Roasted Brace of Guinea Fowl (Sous Vide)

Roasted Brace of Guinea Fowl means two guinea fowl, well spiced and stuffed with clementines, cooked by sous vide then blasted to crispy skin in a very hot oven. The perfect lip-smacking, finger-licking main course for any holiday meal!

N.B. This recipe must be started one day ahead of when you want to roast and serve your guinea fowl. 

One of the things I love about the holiday season is that unusual game birds sometimes turn up in the neighborhood grocery stores or butchers. I’ve found pheasant, guinea fowl, goose and even partridge on occasion and always leap at the opportunity to try something different. If you follow me on Instagram, you know that duck has been on our Christmas menu a couple of years as well. 

Guinea fowl are considered a game bird but, in fact, there has been a great increase in the number of farms that raise them. According the USDA, there are more than 14,500 guinea fowl farms in the Unites States. They are the fourth best selling poultry after chicken, turkey and duck. 

They are relatively small birds, weighing roughly 2-3 lbs or 900-1.4kg, with slightly darker meat than chicken and way more flavor. If you can't find guinea fowl, ask our local butcher to order some for you. Most will oblige.

Roasted Brace of Guinea Fowl (Sous Vide)

Some essential items for this recipe are 1. a sous vide machine aka immersion circulator 2. A vessel large enough to hold the two birds and water to circulate around them and 3. Two heavy bricks or tiles to hold the birds underwater in said vessel. Don’t worry, I provide a photo of the set up below.

Ingredients

2 whole guinea fowl (approx weight each 3 lbs or 1.4kg)

2 tablespoons dry salted spice rub (I used my dry java concoction) 

1/2 teaspoon same spice rub

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

4 small clementines

Method

Clean the guinea fowl, removing the top part of the tail and any stray feathers inspector 12 might have missed. (One of mine had what appeared to be one side of the bird’s head skin as well, connected to the neck skin, top feathers and all. Cooking meat is not for the faint-hearted and this is a reminder to me at least, to appreciate the living beast that I am cooking and eating.)

Spoon the dry rub inside the birds and all over the outside skin, making sure to get some between the legs and body, wings and body, and in the top cavity by the neck as well. If the guinea fowl arrive already trussed, just work your fingers between these bits. If your fowl are not already tied up, do this after seasoning. 

Mix that extra 1/2 teaspoon of dry rub with the 1/2 teaspoon of baking soda and sprinkle it on the top of the bird from a great height, so you get an even layer. According to Serious Eats, this helps the skin dry so it will super crispy when roasted. It does get moist again in the sous vide bag but I like to think that if the skin is really dry when we start, it will dry out again quickly with the application of intense heat.

Place your birds in a casserole dish, breast up, uncovered in the refrigerator for 24 hours. 

The following morning, stuff two whole clementines in each bird cavity.  This helps displace air and conduct heat through the birds as well as adding flavor. 

Place each guinea fowl in a gallon bag. Submerge them carefully in water to remove as much of the air inside as possible and seal tightly.

Because there is still some air inside of the birds, they tend to want to float. Cover a couple of bricks or tiles with plastic bags and lean them against the guinea fowl to keep them submerged but make sure water can still circulate around them. I also clothespin the guinea fowl bags to my cooking chopsticks to help center them in the water.

Sous vide at 150°F or 65°C for four hours.

When the timer goes off, remove the bags from the water bath. Carefully remove the guinea fowl from the bags, holding them legs down so liquid can drain out of them and back into the bags. Reserve any juice left behind to add to gravy later. 

Heat your oven to as high as it will go. Pat the birds dry with paper towels, being careful not to break the skin. 

Heat a large iron skillet on the stovetop and place both birds in it. Turn the oven temperature down to 450°F or 232°C convection, if it was higher than that to preheat. Roast the guinea fowl in your very hot oven for about 10 minutes to brown the skin, turning the pan around midway through to ensure even browning. 

Let rest for 10 minutes, cut into joints and serve.

Enjoy! 

Anybody tired of turkey and ham every holiday? It’s Sunday FunDay again and this week we are sharing main course recipes that are anything but ham and turkey! Check out the links below. Many thanks to our host, Sue of Palatable Pastime. 

• Beef Pasanday - Rajasthani Style With a Twist from Sneha’s Recipe
• Cornish Hens Marbella from Palatable Pastime
• Mughlai Egg Curry from Mayuri’s Jikoni
• Roasted Brace of Guinea Fowl (Sous Vide) from Food Lust People Love
• Roasted New York Strip Loin from A Day in the Life on the Farm

We are a group of food bloggers who believe that Sunday should be a family fun day, so every Sunday we share recipes that will help you to enjoy your day. If you're a blogger interested in joining us, just visit our Facebook group and request to join.

