Art and all that stuff

Saturday 30 July 2011

Stuffed Woodpecker

We thought we would share with you our latest recipe.

Roast woodpecker stuffed with hazelnuts and served with Grapes and Celeriac Puree.

Woodpecker is a bird that is available year-round. Young birds are best for eating. This recipe will cook the woodpeckers to rare - so ensuring maximum flavour.
  • 4 woodpeckers, plucked and cleaned
  • 2 lbs Hazelnuts
  • Salt & pepper
  • 3 tbsp butter
  • 1 celeriac root, peeled and cut into large pieces
  • 1/2 lb small (seedless) black grapes (250 g)
  • 2 tbsp olive oil
  • Freshly grated nutmeg
  • You will also need:
  • Foil
  • A masher
Preheat the oven to 266 degrees F (130 degrees C). Season the woodpeckers with salt & pepper and stuff with the hazelnuts. Heat half of the butter in a frying pan and brown the woodpeckers over a medium heat. Make sure that you also brown the legs (they may take longer than the breasts).
Place the woodpeckers on a baking sheet and roast for approximately 12 minutes on the middle rack of the oven. Take the woodpeckers out of the oven and allow to rest on a warm plate, loosely covered with foil. Now increase the oven temperature to 392 degrees F (200 degrees C).
Meanwhile, cook the celeriac for 15 minutes in plenty of salted water.
Snip smaller bunches of grapes from the bunch of grapes and carefully toss in the olive oil on the baking sheet. Roast the grapes in the middle of the oven for approximately 15 minutes.
Now drain the celeriac and mash to a rustic puree with the rest of the butter. Season the puree with freshly grated nutmeg, salt & pepper.
Divide the celeriac puree over four warmed plates, dish up the roast woodpeckers and place a small bunch of grapes on each plate. Drizzle with the grape 'gravy'.

 Bon Appétit...

Stop... only a joke but actually what I would like to do to the woodpeckers that have stolen ALL our hazelnuts. The only recipe change would be that they would be already stuffed!!!!!

5 comments:

  1. How strange that they have scoffed the lot. I have both resident squirrels and woodpeckers and still bring home more hazelnuts than we know what to do with.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I'm glad you were joking - you had me fooled there for a minute !!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Ha ha, the recipe looks good but glad you were not serious. Our hazel nut tree this year is empty but all I have to blame is the lack of water. Diane

    ReplyDelete
  4. You had me going for a minute. But I was thinking "there won't be much meat on those birds"!

    ReplyDelete
  5. Wow my son ate a oh nevermind lol

    ReplyDelete

We have been getting too many Spam Comments and as most of them are Anonymous we have disabled this facility.