Professor More-Right had a birthday

Professor More-Right is brilliant. I've already told you that much. However, sometimes brilliance isn't enough to keep you from doing something less than genius. I have also told you that our dear professor is talented in the kitchen and we all especially love his pizza dough. Sometimes though, it's easier to just pop a frozen pizza in the oven and call it a day.

One evening a while back, Professor More-Right went for the frozen pizza. But instead of taking it out of its packaging like a normal human, our dear professor used one of his appropriately-sharp-for-a-chef knife to cut the packaging and promptly sliced off the tip of his finger. Yup. You read that right. He sliced off the tip of his finger. Just the tip, though. :-)

He immediately started bleeding. Duh. He grabbed a towel to put pressure on the finger to stop the bleeding. He couldn't get it to stop and, of course, every time he tried to do anything, he had to let go of the towel over the finger and the blood just kept coming. So, of course he decided to call his best friend, the Slovak, for help. Naturally. But to do so, he had to let go to pick up the phone, he had to let go to make the call, etc.

The call went something like this:

Professor, "Hey, what are you doing?"
Slovak, "Not much, just sitting down to eat something. What's up?"
Professor, "Well, I cut my finger. Can you come over?"
Slovak, "Sure."

Yes, they are really that calm.

And so the Slovak went over to the Professor's place to assist. Have you seen the TV show Dexter? Well, that's how the Slovak describes the scene. Lots of blood. Everywhere. From the front door to the kitchen, all over the kitchen, the bathroom, everywhere. It makes sense really. If the finger spurted blood every time Professor More-Right let go, of course there was blood everywhere. He cut the tip of the finger off in the kitchen, went to the bathroom to get a towel, went to get the phone, made the call, had to go to the front door to open it for the Slovak, etc.

Anyway, the Slovak helped to bandage up the now slightly shorter finger and then the boys continued making that damn frozen pizza and ate it like nothing happened.

Everybody at Sunday dinner knows this story and we laugh about it regularly. Even more so once we learned that our professor is part lizard and eventually regrew that finger tip...

-

Whenever a regular has a birthday, that person gets to choose the meal. Since it was his birthday last week, Professor More-Right got to choose. He originally wanted meat loaf, mashed potatoes, and some sort of vegetable but after our amazing Southern Fried Sunday, he decided to go with something a little lighter and chose Greek food instead. I love Greek food and so I had a ton of fun with this meal.

I wanted to use a recipe I've been eyeing for years that calls for either quail or partridge. Well, those aren't all that easy to come by so I opted for Game Hens instead. This meant I had to adapt the recipe a bit since game hens are bigger than both partridges and quails.

So, we had spicy broiled game hens, roasted lemon potatoes, a traditional Greek village salad, and rocket salad.

The meal.

Here are the recipes. They are all quite simple. The challenge here was timing. I have a small, ancient oven and so broiling the game hens while also roasting the potatoes was interesting but since we like the potatoes to be a bit crispy, it worked out to put them in the oven while the broiler was on and let them roast at a slightly higher temperature than usual.

(Each recipe is also its own post so you can click on the title of each if you want just the recipe and not this entire post for future reference.)

Spicy Broiled Game Hens

- this recipe is adapted from the Spicy Broiled Quail recipe I found in "The Book of Greek Cooking" by Lesley Mackley

Ingredients:

2 garlic cloves
salt
1 Tablespoon each of ground cumin and coriander
1 small onion, cut into rough chunks
a handful of fresh cilantro
1 teaspoon of cayenne pepper
1/2 cup of good olive oil
4 game hens (cut in half) (1/2 a hen is about enough for one person)
2 - 3 lemons cut into slices for garnish

Directions:

1. Put the first 7 ingredients into a food processor and make a paste. Spread the paste over the game hens (top and bottom). Cover and refrigerate for at least 2 hours.

2. Preheat the broiler.

3. Place the game hen halves on a broiler rack or baking rack and broil, turning every 5 minutes for about 20 minutes until the game hens are slightly charred on the outside.

4. If they're not fully cooked, put them in the oven to bake for an additional 10 to 15 minutes until the juice runs clear when pierced. (Or you can pull back one of the legs to check if there's any pink left.)

5. Serve garnished with lemon slices.

Roasted Lemon Potatoes

Ingredients:
small baby potatoes (I typically estimate about 4 potatoes per person)
1/3 cup to 1/2 cup (or enough to coat) olive oil
lemon juice (about half the amount of oil you used)
a few teaspoons of sea salt
a little less fresh ground pepper
a few tablespoons of dried rosemary

Directions:

1. Cut the potatoes into quarters and put into a large bowl.

2. Add olive oil, lemon juice, sea salt, fresh ground pepper, and rosemary to the potatoes and mix until the potatoes are evenly coated (feel free to use your hands for this - after you wash them, of course).

3. Put the potatoes into a baking dish and bake at 425 for about 30 to 45 minutes. It's fine if there a little crispy, it's actually preferred.

If you're making these at the same time as you are using your broiler and if your oven is heated by the same source as the broiler, that's perfectly fine too. Just check the potatoes after about half an hour and keep an eye on them. When they're soft, they're done.

Rocket Salad

“Rocket” is British for arugula; the Greeks call it roka.

Ingredients:

1 bag of arugula
2 large oranges
1 big chunk of feta cheese
1/3 cup olive oil

Directions:

1. Dump a bag of baby arugula into a large salad bowl or platter.

2. Peel 2 large oranges and cut the sections into bite sized pieces. Sprinkle on the arugula.

3. Cut up a chunk of feta cheese into bite sized pieces and add to the salad.

4. Douse the salad well with olive oil and toss gently. If desired, squeeze some orange juice and or lemon juice over the salad.

Greek Salad

Greek salad does not need to have lettuce. Use the freshest vegetables you can find. If the tomatoes are not in season, it helps to peel them for more flavor.

Ingredients:

4 - 6 tomatoes
2 cucumbers
1 red onion
1 chunk of feta cheese
pitted Kalamata olives (however many you want)
1/3 to 1/2 cup olive oil
1 Tablespoon (or more if you like) dried oregano

Directions:

1. Cut up the tomatoes, cucumbers, and red onion into bite-sized chunks and dump them all into your serving dish.

2. Top the salad with a good chunk of feta cheese and Kalamata olives.

3. Pour olive oil over the top and sprinkle with dried oregano & toss when you serve.

That's it!

As a final note, this was one of Professor More-Right's birthday presents, appropriately gifted by the Slovak.

blood spatter cutting board

As always, Happy Eating! 

Now, who wants leftovers?