Cornish Hens Stuffed with Haroseth

Greetings world,

Today I would like to tell you about a recipe for Cornish Hens stuffed with haroseth. Before we get into the details, lets talk about what exactly a "Cornish Hen" and "Haroseth" is.

A Cornish Hen, fully known as Cornish Game Hens, are chickens slaughtered while they are still young. They are therefore of smaller size, and are made to serve one, although half of one would fill my stomach up. The word Haroseth comes from the Hebrew word for clay. It is a Jewish concoction mainly made of nuts and dried fruit ground to a paste. It is traditionally eaten during the Passover celebration in order to remind them of the mortar they used to connect bricks during the time in bondage under Pharaoh, the ruler of the Ancient Egyptians. Haroseth is commonly eaten by itself or on matza, which is basically a type of cracker.

Here is the recipe for the Haroseth:

• 2/3 cup almonds, toasted
• 2/3 cup unsalted shelled pistachios
• 1 cup dried apricots
• 2/3 cup pitted dried dates
• 1/2 cup cream sherry
• 1 tsp orange zest
• 1/4 tsp of cinnamon, ground cardamom, and cayenne each

Chop the nuts in a food processor if you have one, if you don't, use a blender, that's what we did. Add the dried fruit to the processor/blender. Add everything else and mix till it is completely incorporated. Haroseth can be made 2 days ahead of time, just store it in a airtight container at room temperature.

Here is the recipe for the Cornish Hens:

• 1 Tbsp ground allspice
• 2 tsp cinnamon
• 1 tsp ground cumin
• 1 tsp sweet paprika
• 1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
• 4 Cornish hens1 1/3 cup cup haroseth

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees Fahrenheit. Mix all the spices and some salt and pepper with the oil in a small bowl. Pat each hen dry and stuff with 1/3 cup Haroseth each, (If I ever did this again, I would stuff it with more, maybe a half cup, or 3/4 cup, whatever would fit). Place stuffed hens in a flameproof roasting pan and massage with oily spice rub, make sure to rub it really good, try to get under the skin of the breast meat especially. Tuck the wings underneath the body and secure the legs together with some roasting string or a wooden toothpick. Roast for 20 minutes and then brush the hens with the sauce collected in the bottom of the pan. Continue roasting, using a baster to drench hens with the collected sauce in the bottom of the pan every ten minutes, take it out of the oven to do this. Roasting should take maybe half and hour longer, you will know that the hen is done if you pierce its thigh and the juices from it are clear. Once it is done, remove from the oven one last time. You can deglaze any flavorful residue on the roasting pan with some leftover sherry by placing the roasting pan on two stove top burners and sloshing the sherry around while using a spatula to rub of the residue. Use that as a gravy if you feel like it, if not, just serve them like they our or cut in half. In our picture, we topped it off with a green salsa, but the salsa didn't do too much for us. I got all these recipes from the Food and Wine Magazine. Happy Cooking!