Home Cooking From a Professional Chef

In spite of all my professional kitchen work, I have never stopped cherishing each and every one of the home stoves I have owned, whether electric or gas.

And I find the conventional home oven sufficient to keep family and friends entertained and fed happily on simple country-style dishes. My friends seem to relish those--everyone loudly expressing regrets if I have not put at least one of my old classics on the table.

For example, I steadily swear that I will never again prepare one of those delicious, heady and utterly fattening potato gratins. But, it never fails to appear on each and every one of my Christmas family tables, probably because, should I fail to produce it on schedule, a little revolution would break out right then and there.

Every home cook I know goes through this experience, an unfair one if I may say so, since it results in these extravagant statements by “great chefs” that women are stuck in a rut and always cook the same things over and over again.

What is a mother to cook? How about this dish of little birds with pasta in two colors and a sauce made with cranberries and Gamay Beaujolais or, if you prefer, a happy Zinfandel.

You will notice that I speak about “little birds” simply because there are many. The first that comes to mind, of course, is our good old Cornish hen, so popular on all tables and perfect for this kind of preparation. But, if you prefer the more modern poussin, which can be found in all big cities, use it without hesitation. Pheasant and partridge nowadays, unless you shoot them yourself, are more liable to come from a farm than from the woods, so use of either would be fine.

Because of the somewhat sharp cranberries, I would personally avoid an older, opulent wine and use a younger, fruity wine both in the sauce and in the glass. If you like the dish enough to prepare it a second time using Zinfandel, Pinot Noir or Cabernet Sauvignon instead of Gamay Beaujolais, you will find striking differences in the way the cranberry sauce turns out in color and final taste.

I like to prepare my own pasta, and when I first thought of this dish I set it up to be prepared with homemade pastas, using dried cranberries in one and cilantro in the other. But not everyone has either the time or machine to prepare pink and green noodles, so do not hesitate to use commercial pasta. There are many excellent brands, both fresh in the dairy case or dried on the shelves of a supermarket.

If you prefer making your own--and I cannot welcome your enthusiasm enough--by all means go ahead and do so. Just remember that you must first dry the cranberries in a very low oven until they are all crinkled and shrunk before you process them with the eggs in the blender and use them to prepare the pasta.

For all green pastas, add the herbs, well-cleaned and washed, to the blender container, break the eggs on top and blend well. Let stand 15 minutes, until all the foam of the eggs has receded, and prepare the pasta as usual. If you choose spinach, I find that a much greener and tastier pasta is obtained when you chop the spinach very finely with a chef’s knife, then saute it in a little olive oil, stirring until all the moisture has evaporated. One-half pound of fresh spinach yields between 1/4 and 1/3 cup of cooked puree.

WINTER GAME HENS WITH CRANBERRIES

2 cups Gamay Beaujolais or red Zinfandel

1/2 cup light-brown sugar plus 2 teaspoons, packed

1 (2x1/2-inch) strip orange peel

1/8 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/2 pound frozen cranberries

6 large white onions, blanched

1 cup cilantro leaves

6 Cornish game hens or poussin, or 12 very large quail

Salt, pepper

1 tablespoon balsamic, red wine or cider vinegar

1 cup chicken stock, preferably homemade

Butter

1/2 pound spinach noodles, cooked

1/2 pound egg noodles, cooked

Combine wine, brown sugar, orange peel and cinnamon in saucepan. Bring to boil, then reduce heat and simmer 10 minutes. Add cranberries and immediately remove pan from heat. Let berries cool in poaching liquid. Set aside.

When cold, remove slotted spoonful of berries to plate. Finely mash with fork and set aside. Remove orange peel, finely dice and set aside.

Stuff 1 onion (1/2 onion if using quail) and 3 cilantro leaves into cavity of each bird. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Truss birds and set on rack in roasting pan. Depending on size, roast at 375 degrees 30 to 40 minutes. (Birds are ready when juices run clear out of cavity.) Remove birds to serving platter and keep warm.

Discard fat from juices in pan and heat over medium-high heat. Add remaining 2 teaspoons brown sugar and heat, stirring, until caramelized. Add vinegar. Stir in half chicken stock and cook until reduced to glaze.

Add remaining chicken stock, orange peel, reserved mashed cranberries, 1/4 cup cranberry poaching wine and reduce all to 1/2 cup. Whisk in 1 to 2 tablespoons soft butter during last minutes of cooking. Strain into clean saucepan.

Add remaining poached cranberries. Reheat and keep warm. Season to taste with salt as needed and pepper abundantly.

To serve, toss hot green and white noodles with as much butter as needed and mix in remaining cilantro leaves as desired. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Serve birds on bed of pasta and dot here and there with cranberries from sauce. Serve remaining sauce in sauceboat. Makes 6 servings.