This one was pretty cool, and very easy. A nice, one-pot, one-step meal. I didn't get any pictures of it. It just turned out nice.
Usually, when we buy cornish hens, they're whole, but this time we found some that were split in half, down the spine. That made it easy to layer like this.
12" deep dutch oven
12-14 coals below
16-18 coals above
4 medium potatoes, halved and sliced
2 medium onions, sliced
~2 Tbsp olive oil
Parsley
Basil
Oregano
3 cloves garlic, minced
Salt
Pepper
4 halves of cornish hens (one per person), thawed
4 slices thick cut bacon
I started off by creating the bottom layer (I did all this while the coals were heating up). I cut the potatoes into large chunks, and the onions into quarters and spread them over the bottom of the dutch oven. That would serve to elevate the hen halves above the drippings.
Then, I mixed all of the ingredients in the second set. I played it pretty loose with the amounts. Just shake some in the bowl and stir. Taste it and see. I made it a little runnier than a paste.
Make sure that the hens are thawed. There were some that weren't, and when we were serving them, a few weren't completely done. I was embarrassed, and we had to finish them in the microwave. What a shame for a dutch oven cook.
Anyway, I covered a hen half in the herb baste, draped a piece of bacon over it and set it in the dutch oven. I had to kind of overlap them a bit to fit them all in. That went out onto the coals until they read 170 degrees.
See? Simple. But delicious. Even the microwaved ones weren't too bad.
...And afterward, I made stock. Yum!
Mark has discovered a love of Dutch Oven Cooking. Mark also has other sites and blogs, including MarkHansenMusic.com and his MoBoy blog.
There are a couple of trends I've been noticing across the intarwebs worlds of breadmaking. One of them is the "No-Knead" breads. These breads seem to have these common characteristics.
The dough is VERY wet and goopy, just on this side of a batter.
They are made with a very long first fermenting, such as overnight or longer.
The dough is handled very little, hence the name "No-knead"
They are baked in a small, enclosed space, to trap moisture and enhance the crust. (Hmmm... Sounds like a dutch oven...)
The crumb structure is full of large holes.
I've been really intrigued with the idea, and have wanted to try it. Matt, over at "One Off", made a loaf, and spelled out the directions so clearly that I thought I'd give it a try. This particular recipe and procedure reminds me a lot of the French Bread I did a while back. It, too, has a long ferment time (a preferment, in fact), and it also uses only the basic four ingredients (flour, water, salt, yeast).
No-Knead Dutch Oven Basic Bread ("Pain Ordinaire" in french)
I started the day before, at about 4:00 in the afternoon, by mixing the ingredients. You might notice that my ingredients are double that of Matt's. He baked his in a terra cotta flower pot, and that's a little tighter quarters than a dutch oven. I mixed the dry ingredients first, whisking them all together, then added the water. Afterward, I adjusted the consistency by adding a bit of flour (if it needs, you could add water instead). From what I've seen and read, you want it to be goopy, but not a batter. It should still stick to the sides of the bowl. It should have enough liquid to jiggle in the bowl, but not be runny.
I covered it with plastic wrap and set it aside on my kitchen countertop.
The next day, at about 11:00 or so in the morning, I saw that it had puffed up very nicely. I put a lot of flour out on my countertop and, with a spatula, dumped the dough out onto it. It immediately flattened out pretty nicely, but I dusted the top with some flour and spread it just a bit more. I picked up both sides, right and left, and did a "letter fold". By that, I mean that I brought one side two-thirds of the way over toward the other side, then folded the second side fully over that. I dusted it with more flour, turned it, and did it again. Then, I did it a third time, just because, I guess.
Finally, I put some parchment paper in a bowl. I picked up the dough (with heavily floured hands) and wrapped it into a boule and set it in the bowl, on the parchment. I set that aside for another rise. The plan is to let it rise for a couple of hours.
After about an hour, I started some coals up. My coals must've been a bit damp, because I had a tough time lighting them. A half hour or so later, I had some lit, but not strongly, and not as many as I'd have liked. Still, I put them under and on an empty, oiled dutch oven to preheat. Meanwhile, I tried to get more coals lit and burning. It just wasn't happening like I would have liked.
At some point I decided that the dutch oven was hot enough and I gently lowered the dough and the parchment into the dutch oven. I folded the remaining parchment over and put on the lid. By then, I had some more coals ready and I added them to heat it up some more.
It baked about an hour or so. When it was done, it looked really great, smelled really great, and, after cooling, tasted really great. There wasn't the big holes, though, in the crumb. I've never been able to pull that off. I suspect it's because the oven wasn't hot enough. I'll try it again really soon, and see if I can make it work.
It tasted really good the next day, too. I don't know how well it will preserve over the week because it's already gone. I guess that's a good sign, right?
Mark has discovered a love of Dutch Oven Cooking. Mark also has other sites and blogs, including MarkHansenMusic.com and his MoBoy blog.
Last month, my pal Andy challenged me to a cookin' duel, cast iron chef style. The rules were simple, We each chose three ingredients and the other person had to make a one-pot meal that included those ingredients. It was a lot of fun, and generated a lot of interest.
So, I'm doing it again. Here are the rules for this round. Most of them are the same, but I'm going to change them up a little bit, however.
It doesn't have to be a one-pot dish. As long as all of the ingredients end up on the same plate, I don't care how simple or complex the process is.
Once again, the players can add any other ingredients they choose, but the final dish must include all three preset ingredients.
The recipe must be your own original creation. Search the web and the cookbooks for inspiration, but do your own thang. Here and here are some good posts on making up recipes.
Rather than require Andy, or anyone else, to come back with a challenge for me, I'm going to also do these same three ingredients.
I'm going to open this one up to everyone that reads this blog. Check out the list, and if you're in on the challenge, cook it up. Then, email me with either your recipe (and pics, if you take any) or a link to where you wrote it up on your blog or website.
So, here are the new challenge ingredients
Meat: Beef (any cut or form of it you want)
Veggie/fruit: Leek, scallion, or green onion, etc...
Spice/flavoring: Cinnamon
I'm also going to post this to the IDOS forums, and see what excitement we can stir up there.
Mark has discovered a love of Dutch Oven Cooking. Mark also has other sites and blogs, including MarkHansenMusic.com and his MoBoy blog.