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Sous Vide Creme Brulee

This sous vide crème brûlée is creamy and rich, just as crème brûlée should be, with a crispy golden sugar topping. If you have a sous vide machine, it’s so much easier than baking in a water bath in the oven. 

We discovered crème brûlée, as many people do, in the restaurants of Paris. It became a favorite, the dessert my husband always ordered, if it was on the menu. When we moved on from La Belle France, I had to learn to make it myself. Weren’t nobody serving it in the beautiful backwater that was the little oilfield town of Macaé, Brazil! 

The first time I posted a crème brûlée recipe on my blog, in fact, was for my mother’s birthday back in 2011, the first month of food blogging. My most recent crème brûlée recipe was made with persimmons but you could use your favorite fruit. 

In a word, we LOVE crème brûlée!

Back in the day, I used the broil setting in the oven to caramelize the sugar topping or a spoon heated to scorching over the gas burner but I’ve had a kitchen torch for years and years, just to make this favorite family dessert. My only objection to making creme brûlée is the struggle when I try to remove the baking pan from the oven half filled with water. I tend to slosh. 

Using the sous vide machine and canning jars solves that problem. Unfortunately, it creates another one. Keeping the jars under water. Still, with a couple of weights, sous vide is much easier! I hope you’ll give it a try. 

Sous Vide Creme Brûlée

If you don’t have a vanilla bean, you can substitute 1 teaspoon of vanilla paste or 2 teaspoons vanilla extract. In the case of the latter two, skip the simmering, cooling milk step and just add them to the cold milk. This recipe is adapted from one on The Seaside Baker.

Ingredients

For the custard:

2 1/2 cups or 592g heavy whipping cream

1 vanilla bean pod, split and scraped

6 large egg yolks (98g)

1/2 cup or 100g sugar

tiny pinch salt

To serve:

8 teaspoons sugar

Kitchen torch

Method

Set your sous vide precision cooker to heat the water to 176°F or 80°C.

Wash and dry six 4 oz canning jars with lids. Any shape will do for the custard, but I like using the short, squat ones to give more surface area to caramelize sugar on when the custard has set. 

On medium heat, warm cream, vanilla pod and seeds and bring to a boil. Remove from heat, cover, and let rest for 15 minutes.

In a large bowl, whisk egg yolks, sugar and pinch of salt together until the sugar has dissolved and the mixture no longer feels gritty between your fingertips. It will thicken a little, which is good. 

Remove the vanilla bean pod from the cooled cream.

Add the cream a little at a time to the egg yolk mixture, whisking continually. 

Divide the custard between the six clean jars.

Tighten the lids until they are just closed in order to allow the jars to release air bubbles while cooking. This is called "fingertip tightness," the variable of "closed-ness" achieved by using only your fingertips to screw on the lids. If they start emitting bubbles right when you put them underwater, tighten just a little bit more. 

Carefully place jars in the preheated sous vide container. Since they have air in the headroom of the jar, they’ll want to tip and float. Place weights on top to keep them submerged and straight. I used bricks. 

Cook for 1 hour. My apologies for no photos of this part. Jars in a plastic container, underwater with bricks on top do not photograph well. 

Once done, remove the canning jars from the water and leave to cool on a wire rack for 30 minutes. Don’t tip the water on top off as this helps keep the seal. 

After cooling, place the jars in a refrigerator for at least 1 hour or up to 2 days.

About 30 minutes before serving, remove them from your refrigerator so they can warm up a bit. 

Just before serving remove the lids and sprinkle about a teaspoon of sugar onto the custard.

Torch the sugar until it has caramelized and serve immediately. 

Enjoy!

It's Multicooker Monday so that means my blogger friends are sharing recipes using their various small cooking devices. Many thanks to our leader Sue of Palatable Pastime and this week's behind the scenes worker bee, Wendy of  Day in the Life on the Farm. Check out the other recipe links below. 

• 15 Bean Soup (Instant Pot) by Palatable Pastime
• Air Fryer Chicken Nuggets with Two Dipping Sauces by Karen's Kitchen Stories
• Air Fryer Sweet Potato Chips by Sneha's Recipe
• Crockpot Dressing by Veggies First Then Dessert
• Instant Pot Bolognese from Making Miracles
• Instant Pot Navy Bean and Smoked Turkey Soup by A Day in the Life on the Farm
• Sous Vide Crème Brûlée from Food Lust People Love

Multicooker Monday is a blogger group created by Sue of Palatable Pastime for all of us who need encouragement to make better use of our small appliances like slow cookers, Instant Pots, Air Fryers, rice cookers and sous vide machines. We get together every third Monday of the month to share our recipes. If you are a food blogger who would like to post with us, please request to join our Facebook group. 

