Slow cooked guinea fowl

A simplfied recipe by Ash Mair. Buy a whole guinea fowl in order to have the carcass as well, to make a nice stock that then can be used for a tasty sauce. Buy a pigs trotter as well. Do this the day before. Remove the breasts and the legs. Put the rest with the pigs trotter in an ovendish and almost burn it at 300C (about 15 mins). In the meantime brown 2 sliced carrots, 1 garlic colve and a bay leaf in some olive oil. Add 50 ml fino sherry and 50 ml port and reduce till the liquid becomes sticky. Add 1 liter of chicken stock, 2 onions cut in half (incl the skin!), one or two tomatoes, some thyme, a bayleaf, 8 crushed black peppercorns, 2 celerystalks incl the leafs, a tbsp tomato paste. Add the carcass and pigs trotter and bring to the boil, then simmer for at least half a day.

The next day take out the vegetables and meat and strain the liquid trough a fine sieve. Then reduce till you end up with a nice thick sauce. Discard the vegetables, give the meat from the trotter do the dogs and dicard the bone. But keep the guinea fowl carcass.

Then cut 2 onions finely. Sweat them in a knob of butter in a sauce pan. Add a (beer)bottle of sweet cider, some salt and pepper and bring to the boil. Continue on a low heat till the onions are soft and the cider all but evaporated. Use the blender to make a puree. You can do this in advance and warm it later in the microwave.

Heat the oven at 200C. Peel a potato per person and grate them. Then leave the stuff in warm salted water for 10 mins.    Clarify 50 gr of butter.  Squeeze the potatoes as dry as possible and cover in butter. Put loosely in a couple of baking cases. Bake in the oven at 180C for about 30 mins or untill golden brown and crispy.

Now open a second bottle of cider and pour in a second saucepan with 1/2 liter chicken stock, bring to the boil and put the legs in, remove to a very low flame and simmer for half an hour till well done. Keep apart and warm in alufoil..

Time for the breasts. Wrap them in thinly sliced Serano ham and the wrap each one in clingfilm. Reheat the cider add the breasts and simmer for 20 mins.

We are getting there. Remove the clingfilm and dry breasts and legs on kitchen paper.

Slice 1/4 of a Savoye cabbage, slice 2 small leeks, Boil them for about 4 mins.  Peel an apple and cut in pieces of 1/2 cm. Add to the greens and boil for another minute.Then drain.

Put 2 frying pans on the cooker. One to fry the breasts and legs till the skin of the legs and the ham of the breasts is crisp. This will take about 5 mins. The other to reheat the cabbage and apple. Add a small handfull of frozen peas and small carrots. Just  a minute or two will do.

Warm the sauce and the onion puree. Cut the breasts in half and the legs at the knee. (If you only serve 2 people keep the rest in the fridge). Plate as shown

After lunch or dinner take the meat from the carcass. In the next couple of days day use the leftovers to make this. Boil a potato and mash. Mix with the leftover veggies. Fill a serving ring with mix. Top with the meat. Pour over the leaftover sauce.