montefin's Roast Cornish Game Hens
With Mustard Crust & Lotus Onions Recipe

Pre-heat oven to 325° F.

Rinse each Cornish Game Hen under cold water. Pat them with paper towel inside and out and set aside for skin to dry to a parchmenty feel while you prepare the Onions, as in the next step.

Slice the base off the root end of one Onion so it sits upright. Peel off outer onion skins from bottom. With a very sharp knife slice down through the top center of the onion to within about 1/4" of the bottom. Do this 5 to 7 times so that you make a Lotus with vertical "petals" around the sides, all connected at the bottom. Do the same with the other onion. Submerge onions in a bowl of cold water and set aside. The "petals" will begin to blossom while you roast the hens.

Now, Game Hens are wonderful, but they are bland. After years of experimenting, I believe I've found the perfect zinger for them: a paste of sharp Coleman's® English Mustard and earthy Turmeric. The colder the liquid you mix with the mustard and turmeric, the more flavor and "heat" is released. So, put the mustard and turmeric in a chilled steel, glass or crockery bowl, and add the Ice Water a little at a time until you have a nice bright yellow paste. If it gets too runny, thicken with more mustard powder.

Place the hens breast up in a well buttered, narrow baking dish, rub the dried skin with the rest of the Butter then brush on a good coating of mustard paste and roast for 20 minutes. Brush on another coating of mustard paste, distribute the Celery, Carrot and Green Pepper pieces around the hens and roast for 45 minutes more.

Dilute the remainder of the mustard paste with a little ice water and place in a bowl for serving at the table. Don't refrigerate.

20 minutes before the hens are done, remove the Lotus Onions from the water, shake any excess water off and place them on 2 small pieces of aluminium foil and put them in the oven beside the baking dish or on the rack below.

Just before removing the baking dish from the oven, place Dill stalks strategically around hens and return to oven for 3 or 4 minutes longer. Remove hens and onions from oven.

Pour a sinuous stripe of the reserved mustard on top of each hen. Place each Onion Lotus on a small dish. Bring the feast to the table. Demonstrate how to remove the delicately flavored onion "petals" from each lotus and eat as finger food. Whether you dip them in the hot mustard is totally up to you and your guest.

Curry -- Studies find turmeric, one of the main ingredients in curry and most mustard, may slow, even reverse, the progress of Alzheimer's Disease.