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Top Chef Not So Quickfire: Early Bird Special
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Top Chef Not So Quickfire: Early Bird Special
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Hazelnut-crusted Cornish Hen with blue corn grits, bacon-fried peaches and sherry syrup
Go Get This: ...for the hen 1 1-lb. Cornish game hen 1 cup raw hazelnuts 1 tbsp. smoked black peppercorns 1 tsp. kosher salt 1/2 cup sherry vinegar ...for the grits 1/2 cup blue corn grits 1 cup whole milk 1 cup water 1 pat butter 1 garlic clove, crushed 1/2 cup smoked cheddar cheese, grated 1/2 lb. slab bacon 1 peach, peeled and cut into eighths Salt and pepper, to taste Now Do This: Preheat the oven to 350 degrees, then get the hazelnut crumbs working by toasting the nuts and peppercorns in over medium heat in a dry skillet until fragrant, 5 minutes. Once toasted and slightly cooled, transfer the hazels to the dish towel, fold in half and rub gently, which helps remove most of the papery skins. Put the nuts in the food processor or spice mill with the peppercorns — regular’s OK, but smoked is worth seeking out for this recipe — and kosher salt and buzz into a fine powder. Sprinkle the hazelnut crumbs liberally over the hen and press in firmly to create a crust around the bird. Shake off excess and place hen on pan fitted with a roasting rack. (If you don’t have a roasting rack, put the hen directly in an ovenproof pan; just make sure you oil it first.) When the oven comes to temp, bake the hen. Mine weighed just over a pound, and 50 minutes cooked the bird through without drying it out. Were I making this for my living-in-fear-of-salmonella parents, I’d probably take it another 10 minutes, but it was perfect for me. Make sure you let it rest 10 minutes before eating. As the hen cooks, make sherry syrup by adding the sherry vinegar to a saucepan, reducing by half and whisking in a touch of butter off the heat. Reserve. Then cut the bacon into lardons and fry them up in a skillet. Remove the bacon but leave the fat in the pan, lower the heat and add the sliced, peeled peaches. Ideally, you want to use firm peaches, but mine were ripe and they turned out swell. They only need 5 minutes per side to caramelize. Remove them from the pan and use the mingled bacon fat and peach juices to baste the hen half an hour into cooking. Get the grits going by combining them with water, milk, butter and garlic in a pan. My fave grits come from Anson Mills in South Carolina, but white or yellow Quaker work just as well in a pinch, and you can use any combos or ratios of liquid to cook them in. (Chicken stock’s nice.) Bring the mix to a boil over high heat, then reduce to a simmer, stirring every few minutes as the grits thicken. They’ll come together in 20, but give them another 20, adding liquid if you needed. After 40 minutes, fish out the garlic clove and stir in the cheese and lardons. To plate, lay down some grits and place the rested hen on top. Ring with the bacon-fried peaches and garnish with a drizzle with sherry syrup and crushed hazelnuts.Comments (0)
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