Monday, September 6, 2010

Bring on Autumn - Roasted Vegetables and Cornish Game Hens Dinner

As soon as I woke up yesterday morning, I knew what I wanted to make for dinner... roasted vegetables.   It brings back memories of growing up in England.   We were very close to the Green Grocer and his wife, and he's stop by often in his little mini van.   We'd pick out vegetables and he'd put them in brown sacks for us.   Everything was incredibly fresh, right out of his garden.   Our meal last night of roasted vegetables and Cornish Games Hens made the house smell great and was really healthy too.


I stopped off at the market and picked out what vegetables I wanted to use; sweet and red onions, carrots, parsnips, acorn squash, sweet potatoes, cauliflower, garlic, caraway seeds and pepper corns.   Then I pre-heated my oven to 350 degrees, prepped the veggies and loaded them up on trays to roast.


I drizzled everything with olive oil, sea salt and cracked pepper.   I threw some caraway seeds onto the root vegetable on the large tray, used thyme and minced garlic throughout.  


I rinsed and dried the hens and split each one in half.   Put some olive oil into the bottom of the pan and onto each half bird.   Threw in some sweet onion, thyme, garlic and then coated each half bird with Major Gray's Chutney.  A little salt and pepper to taste and they were ready for the oven.


Everything fit perfectly into my oven... closed the door and it did all the work from that point on.   I roasted the entire meal for about an hour, until the hens were cooked through.


This was our dinner - the Cornish Game Hen was tender, juicy and a little zesty from using the Chutney as a glaze.   All the vegetables were perfectly roasted, full of flavor and I did top them with some minced Italian Parsley too.   Four adults later, everything had been devoured!

8 comments:

Torviewtoronto said...

lovely meal looks delicious

Matt Kay said...

It's funny. When each season starts to wind down and come to an end I tend to try to hang on to the recipes that suit it. As new seasonal ingredients become available and the old ones phase out I'm forced to adapt.

It happens year after year. Usually a dish like this one will snap me out of it. The root vegetables and squash of autumn are just the thing to help me get over the cucumbers and tomatoes of summer.

This looks great and I'm now inspired!

Anonymous said...

This looks delicious! I am so ready for autumn and would love to make this meal if the cool weather ever came my way!

Liz Marr, MS, RD said...

A lovely segue to fall. I don't often cook Cornish hen but you've motivated me to add that to the shopping list soon.

Becky said...

Autumn is right around the corner in the Chicago area, so I can't wait to to start baking the acorn squash, and oven cooked meals like your Cornish hens. Looks delicious!

Kristen said...

When autumn finally arrives here in Arizona, I will be at the front of the line to roast vegetables. They are some of my favorite things about fall.

Anonymous said...

i adore roasted veggies! great post - so glad it's fall so we can start enjoying these again. :)

-the musing foodie

Kate said...

I'm looking forward to autumn vegetables. Love the idea of using Major Grey's on the game hens. Kate @kateiscooking