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Sous Vide Whole Stuffed Turkey

This sous vide whole stuffed turkey is full of flavor from the sausage stuffing within and crispy without from a quick roast in the oven. Its spicy rubbed golden skin is divine! 

As I mentioned in my recipe post for sous vide roast leg of lamb, with a sous vide precision cooker you will never, ever suffer through a dried out roast again. 

In fact even turkey, notorious for uneven cooking, results in tender moist dark AND light meat. It is easy if you follow my recipe below, cooking your bird long and slow, followed by a quick oven roasting to get that golden skin everyone fights over.

The secret to cooking a whole bird with a sous vide precision cooker is the stuffing, which not only adds flavor and moisture but, almost as importantly, fills the cavity which makes it possible for the turkey to remain submerged. 

If you are a fan of sous vide precision cooking, you might want to take a look at my chicken crown roast and tender sliceable pork roast as well.

Sous Vide Whole Stuffed Turkey

Very important: you must start one day ahead of when you want to roast and serve your turkey. It is essential to allow time for the seasonings to become one with the bird and for the skin to dry out before using the sous vide precision cooker, if you want crispy golden skin. And who doesn't? 

Ingredients

For the turkey:

1 fresh or frozen turkey (completely thawed - Approx weight 8 lb 5 oz or 3.8kg)

Dry rub (See below)

1/2 teaspoon poultry seasoning

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

For the dry rub:

2 tablespoons poultry seasoning 

(if poultry seasoning is unsalted) 1 teaspoon fine sea salt

1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

1/2 teaspoon cayenne

For the stuffing:

2 medium onions

2-3 ribs celery

3 slices smoked bacon

2 tablespoons butter

1 1/2 cups or 135g fresh breadcrumbs

1 1/2 lb or 700g sausage meat

2 teaspoons poultry seasoning

1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper

1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

zest 1/2 orange

salt to taste*

Extra equipment:

Sous vide precision cooker

Large vessel that can hold enough water to cover your turkey. I used my Coleman cooler/ice chest, which works beautifully if you have something big to sous vide.

Method

Clean the turkey, removing the top part of the tail and any stray feathers inspector 12 might have missed. I have needle-nose jewelry pliers that work great for removing feathers (and, by the way, pin bones in fish.)

Season the turkey inside and out with the dry rub.  

Mix the 1/2 teaspoon of the poultry seasoning with the 1/2 teaspoon of baking soda and sprinkle it on the top of the bird from a great height, so you get an even layer. According to Serious Eats, this helps the skin dry so it will super crispy when roasted. 

Place your turkey in a casserole dish, breast up, uncovered in the refrigerator for 24 hours. 

You can now prepare the stuffing. 

Cut the bacon into small pieces. Fry it until crispy in a medium sized pan. Meanwhile, finely chop your onions and celery. 

Remove the bacon from the pan and set aside. Add the butter to the pan and sauté the chopped vegetables in the butter and bacon fat until softened. Leave to cool. 

In a large bowl, combine the bacon, sausage meat and the rest of the stuffing ingredients, along with the sautéed onion and celery. 

Fry a small piece of the stuffing and check the salt. Add salt to the stuffing, if necessary, and mix well. Refrigerate the stuffing until needed. 

The following day, use the stuffing to fill the cavity and the neck. 

Tuck the skin flaps in to cover the stuffing as best you can. 

The stuffing is essential to displace air and conduct heat through the bird as well as adding flavor. 

Use poultry string or silicone bands to truss the legs of the turkey together and to hold the wing tips close to the bird. 

Place the turkey in a 2 1/2 gallon bag and submerge it carefully in water to remove as much of the air inside as possible. If there is still some air inside of the turkey, it might want to float. If your bird wants to float, put a brick in a plastic bag and lean it against the turkey to keep it submerged. I’ve cooked various whole birds with this method and sometimes they need a brick and sometimes they don’t! As you can see, this particular turkey behaved without one. 

Sous vide at 160°F or 71°C for six hours.

When the timer goes off, remove the bag from the water bath. Carefully remove the turkey from the bag, holding it legs down so liquid can drain out of it and back into the bag. Reserve any juice left behind to add to gravy later. It's not so attractive right now but worry not! After roasting it will be much prettier. 

Heat your oven to 450°F or 232°C. Remove the silicone bands or string and pat the bird dry with paper towels, being careful not to break the skin. 

Heat a large iron skillet on the stovetop and place the turkey in it. Roast in your very hot oven for 8-10 minutes to brown the skin, turning the pan around midway through to ensure even browning. 

Let it rest for 10 minutes, carve and serve.

Enjoy! 

It’s Multicooker Monday when I join a group of blogger friends sharing recipes using small kitchen appliances. Check them out! Many thanks to our host and leader, Sue of Palatable Pastime. 

