Game Hen with Herbed Rice & Squash

In place of acorn squash, you could also use some cut up pumpkin or butternut squash. Make sure to use a pan or baking dish that is large enough to hold the ingredients, as the rice will naturally expand as it cooks.

Ingredients:

2 Cornish hens, each rubbed with olive oil, sprinkled with salt,  black pepper and dried sage leaves
1 acorn squash, peeled, seeded and chopped
3 garlic cloves, chopped
4 scallions, chopped (with some of the green)
1 cup rice
2 1/2 cups vegetable broth
10 to 12 fresh sage leaves, torn or chopped
2 teaspoons dried thyme
1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper

Heat the oven to 300 F. In a baking dish or pan, put the rice, the acorn squash, the chopped garlic, the chopped scallions, the sage leaves, the thyme, the black pepper and the vegetable broth. Mix the seasonings in throughout the rice. Rub the olive oil on the Cornish hens and add the seasonings to the hens, as given in the ingredients, above. Place the hens on top of the rice/squash mixture. Place in the oven, uncovered. Bake for 2 to 2 1/2 hours, or until the rice and squash are tender. If the liquid is absorbed, but the rice is not quite done, you can add a little more broth, or even a little water. Carefully remove the hens from the top of the rice and squash, then stir the rice a little to mix in the juices from the cooked hens.

Click to enlarge the photo...

WORD HISTORY:
Acre-This word goes back to Indo European "agerh," which had the idea "open land, field," but also, "forest land." This gave its Old Germanic offspring "akraz," which meant, "field." This gave Old English (Anglo-Saxon) "æcer," meaning, "field, land sown with seed to produce food, tilled land, a measurement of land that could be tilled in a day." This then became "aker," then "acre" (by influence of the French spelling),^ and eventually it took on the most prominent and specific measurement meaning, "4840 square yards of land." Forms in the other Germanic languages: German and Low German Saxon have "Acker" (field used for farming),^^ West Frisian "eker" (field, land for farming), Dutch "akker" (field for farming), Danish "ager" (field), Icelandic "akur" (field), Norwegian and Swedish "åker" (field typically used for farming).

^ Old French borrowed the word from Old Norse "akr," with reinforcement by Old English "æcer."

^^ Just as its English cousin, German also used the word for a specific measurement of land, although that is not its primary meaning in modern times. 

Portuguese Chicken Piri Piri

In Portuguese this is called, "Frango Piri Piri." The small, hot, red chili peppers used by the Portuguese, "piri piri" (the term is from Swahili), are a common addition to a number of Portuguese recipes. They are a cousin to tabasco peppers and they vary from about 40,000 to more than 100,000 units on the Scoville Heat Scale for chilies. They come in jars in a vinegar brine and they can be a bit hard to find in the United States, although perhaps not in areas where many in the population have Portuguese heritage, like in parts of New England, California and Florida, where imported Portuguese products are likely more common. You will definitely find them online. Now, if you don't have these exact peppers, do not despair, as you can use just about any very hot chili pepper.

When I made this dish, I was just astounded by how good it was. I had piri piri peppers in a jar, and the brine was not overwhelmingly vinegary. You don't have to make it so hot that all you experience is heat from the chilies, but there's no question, if you have any nasal congestion, you won't have it after eating some of this chicken, but the flavor of the overall sauce was so good, I found it hard to stop eating. The great flavor also limits the amount of salt you'll need. 

Question: When Portuguese men grow old, are they called, "Portugeezers?"

Ingredients:

1 chicken, butterflied (often small chickens, like Cornish hens, are used by the Portuguese)
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
4 large garlic cloves, chopped
3 tablespoons dry white wine
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
1 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon Spanish paprika
8 to 10 piri piri in brine, along with a tablespoon or so of the brine.
2 tablespoons chopped cilantro

This chicken is commonly grilled in Portugal, but you can roast it in a 400 degree (F) oven. Blend all ingredients, except chicken, to a consistency you like. I like chunky sauces, but most recipes I've seen for this make the sauce fairly smooth. Lay the butterflied chicken in a shallow dish and pour the sauce over it. Turn the chicken and thoroughly coat it. Cover the dish and refrigerate several hours, up to 12 hours. Reserve the excess marinade sauce to baste the chicken if you're grilling it. If you keep any of the sauce for serving, you must heat it, as it had been in touch with raw poultry. I roasted the chicken in the same pan I used to marinade it, along with the excess marinade, and I spooned some of the sauce over the chicken 3 times during the cooking process. I let the chicken roast for about 65 minutes, to let the skin begin to show some charring. 

