To get himself a tasty Peahen!!

Sometimes in life you need to show off just a little. Letting people know what you’ve got and what it is that makes you someone to interact with or be around.

I know that, I do it quite a bit, much more regularly than many people. Way too much if you ask some, and not nearly enough if you ask others.

Why do I do it?

Well for me it’s a ‘proof is in the pudding’ kind of thing, for lack of a more appropriate term…

Through this blog I wish to eat many different meats, 52 in fact, and share the tales involved with each one. However, I also wish to help people. Provide a message for health, and with that nutrition, training and living a life you can enjoy and not be constantly hanging on for the weekend.

Do you do that? If so- EMAIL ME, there’s more to life…

Now I know how much you all love reading my words, but sometimes a picture packs more than just a few into one little image. About a thousand I reckon. Therefore, proving my message through the wonderful art of photography is the easiest way to portray my message.

It’s a case of ‘this is what I believe, this is what I do and this is the consistent result’.

 

 

Not much difference between January, May, August and November is there? (Apart from a tan and strangely that I must rotate my Kiwiana- NZ- necklaces roughly quarterly)

I don’t stress daily about food, I don’t exercise for hours on end and I don’t avoid things like alcohol. However, I work hard, I am careful and conscious of my food intake and I chill the f**k out when needed. I got quite hammered drunk last Saturday night for example.

Now some might still call it showing off. Some are just baffled as to why I cook with no shirt on. In fact I’ve had that question a lot lately. This is simply what I do. If you’re not from Sydney, it’s quite hot here. If you are from Sydney and haven’t noticed then perhaps it’s time to step out of the air-conditioned office and enjoy that big yellow thing in the sky. Clothes, to me, are essentially a pain in the arse, so when I’m at home, in my domain, I wear a pair of shorts, that’s basically it. I’m certainly not going to dress up just to cook dinner. Admittedly it gets dangerous sometimes, so the apron goes on, and my nipples remain safe. But mostly I’m not hearing any complaints from NN…

So, am I acting like a peacock by posting photos of me with no shirt on? Modelling pictures with my best blue steel?

 

Sometimes we need a peacock or two, right? However, on the other hand we most definitely need the opposite; the purpose for the peacocking. The target, the goal, the object of desire, or in the zoology sense- the Pea Hen!

And with that elaborate, but sublimely done segway… let me introduce the pea hen to my peacocking week: the Pea Hen!

Thank you, your applause is too kind…

Ok, I’m done. Yes this week I cooked and ate a Pea Hen, which is the female peafowl. The cock being the male of the species (ladies hold your snarky remarks please), hence the intricate plumage and prancing about, they want themselves a foxy little pea hen to make some more pea hens and cocks so that blokes like me can eat them. Basically.

Where does one get a pea hen?

One, being me, went to long lengths. Many phone calls resulted in a few conversations with Vince Gareffa from Mondo Butchers in Perth. Vince is also the man that supplied the horse for my equine feast earlier this year. If you haven’t read it check it out, I love that post as I do climb quite high onto my own horse and speak my mind. Great stuff. In fact I just found a blog post here that vilifies Mr Gareffa and takes a narrow minded view to the eating of horse meat. I couldn’t help but leave a comment and link to my post “What do you feed a gay horse?” I wonder if I’ll hear back…

Anyway, moving on, Vince popped the frozen bird on a plane and I picked it up at Sydney airport. Quite the journey to get to my belly, really. Sometimes just a little bright plumage and the pea hens come from miles away… ahhh….

With the moving in to a new place, writing and peacocking of my own, Wednesday primed as the only real option for NN and I to share dinner for week 45. I did some research and decided that less is more would be a great approach for this bird.

My new oven had been performing quite delicately compared to my old harsh one. Everything was taking an age longer and the cooker just seemed placid really. So luckily I was at home that afternoon and could get the bird prepared and into the oven early.

Removing it from its enclosure my attention was instantly brought to the long neck still attached. It did make for an odd photo:

I got the oven on, cleaned the bird and got it ready for a rub down.

To rub on the skin I made a mixture of:

• Rock salt and cracked pepper
• Turmeric
• Paprika
• Cumin

I also squeezed over some lemon juice and drizzled with extra virgin olive oil before rubbing this mix all over the outer skin. I made a stuff consisting of:

• Shredded coconut
• Black quinoa
• LSA (Linseed sunflower and almond meal)
• 2 chopped fresh dates
• Chopped coriander
• Chopped garlic
• Mixed together with some hot water

 

I stuffed the bird and placed it into the hot oven. In time I added a beautiful assortment of different coloured veggies, mimicking the hen’s colourful mate the peacock. This consisted of:

• Beetroot
• Golden kumara
• Carrot
• Yellow squash
• Red capsicum
• Garlic cloves

 

As this all roasted the aromas in the flat were mouth watering! I was a touch afraid of over cooking the bird, as I did with the Guinea fowl and without being super confident with this oven.

What was the result like?

Well, the oven had performed as a normal one should, so my timing was a bit too long in the end, but the bird was very good, especially the more tender thighs. It did taste pretty similar to chicken really, but with a small dressing of fresh mint, fresh coriander and lemon infused olive oil, combined with the amazing array of vegetables, this meal was superb! A definite winner for week 45!

 

In future if I wanted pea hen I would just go for chicken, as it’s much easier to cook and the taste is close, however, the nutrition in one of these guys is great as well. Pea hens are a great source of protein. They are essentially very close to chicken in their nutritional benefits also; full of phosphorus, selenium, potassium, zinc, iron and B vitamins. Great ingredients in this quality meat to get you healthy lean, ripped and doing some peacocking of your own.

And with that, I’ll end week 45. The momentum towards the last few weeks is building. I’m in talks with the butcher for a fantastic finale and I can’t wait to bring you the final edition, and celebrate the climax of this awesome year. I’m still having to fill in a couple of weeks of meats between now and then so would love some realistic suggestions for a man living in Sydney…

Jump over to my facebook page and let me know what you think. Alternatively tweet at me and I’ll tweet back!

Until another meat crosses my lips…