Happy 2011!!!

Happy New Year to all of you! May the New Year be filled with Joy, Health and Prosperity!

The busy holiday season is behind us. All the vigorous cooking, entertaining, sharing, eating and simply having fun is over. I am a little bit sad that the holiday season of sharing is over but I remind myself that it can continue all year long. We can always entertain, cook, have fun and share with friends and loved ones all year long. It’s actually nicer in my opinion because we can do all these without the commercial buzz.

Well for Christmas dinner I prepared stuffed Cornish hens. I grew up celebrating Christmas on December 25^th and not on Christmas Eve like it’s done in many other cultures. The most important dinner was the one on Christmas day, December 25^th. We usually had stuffed turkey or just stuffed chickens back home so that’s what I wanted to have for Christmas dinner this year. I stuffed 6 Cornish hens which was a lot of food for 6 people I had over for dinner but as usual I cooked more than I should have.

Growing up and living in Cyprus most of my life, I always saw and experienced so much cooking when people would come over for dinner which is hard to describe. We always had a lot more food than we needed. As a Greek you never cook just one dish for your guests and you never cook just enough for the people you are feeding! You need to cook a lot so you have left overs. Till this day I am trying very hard to shake off this habit.

My stuffing consisted of rice, roasted chestnuts and pine nuts, chicken liver, raisins, onions and spices. I simply love this stuffing but I know that partly it’s because it brings back fond childhood memories of family holiday dinners.

Ingredients for stuffing 6 Cornish hens:

2 cups long grain white rice

½ pound of roasted chestnuts

½ cup roasted pine nuts

½ cup raisins

1 cup finely chopped yellow onion

½ pound chopped chicken livers

1 teaspoon cinnamon

Salt

Pepper

For baking:

10 bay leaves

6 small cinnamon sticks

1 cup virgin olive oil

2 cups water

6 teaspoons unsalted butter

Oregano

Salt

Pepper

A little trick that I use which my mother taught me is to rub the hens or the chickens with lemon inside – out before stuffing. It gives the meat a very nice flavor. After I finished prepping with the lemon, I seasoned with salt, pepper and oregano.

When I stuffed the hens – filled completely the cavity of each hen with stuffing - I closed the cavity with a piece of kitchen twine. I rubbed some unsalted butter over them, and added a few bay leaves and cinnamon sticks under their wings for extra flavor. I drizzled about a cup of olive oil over the hens, added a couple of more cups of water in the baking pans, (I had to use two pans) covered the pans with aluminum foil and place them in the oven. I baked at 400 degrees in a pre-heated oven for about 2 hours. During this time I basted the hens every 30 minutes. At the end of the second hour I uncovered the pans and baked for another 30 minutes at 350 degrees till the hens had a nice brown color on top.

I served them with roasted carrots and pearl onions in honey and orange zest, my friend’s Amy’s green beans casserole, mushrooms cooked in red wine and coriander and baked potatoes.

Yes, the meal was yummy and it was wonderful to share it with good friends from around the world – Germany, Belgium, Spain, France and the good U.S. of America :-)

I took photos of the hens before I cooked them but then with all the excitement after everyone arrived I forgot to take photos of the finished product!  :-)

Of course we had appetizers, the Greek spinach puffs which are called spanakopittes, and  shrimp skewers in pesto sauce, olives, different kinds of cheese and tomatoes in olive oil and oregano along with a very tasty mulled wine that my friend Veronika prepared. 

The delicious Cornish hens can be served at any time of the year and not just during the Christmas holidays!

I hope you prepare this meal and you enjoy sharing it with friends and family!