IngredientsPoussin with Orvieto-style Potato and Olive Stuffing
Serves 4
4 poussins
extra virgin olive oil
2 cloves garlic, unpeeled, lightly bashed with the back of a knife
1 bulb fennel, trimmed and chopped
3 roasting potatoes (King Edward or Maris Piper), peeled and roughly chopped
1 tablespoon black olives, stoned
some of the fine herb leaves from the fennel, chopped
Maldon sea salt and black pepper
4 small sprigs fresh rosemary
150 ml dry white wine
Method
Preheat the oven to hot (220C / 425F / Gas 7)
Prepare the poussin stuffing. Warm 2 tablespoons of the olive oil in a wide frying pan, and gently saut茅 the garlic to start to flavour the oil. Add the fennel and the potato and cook them for 5-10 minutes until they start to brown, soften and take on some flavour. Remove the garlic and add the olives, the chopped fennel leaves and lots of salt and pepper.
Wash the poussins well inside and out and pat them dry. Stuff each bird with the mixture, pushing a sprig of rosemary in at the end. Close over the cavity of the bird with a couple of toothpicks. Rub some Maldon sea salt over the skin of the bird and a little olive oil. Place the birds in a roasting tin, and roast for 25 minutes. Take them out of the oven and add the wine. Baste the birds with any of the juices and, if you have any stuffing left over, add it to the roasting tin now to crisp and cook.
Cook the birds for another 15 minutes or so until they are crisp and browned. Make sure they are well cooked inside. The stuffing has to be cooked through as well, remember. Push a metal skewer into the fattest part of the bird, between the leg and thigh, to make sure the juices run clear.
Let the birds rest a little. Serve them warm rather than piping hot. You will want to eat these with your fingers... Allowed!
Reproduced with the kind permission of Mary Contini from her book Dear Francesca: A Cookbook With Love, published by Ebury Press, ISBN: 0091881765
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