After our recent Wilton Week in Normandy and Brittany this lovely, delicious old-fashioned dish pays tribute to the tastes of Normandy. It is Served with boiled potatoes, which can be mashed into the delicious, appley gravy, and a green vegetable.
Ingredients
6 Cox, Braeburn or other crisp, juicy eating apples
50 g butter
150 ml cider
1 guinea fowl
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 tablespoon calvados, brandy or whisky
100 ml double cream or full fat crème fraîche
Method
Preheat the oven to 180°C, gas mark 4.
Peel, quarter, core and thickly slice the apples. Melt half the butter in a heavy casserole over a medium heat. Add the apples and cider, cover, and cook briskly for 10 minutes. Remove the lid and boil for 5 minutes to concentrate the juices. The apples should be tender and juicy but not overly wet.
Skin the guinea fowl, and joint into four pieces, trimming away any fat. Melt the remaining butter in a frying pan, season the guinea fowl and brown briefly.
Bury the meat in the apples. Tuck a piece of greaseproof paper over the pan contents to exclude air, and add the lid. Bake for 30 minutes.
Remove the meat from the dish and keep warm. Put the casserole, with the apples, over a medium heat and bring to the boil. Add the alcohol and, a couple of minutes later, the cream. Boil, stirring, to blend and reduce the sauce. Adjust the seasoning. Spoon most of the sauced apples onto a platter and top with the meat. Add the last of the apples, and serve.
Original recipe Waitrose
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