Guinea-fowl and chanterelles

(Click on the images to enlarge). This dish was made for 2 persons.

Let's do guinea-fowl, maybe a little more suited than chicken for festivities? Not the easiest bird to cook on the whole since legs and breastmeat have a very different cooking time. This is a safer approach; the legs and breastmeat are separated, the rest (wings, back..) is used in the sauce.

Sauce base; cut the entire legs off, same with the breastmeat, breastbone stays on, that's where the flavor is!!!. I simply cut through the breastbone with a good knife. Set legs and breastmeat aside for now.

All the rest is cut in smaller parts and fried until nicely browned. Add aromats of your choice; onion, carrot...herbs and spices. Cover with chickenstock and let simmer as long as you can. Just watch it so it doesn't cook dry!

Don't throw the cooked meat away when done! Take the eatable parts off, they will be so delicious to eat as a snack, cold or warm.

Chanterelles; brush them first to clean, tear them in smaller pieces if necessary. Fry in hot butter, s&p. Add very finely chopped shallot and a little chopped garlic. When almost done, deglaze with a little Madeira wine. Set aside.

Guinea-fowl; put some oil in a medium hot pan, add a little butter. Start with frying the legs only on medium hot fire. Leave the legs in the pan without moving them about. After 3-4 minutes, turn and leave them alone again. Check the browning, turn again; the whole thing can take up to 10 minutes, so don't hurry.

Now is the time to put the breast in their too, skin side down first (leave the legs in the pan). Same scenario of browning. When nicely browned, cover the pan loosely with a large sheet of aluminiumfoil, reduce the fire to low and let fry for around another 8-10 minutes.

Remove the meat from the pan and wrap in the aluminiumfoil for at least the time to make the sauce. I always have my oven on 80°C/150°F to warm my plates and keep prepared ingredients warm. The guinea-fowl in aluminium goes in the low temp oven.

Sauce; deglaze the pan with a dash of Madeira and let evaporate. Add the sieved sauce base. Let reduce a bit. Add tiny bit of cream, stir and let reduce again. Add chanterelles, add a small chunk of cold butter, shake the pan until the butter is dissolved. Taste for seasoning!!

I served a leg and a breast (still bone on!) per person, with homemade potato croquettes and imo completely redundant celeriac puree.

Yeah, why not Nicko.

Thank you Ed, I always appreciate comments from a chef like you.

Here you go, Sherbel;

There's one thing about serving potato croquettes; you need to make plenty, everyone loves them!!

Here's the recipe for potato croquettes for 4 persons;

12 big potatoes/ teaspoon of butter/ nutmegg/ s&p/ breadcrumbs (I used panko)/ eggyolk with a drop of water to loosen/

Boil the potatoes untill very soft. Drain and dry the potatoes just a little on the fire. Push the potatoes through a foodmill. Mix 2 eggs in, s&p, nutmegg and just a tiny bit of butter (a teaspoon worth). Taste when still warm, especially for the salt content imo.

Leave to cool entirely. I put the potatoes this time in a small tray and cut them in cubes when cooled. It's a bit tricky. Many times they are put through a "Mille croquette" device, but handshaping is OK. You can roll small balls or turn them in small cylinder shapes.

Crust; have 3 recipients ready with respectively flour, eggyolk with a drop of water, breadcrumbs. Roll all the croquettes in 1.plain flour 2.eggyolk and 3.breadcrumbs.

I have eaten some where a bit of crumbled flaked almonds were mixed in the breadcrumbs. The croquettes were handrolled in balls.

Deepfry, a few at a time, at 180°C/350°F.

In case you wonder about the Mille croquette device, here's a link in several languages. You will find this thing in many households over here! Fantastic and simple thing to use.

http://www.millecroquettes.com/

As I explained, mine were handmade and looked like this before deepfrying;

Just in case, for people who want to make celeriac puree;

I like a pure celeriac puree, so there's no potato in it. Peel the celeriac and cut in not too small chunks. Boil in water with a good dash of white vinegar untill very soft and drain. Put them back on low fire and let dry for at least 15 minutes. Shake them often.

Simply use your handmixer to puree finely. (Celeriac contains no starch like potatoes, so you can mash them this way. Never use a mixer to mash potatoes or you will end up with wallpaper glue). Add s&p and a good dash of cream, mix again. Done.

You can use the same procedure with Jerusalem artichokes, carrot (add a little ginger when finishing!!) etc.

Good luck Sherbel! And yes on the machine, "kroketten" is dutch for the french "croquettes".

I have to add that panko is not ideal for making these. The kroketten come out too pale, they should be rather darkbrown. A regular breadcrumb would probably give better results.