Cornish hens with apricots, tomatoes and spices

12 Servings

Ingredients

Quantity Ingredient
12 tablespoons Chicken fat
6 Cornish game hens, halved
Salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
4 teaspoons Cinnamon
4 cups Chopped onion
1 teaspoon Cloves
3 cups Canned plum tomatoes, diced, with juices reserved
3½ cup Dried apricots, soaked in hot water for 1 hr and drained
2 cups Chicken stock
⅓ cup Brown sugar

Directions

Heat 6 tbsp fat in a large saucepan. Sprinkle the hens with salt, pepper and 1 tsp cinnamon, then brown well. In another saucepan, heat remaining chicken fat, add the onions and cook over low heat 5 min or until onions are transparent. Add remaining 3 tsp cinnamon and the cloves and cook 3 more min stirring occasionally. Add about ½ c of the reserved tomato juices. Puree half the soaked aprico ts in a food processor or blender, and coarsely chop the rest. Add the pureed apricots, the diced tomatoes and 1 c chicken stock to the onion mixture. Simmer, uncovered, 5 min. Puree 2 c of the onion mixture. Return to the pan, add the remaining apricots, brown sugar and remaining chicken stock. Add enough additional liquid to thin the sauce out to a medium thickness. Place half the sauce in the bottom of a large casserole. Add the hens and cover with the remaining sauce. Bake, covered, in a 350F oven until done, 30-40 minutes.

NOTES : From _The Jewish Holiday Kitchen_ by Joan Nathan. Schocken Books, New York: 1988.

Recipe by: Joyce Goldstein (Square One, SF) Posted to MC-Recipe Digest V1 #547 by "Master Harper Gaellon" <gaellon@...> on Apr 3, 1997

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