December 6, 2014 Dinner Roasted Cornish Game Hens with Bulgur Wheat with cranberry raisins and sliced almonds and a tomato, cucumber and yogurt salad

December 6, 2014   Dinner  Roasted Cornish Game Hens with Bulgur Wheat with cranberry raisins and sliced almonds and a tomato, cucumber and yogurt salad

I had done a day sit for the Buddha’s Enlightenment Day in Placitas.  On my way home at 3:00 I stopped at Whole Food Market to see what root vegetables they had and I did not find any that I did not already have at home.  So I went to the cheese department and found two cheeses that I like and bought.  One was a raw milk tallegio ($19.99) that I had not seen before and the other was a lower cost triple cream brie ($8.99).  I tasted the tallegio and melted in my mouth, so I am hopeful that we can make either a lasagna with it or a creamy polenta.

I then went to the Alpine Sausage Kitchen and bought a pound of smooth Liverwurst ($4.99/lb.) and 1/3 lb. of Gelbwurst (veal bologna) for $2.31 and told the owners about our adventure in San Francisco Beach in Mexico. They love Sayulita and San Francisco and told me they are going in January.

I then went home.  Suzette had stayed home all day but instead of resting to try to get over a cold, she worked and cleaned the basement and set up some of the Mexican items we have stored to decorate for the Christmas Eve Open House.  This year the theme will be “Holy Mole” and the food will include a Oaxacan black mole with either turkey or chicken, green mole (perhaps with pork), sautéed pumpkin, black beans with flavored with hoja santa and avocado leaves, and rice.

Cornish Game Hens

We decided to roast the Cornish Game Hens and make bulgur. I cut the hens out of their cryovac and washed them out and dried them and Suzette found the two Spandex cooking racks and we stood the hens up on the column of steel and salted and squeezed lemon juice on them and dusted them with Herbs Provence and put them into a 350˚oven for one hour.

Bulgur Wheat

I then turned my attention to the bulgur wheat.  I minced 3 Tbsp. of onion and added about 1 ½ Tbsp. of butter and about 1 Tbsp. of olive oil to a large skillet and added the onion and began sauteeing the onion.  I then added about ¼ cup of cranberry raisins, 1/8 cup of sliced almonds and 1 cup of No. 4 Bulgur Wheat to the skillet and sautéed the bulgur until it and the almonds began to take on a golden color.  While the bulgur mixture was sautéing I added a dash of a cumin based Middle Eastern herb combination and a pinch of sumac.  I also heated 2 ¼ cup of water in a sauce pan and when the bulgur was sautéed to golden, I poured it into the boiling water, reduced the heat, covered the sauce pan and lowered the heat to a low simmer and cooked the bulgur for 45 minutes instead of the usual 30 minutes.  The bulgur was a little wet, so it will be better in a subsequent meal.  I should have used only 2 cups of water and watched it and timed it more closely. 

Tzatziki

Suzette and I discussed the vegetable.  We did not want asparagus again and when Suzette suggested Riata with the Greek yogurt, we decided to make a modified Tzatziki with tomatoes, cucumber, green onion and yogurt.  I cubed a Roma tomato, ½ of one of those long thin English cucumbers ($1.00 at Sprouts Farm Store), 2 green onions and added about 8 -10 ozs. of Greek yogurt, a ½ Tbsp. of olive oil, juice of 1/3 lemon and dried mint (Ta Lin). This tzatziki was the star of the dinner.  Although beautifully roasted, the Cornish Game hens lacked flavor, for some reason.

Roasted Game Hen on Spandex frame

I wanted a different white wine than Sauvignon Blanc, so I went to the basement and saw a bottle of 2012 Chateau L’ Ermitage from Costiéres de Nîmes that contained 60% Roussane, 20% Grenache and 20% Viognier (Total Wine $11.99 and $10.79 after the 6 bottle discount) in the fridge. The wine was slightly acidic as if it had oxidized, probably due to the metal cap with a lousy plastic inner cap.  I will not buy this wine again.  This wine made me think that one is taking a chance when one buys a bottle of wine with a metal cap, although this is the first such cap failure out of hundreds of bottles.  

The other thing it made me think was that I might try to avail myself of the often espoused offer to return any bottle that was not good, stated by the personnel at Total Wine. 

So two meals in a row with great food and lousy wine.

I broke down and ate chocolate covered raisins and several 70% cocoa butter truffles with some of Suzette’s liquor she made with the European juniper berries we brought home from Spain two years ago.

Bon Appétit