Grilled guinea fowl with crispy ham and roasted vine tomatoes

By Adam Gray

This guinea fowl recipe serves four as a main dish

Cooking time: 45 mins

Ingredients:

• 4 guinea fowl breasts
• 400g of cherry tomatoes on the vine
• 100ml of rapeseed oil
• 2 fennel bulbs
• 1 lime
• 4 slices of Cumbrian ham
• Salt
• Pepper
• 2 spring onions, finely sliced

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 180°C/Gas mark 4. Place the cherry vine tomatoes on a sheet of foil, season them with salt and pepper.
2. Drizzle the rapeseed oil on the tomatoes. Wrap the tomatoes up in the foil to create a sealed parcel with no holes.
3. Put the parcel of tomatoes in to bake for 12-15 minutes until they are just tender. Once done, remove from the oven and leave to cool.
4. Add a large griddle pan to the stove on a medium heat. Season the guinea fowl with salt and pepper, rub a little of the rapeseed oil onto the breasts.
5. Lay the guinea fowl, skin-side down in the hot pan. Cook gently for 4-5 minutes on each side. Be careful not to overcook, guinea fowl is a drier meat than chicken.
6. Once cooked, remove the guinea fowl from the pan and put to one side in a warm tray to rest. The meat should be slightly pink in the middle.
7. Using a mandoline if you have one, finely slice the fennel. You can also use a sharp knife. Grate the zest of the lime very finely onto the sliced fennel, mix with a little lime juice, some rapeseed oil and season with salt.
8. Put a non-stick frying pan onto a medium heat. Fry the air-dried ham, do not use any oil, until it is crispy.

To serve: add the sliced spring onions to the fennel, making a small pile in the centre of each serving bowl, sit the guinea fowl on top. Place some roasted tomatoes next to it and pour over some cooking juices. Top it off with the crispy ham and serve.

Recipe courtesy of Great British Chefs. Visit their site for more guinea fowl recipes.