to the wine. Sprinkle in some rosemary, pepper blend, garlic powder, cardamom, and jerk seasoning. Add 2 T sugar or similar quantity honey. Bring the mixture to a low boil, taking note of the quantity in the saucepan; you want to reduce it to 50% of the original volume.
Prepare a rub of salt, pepper blend, cardamom, jerk seasoning, and a small amount of sugar-- proportions to taste. There should be a sufficient quantity to cover the birds inside and out.
Coat the inside of the birds with the rub. Then stuff with finely chopped ginger and garlic from earlier; add a little rosemary. Coat the outside of the birds with the rub, reserving some of the rub for later. Truss the birds and arrange in the GLASS roasting pan.
When the wine sauce has been reduced, taste it to make sure it is almost completely sweet and no longer tastes of alcohol, and also that the balance of the seasonings is to your liking. Then pour about half of it over the birds. Add some more rub if too much of it has been washed off. Reserve the rest of the wine sauce for basting.
Put the birds in the oven uncovered. Baste every ten minutes or so with the remainder of the wine sauce. Cook for about an hour to an hour and fifteen minutes.

I recommend serving with herbed mashed potatoes, broccoli, thyme carrots, and/or asparagus. Or you can eat it by itself as I just did, and it's excellent. Serves 2-4.

Warning: Never cook a wine sauce in anything metal, particularly not aluminum. The alcohol picks up the metal and kills you and tastes nasty. Aluminum absorption has been linked with alzheimers. After the sauce has been reduced it is less of a problem, but I still recommend glass for the roasting pan in case not all alcohol has been cooked away.

You can increase the recipe by two hens without necessarily needing another bottle of wine, I think. I believe one bottle will be sufficient for a chicken, and one and a half to two may be needed for a goose or turkey. I plan to experiment with the other fruit wines in Tomasello's line soon.