• Crockpot Bread from Sid's Sea Palm Cooking
• Instant Pot Butter Beans and Sausage from A Day in the Life on the Farm
• Instant Pot Cheesy Taco Shells from Making Miracles
• Slow Cooker Pot Roast from Palatable Pastime
• Instant Pot Spaghetti and Meatballs from Karen's Kitchen Stories
• Jamaican Coconut & Beans Rice - Pressure Cooker from Sneha's Recipe
• Sous Vide Whole Stuffed Turkey from Food Lust People Love

Multicooker Monday is a blogger group created by Sue of Palatable Pastime for all of us who need encouragement to make better use of our small appliances like slow cookers, Instant Pots, Air Fryers, rice cookers and sous vide machines. We get together every third Monday of the month to share our recipes. If you are a food blogger who would like to post with us, please request to join our Facebook group.

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Java Dry Rub Sous Vide Pork Roast

This Java Dry Rub Sous Vide Pork Roast is made with a Boston butt roast, covered in a savory spice blend. It’s cooked with a sous vide precision cooker for 18 hours, then finished off in a hot oven, which keeps it tender and juicy. Start this recipe one day ahead of serving time. Yes, it’s a long time but most of it is hands-off. Set the sous vide and go about your life.

I know I’m a little weird but I think the sous vide machine humming away in a corner is a happy sound because it means another perfectly cooked whatever is in our future. When my son-in-law gave me the sous vide precision cooker for Christmas several years ago, I had no idea how much fun I’d have experimenting and playing with it.

One thing that amuses me about the sous vide process is that if you are cooking a large piece of meat, you have to plan and cook several meals in the interim. So different from my usual "choose meat - season meat - cook meat - serve meat right now" method of meal planning. I enjoy the planning as much as the process: which cut to choose, how to season it, then figuring out the optimum time and temperature.

Java Dry Rub Sous Vide Pork Roast

Total time for this recipe is 19 hours, 18 in the precision cooker and then 1 hour in a hot oven to brown the outside. In order to simplify this recipe, I have published dry rub ingredients and how-to on another page. Click here for those instructions.

Ingredients
1 boneless Boston butt roast (about 6-7 lbs or 2.7-3.2kg)
3 tablespoons java dry rub, divided
Time!
Optional for roasting: add potatoes and carrots for a full meal!

Method
Make the java dry rub. (See note above.)

Thoroughly massage 2 tablespoons of the rub into your pork roast.

Tuck it into a large leak-proof bag. Slowly lower the bag into a bucket or sink filled with water to vacuum pack the roast and remove all the air from inside the bag. Seal tightly.

Set your precision cooker to 145°F or 63°C – this temperature and time will create a sliceable tender pork roast.

When the bath is at temperature, add sealed bag with pork and cover with foil or plastic wrap. Leave to sous vide for 18 hours.

When the time is up, if you aren’t planning to roast the pork immediately, you can refrigerate it, still in the vacuum bag until you are ready. If the roast is completely chilled, keep in mind that it will need extra time in the oven to get up to serving temperature again.

To finish the roast in the oven: Adjust the oven rack to lower-middle position and preheat oven to 400°F or 200°C. Remove pork from sous vide bag and carefully blot dry with paper towels.

Rub reserved spice mixture into the surface of the pork. Place pork in a large iron skillet or roasting pan and place it in the preheated oven. If you’d like to turn this into a full roast dinner, add some peeled potato and carrot chunks that have been tossed in some oil or duck fat. Roast about 1 hour.

Remove the roast from the oven and leave to rest for about 10 minutes before carving.

I promise, it melts in your mouth! Any drippings can be used to make gravy.

Enjoy!

It’s MultiCooker Monday again! Many thanks to Sue of Palatable Pastime and Wendy of A Day in the Life on the Farm for their behind the scenes work. Check out all of the great recipes my friends are sharing, using their various small appliances.

• Carrot Halwa from A Day in the Life on the Farm 
• Crispy Air Fried Cod Fillets from Karen's Kitchen Stories 
• Homemade Chicken Stock (Crockpot) from Sid's Sea Palm Cooking 
• Instant Pot Lasagna Soup from Making Miracles 
• Java Dry Rub Sous Vide Pork Roast from Food Lust People Love 
• Lauki Bahar - Pressure Cooker from Sneha's Recipe 
• Punjabi Goat Curry (Instant Pot) from Palatable Pastime

Multicooker Monday is a blogger group created by Sue of Palatable Pastime for all of us who need encouragement to make better use of our small appliances like slow cookers, Instant Pots, Air Fryers, rice cookers and sous vide machines. We get together every third Monday of the month to share our recipes. If you are a food blogger who would like to post with us, please request to join our Facebook group.

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