WORD HISTORY:
Geezer-This word is distantly related to English "wise" and "wit," but especially to the use of  "wise" as a suffix (examples: "likewise, clockwise"). It goes back to Indo European "weid," which had the notion "to see;" thus, "to know how to go, proceed." This gave its Old Germanic offspring "wisaz," with the same meaning, and an altered form, "wiso," for a noun, with the meaning, "way, manner, custom, condition." ^ This gave Old Frankish, a Germanic dialect/language, "wisa," with the same meaning. This was borrowed/absorbed into Old French as "guise," with the same meaning, but including, "manner of dress," then later also, "manner of cover or cloak." This was borrowed into English in the latter part of the 1200s. From this was formed "guiser," meaning, "person in disguise, or wearing a mask." In London, some came to pronounce it as "geezer," and it simply meant, "a man" (during the 1500s?). In North America it took on the meaning "an old man" during the second half of the 1800s. It is an example of a Germanic word coming into English (a Germanic language) in an altered form from a non Germanic language.

^ The Germanic form gave Old English (Anglo-Saxon) "wise" (back then pronounced as today's word, but the ending "e" was pronounced "eh").

Simple Grilling Recipe, Cornish Hens

Updated June 3, 2017


If they haven't already done so, many folks break out the grill and start grilling this time of year. I'm not going to give all of the specifics for this recipe, but rather give you the ingredients, which you then can adjust to your own tastes and for the amounts you fix. I've had this recipe for nearly 20 years, but I don't know where I got it, and I likely changed the original anyway, something I'm wont to do.

This is for some good spicy grilled Cornish hens, or chicken. Now, if you don't like spicy, don't stop reading, just adjust the heat level. The best way to grill the Cornish hen or chicken is to cut it in half or butterfly it. Combine the following in a bowl for each hen or chicken:

4 tablespoons thick ketchup
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper or to taste
1 teaspoon diced fresh hot peppers of your choice and to taste (some like milder types, some like in between Serrano peppers, some like to go for it and use habanero peppers)
a sprinkle of chili powder (whatever type you like)
1 small clove of garlic, minced

Mix it all together and use it to cover the bird halves or butterflied bird. Cover and put in the refrigerator, preferably overnight, but for a couple of hours, at least. Take the bird out of the refrigerator about a half hour or so before you grill it. Scrape as much of the coating off of the chicken as you can, but keep the sauce to baste it during grilling. Place the bird skin side up on the grill and don't go mow the lawn, or it's apt to burn. After about 15 minutes turn the bird over to the other side. Eventually you want to get the skin side back up and baste it with the sauce mixture. Heat the remaining sauce to serve on the side. Remember, any sauce you used on the raw bird must be cooked sufficiently to kill any bacteria. I don't want the "salmonella police" grilling you over unsafe food handling practices. Cooking the sauce will also soften the peppers and garlic and give the sauce a better taste.

I used a butterflied Cornish hen

WORD HISTORY:
Hen-This goes back to Indo European "k(h)an," which meant "to sing." This gave its Old Germanic offspring "hanjo," which meant "hen, female bird," but the idea behind the word was "singing bird." This gave Old English (Anglo-Saxon) "henn." By the way, the same source also gave Old English "hana," which meant "male singing bird." While this male form died out in English, it is still alive in close cousin German, which has "Hahn." Old English "henn" then became "henne,'' before the modern version. The other Germanic languages have: German "Henne," Low German Saxon "Henn," Dutch "hen," West Frisian "hin," Danish "høne," Norwegian "høna," Icelandic "haena," and Swedish "höna."