Guinea Fowl with Pomegranate
Guinea fowl is definitely of one my favorite dishes as my mom well knows (and that’s why she cooks it so often). I love it best with mascarpone, but I can eat it any way. This time I wanted to try to cook it with pomegranate because I heard somewhere that they make a good match. Moreover, being now pomegranate season, I was looking for a way to dispose of the harvest of this year without making only and exclusively jellies as I use to (honestly, I’m making pomegranate liqueur, too, but it will be ready only in a few more weeks).
To make this recipe, you’ll need one and a half rather large pomegranates, deseeded. The seeds of one pomegranate will be squeezed (with a vegetable mill) to extract the juice: from a pomegranate you’ll obtain about 100 ml of fresh juice. The seeds of the remaining half pomegranate will be added to the guinea fowl.
Ingredients
1 guinea fowl cut into pieces
1/2 pomegranate, seeds only
100 ml pomegranate juice
2 shallots, sliced
knob of butter
3 laurel leaves
a handful of juniper berries
1/2 glass dry white wine
salt and pepper to taste
Preparation time: about 30 minutes (to deseed pomegranates and squeeze the juice out)
Cooking time: about 45 minutes
Serves 3-4
Season the guinea fowl with salt and pepper. Place it in a frying pan and cook it covered for about 10-15 minutes until greasy juices are released.
Remove the guinea fowl and set it aside for a few minutes. Clean the pan (alternatively, you can use a different one). Melt the butter in the frying pan, add the shallots and let them fry on a medium heat for about 1-2 minutes till golden.
Now add the guinea fowl, laurel and juniper and cook for about 20-25 minutes till the guinea fowl is lightly brown (pour a little water and let it simmer if necessary, that is the meat becomes too dry). Pour the wine and pomegranate juice and stir in the pomegranate seeds. Cook for further 5 minutes.
Faraona alla Melagrana
La faraona è decisamente uno dei miei piatti preferiti, come sa bene la mia mamma (che me la fa spesso). Personalmente, la preferisco al mascarpone, ma la mangio in tutti i modi. Questa volta ho voluto provare a farla con la melagrana perché avevo letto da qualche parte che stanno bene insieme. Inoltre, essendo questa la stagione delle melagrane, cercavo un modo per smaltire il raccolto di quest’anno senza farci solo gelatine come al solito (in realtà, sto preparando anche il liquore alla melagrana, ma sarà pronto solo tra alcune settimane).
Per questa ricetta occorre una melagrana piuttosto grande più mezza, schiccate. I chicchi di una melagrana devono essere passati al passaverdure per ottenere il succo: da una melagrana si ottengono circa 100 ml di succo. I chicchi della rimanente mezza melagrana verranno invece aggiunti come sono alla faraona.
Ingredienti
1 faraona in pezzi
1/2 melagrana, solo i semi
100 ml di succo di melagrana
2 scalogni, a fette
una noce di burro
3 foglie di alloro
una manciata di bacche di ginepro
1/2 bicchiere di vino bianco secco
sale e pepe q.b.
Tempo di preparazione: circa 30 minuti (per schiccare le melagrane e spremere il succo)
Tempo di cottura: circa 45 minuti
Per 3-4 persone
Salare e pepare la faraona. Metterla in una padella e cuocerla coperta per circa 10-15 minuti fino a che non butta fuori il grasso.
Togliere la faraona e metterla da parte per qualche minuto. Pulire la padella (oppure usare una nuova); sciogliervi il burro, aggiungere gli scalogni e friggerli per circa 1-2 minuti finché non sono dorati.
Aggiungere la faraona, l’alloro e il ginepro e cuocere per circa 20-25 minuti finché la faraona diventa leggermente marrone (aggiungere acqua per la cottura, se necessario, cioè se la carne risulta troppo secca). Versare il vino e il succo di melagrana e aggiungere i chicchi. Cuocere per altri 5 minuti.
the Culinary Taste 
How neat! I’ve never had pomegranate in a savory dish like meat. I’ll have to try! And good luck with your large number of pomegranate fruits!
That looks so beautiful! I love the way the rosy pomegranate seeds dress this dish up! Hmm…now if there were only a way to convince hubby that they’re good for you. 😛
I have never eaten guinea fowl before and have never seen them for sale either. Such an interesting recipes – sounds like a superb combination. I do have to ask though, do they taste similar to chicken?
🙂 Mandy
Guinea fowls are rather similar to chicken, but they’re somewhat wilder and more delicate at the same time. They have a pretty peculiar taste, but I think you can try with chicken, too. The cooking time in this case should be different and probably you don’t have to cook it alone to have the juices released. Anyway, It’s so strange you can’t find guinea fowls: I know they come from Africa… Weird. 😛