Epcot Food & Wine — Culinary Demonstration — Michael Toussaint Gunn — United Kingdom Pavilion, Epcot

This Culinary Demonstration was a treat for us because… Calvin and Kate went too!

On to the specifics…

Food: Apple Wood Smoked Cornish Game Hen with Sautéed Shallots, Chard and Applewood Bacon, served on top of Mashed Rutabaga, with Chicken Jus

Wine: Mohau “Central Otago” Pinot Noir from Mohau-New Zealand

Our usual presenter, Pam Smith, was not here for this one; instead we had John Egan (I think that was his name).

John introduced the wine, unusual that there wasn’t a representative from the winery here. This wine smelled of dried fruits and cherries, the taste was lots of fruit and some tannin.

Kate took a sip and made a face, she isn’t terribly fond of red wines, but I think part of her was joking about the flavor — regardless, when the seminar was over, Calvin finished her glass of wine.

None of us were really impressed with the wine, either alone or with the food. Nora’s red wine tastes run to Cabernet Sauvignon and Nick’s not a wine fan.

Also, Nick & Nora thought that the pairing wasn’t as good as the last pairing (here).

Our chef, Michael, was more entertaining… he has been at Rose & Crown for two years.

Today’s tasting has its roots in his personal explorations of smoking foods rather than the food options at Rose & Crown; although, the mashed rutabaga is very consistent with traditional English food. Mashed rutabaga is called “keeps” on the other side of the pond.

The game hen is actually infused with the smoke (this shouldn’t be confused with barbecue which is slow & low cooking with indirect heat, or grilling which is fast & high with lots of heat). When combined with the bitter chard (or any other bitter greens), it should go well with the wine that we were served.

Chef Michael took the time to show us how to butcher (debone) a game hen and how to prepare bitter greens for cooking. He had one cutting board so he started with the vegetables and then moved on to the raw meat.

• Swiss chard
• stalks may be red, yellow, orange or white
• much like cooking with other greens, you removed the stalk by cutting beside it, slice the greens, peel the stalk lightly to remove the fibrous strands (think celery), chop the stalk – all of this gets cooked, its a good idea to start with the stalks as they are less delicate than the greens; add the greens a bit later in the cooking process
• Cornish Game Hen
• NOT a baby chicken
• it’s a full grown fowl, think of it as the Chihuahua of fowl
• serve 1 per person
• to debone, you want to take it off the ribcage to speed cooking – 1st find the wishbone and remove it, this helps you to get all of the breast meat; cut down one side of the breast bone and remove the breast meat from the ribcage; dislocate the thigh and the wing; continue on around to the back; disconnect this half bird & repeat on the other side — Chef Michael notes that this works with any fowl
• Chard (or any other leafy bitter green — turnip greens, collard greens, kale, etc…)
• Chef Michael suggests using bacon or bacon renderings to help add depth of flavor (frankly, Nora says that adding pork renderings or toasted sesame oil to greens really helps to up the umami and provide deeper flavors)
• start by rendering the bacon (if not using bacon grease alone) – this is simple, cook the back until the fat comes out and the fatty part of the bacon turns clear
• add the shallots (or onions or garlic or whatever – that’s Nora again)
• add the stalks & cook a bit
• add the greens & cook a bit more, until they’re wilted
• you’re supposed to add chicken stock at this point, Chef Michael just grabbed his glass of wine & dumped it in (probably better use of the wine than drinking it)

Tasting Notes:

• Wine
• Don’t think any of us were particularly impressed with the wine
• In Nora’s opinion, a nice full white wine would have worked better
• Smoked Chicken
• The flavor was fine
• The appearance was a bit off-putting, frankly it didn’t look “cooked” and was still a bit pink inside – now we understand that this was the cooking method, but frankly, I think if you served this at a WDW restaurant, it would be sent back to the kitchen A LOT
• Swiss Chard
• We all gobbled this up
• This was really stand out in terms of flavor and texture
• Nora sincerely wishes that vegetables like this, in a decent sized vegetable serving not a teensy tiny vegetable garnish, was available on WDW menus
• Mashed Rutabaga
• Very good, added a bit of sweetness to the swiss chard
• Nick thought that it stood out well with the other two items on the plate and it was the component that he thought went best with the wine

Recipe (serves 4)

Smoked Cornish Game Hen

For Brine

• 3 quarts of water
• 1 quart of apple juice (this provides some of the liquid and some of the sugar; if not using apple juice you want the sugar to salt ratio to be 2 parts salt to 1 part sugar — that’s what our notes say!)
• 1/4 cup salt
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1 tablespoon black peppercorns
• 1 bay leaf

4 Cornish Game Hens

Applewood chips

1. Take first six ingredients, place in a pot and heat until the sugar and the salt have dissolved
2. Completely cool
3. Place Game Hens in the brine & put in the refrigerator for 24 hours
4. Remove fowl from the brine and rinse thoroughly, then pat dry
5. Place hens in the smoker and smoke for 15 minutes
6. Remove from smoker and place in sauté pan
7. Finish cooking in the pan until golden brown and cooked through

Sautéed Shallot, Chard, and Applewood Bacon

• 1 pound of chard, cleaned, rinsed, and chopped (leave leaves damp)
• 3 shallot bulbs, chopped
• 6 strips of bacon, chopped
• 1/4 cup chicken stock (or other liquid)
• Salt
• Pepper

1. Add bacon to saute pan and cook
2. When bacon is halfway cooked, add shallots and caramelize
3. Next add chard stalks and toss with bacon, then add chard leaves and toss again; heat through
4. Add chicken stock and let cook, stirring occasionally until most of the liquid has evaporated and chard is tender.
5. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Mashed Rutabaga

• 1 Rutabaga
• 1 ounce heavy cream
• 2 tablespoons of butter (at room temperature)
• Salt and pepper to taste

1. Peel and dice rutabaga
2. Boil in water until tender. Drain thoroughly and add to pan on low heat.
3. Heat up heavy cream. Add cream and butter to rutabaga and mash until desired consistency.
4. Add salt and pepper to taste.

We’re skipping how to make the Chicken Jus… it’s highly reduced homemade chicken stock. Most home cooks aren’t going to go to the trouble to do this for dinner. Nora says that if you just make the fowl, make the greens, and add some mashed root vegetables, you’ll have a great meal. Season to your tastes, there isn’t any right or wrong.

nora & nick