Fr. Z's Blog

Last night I had the plan of making a “Cornish Game Hen” (aka CGH aka little chicken) for supper. Hence, I brined it and determined that I would spatchcock it and put it on the grill.

Did you know that the CGH was popularized by Victor Borge, whom I literally, physically ran into once in Christenstad.  Here he is with the great Robert Merrill.

Brining the CGH.

Then, while I was doing my daily Hungarian lesson, I had an idea.

I was going to just shove in some lemon and rosemary.  Why not make Paprikás Csirke?  I’m sure you ask yourself the same all the time.

The question was, would I have all the ingredients and, important, time?

I put on my roller-skates and went for it.  I figured I’d aim for one hour prep and cooking.

Could I do it?  With what I had on hand?

Use the grill rather than cut up the little bird and use a pan to brown.

FAST FAST!  Gotta get those onions going immediately, so that they can cool a little before adding the paprika!

I fired up the grill at this point.    Next.

Seconds later.

I smashed and left the the jackets.  Four seemed about right because this is the sort of weak-ass garlic we get in these USA.

Since I had just a couple strips of bacon left, I tossed them in, not having lard.  It is good to do things in stages, but I am on the clock at this point.  FAST FAST!

Kitchen sheers.  Vital.

When the Metropolitan Opera would come to town for a week during their annual tours, inevitably some of the stars would show up at a piano bar in downtown Minneapolis called Richards where a lot of cops would also hang out after work, since it was across from the downtown police HQ.  It was a real karaoke place before karaoke and the old pianist there – don’t remember his name – Stan? – was about 150 years old knew everything.  My mom, the cop, had a stupendous voice as did quite a few of the cops. They would do solos and duets when the MPLS Police Band played the parks during the summer evenings. I played in the band. Anyway, they would wind up singing with Robert Merrill and Corelli (best “Di quella pira” ever) and Sills, etc.  I digress.

CLEAN YOUR KNIVES AND BOARD AND …

GO TO CONFESSION!

How evenly should it be browned?  I didn’t care. The clock is ticking and it is enough to get that good flavor from the grill.

I shifted the onions, etc., off the heat and let it cool.  If you put paprika into something that is too hot, it gets bitter.

I had half a can of San Marzanos in the icebox so… in they go.

Using the Italian tomatoes… THANKS to the read who sent them from my wish list! … and realizing that I didn’t have egg noodles or dumplings or other traditional sides, I had another idea.  More on that below.

In goes the chicken and broth.

I didn’t have any cream so I used extra sour cream.  To make a kind of cold roux, mix the flour into the sour cream little by little.

If you add this to quickly to the hot liquid in the dutch oven, it’ll clump.  You have to temper it first by mixing small amounts of the hot broth into the cream and flour.

In it goes.

Cook it. Covered for 20 un covered for 20.

Speaking of Robert Merrill, here he is with Jussi Björling in one of the most beautiful of the male duets in all of opera, “Au fond du temple saint” from Bizet’s Les pêcheurs de perles.

Since I didn’t have any nokedli or any other egg noodles, which is traditional, my idea:

In honor of a friend in Rome who is the Hungarian ambassador to the Holy See, I decided to make this Magyar-Roman fusion.   My eye turned to some loitering…

I didn’t bother cooking them first.  Instead, I added more broth and just threw them in along with some cherry tomatoes who were hanging around like day laborers waiting to be hired.

Speaking of Di quella pira… I know some of you are “inoperable”, but give Franco Corelli a try.

40 minutes later, out comes the bird.

This needed to reduce for a few more minutes.  The starch from the bronze-cut rigatoni helped to thicken the gravy.

With some basil and rosemary.

This produced enough for two, for sure.  This sort of thing can be better the next day.

I really wanted to have those left overs today, but it is FRIDAY, and an EMBER DAY to boot.

Sometimes you can go forward and improvise.  If you don’t have some exact ingredient, adapt and overcome.   Of course if you don’t have any paprika, you can’t make Paprikás Csirke.  But you can still make something like… Game Hen alla cacciatora…. which is sort of how this worked out.

Don’t be afraid to cook and charge ahead.  It is amazing what you can make from things that are just around or left over.

If you want to contribute to my kitchen, there is in my wishlist a particular gift card I designated with the remark, “If this MC shows up, I’ll know it’s for the kitchen.”  One of these just arrived from “R, G & E”.  Thank you.

And I meant it… everyone…

GO TO CONFESSION!