Welcome to Clubhouse Eats, where we celebrate the game’s most delectable food and drink. Hope you brought your appetite.
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If you’re looking for a festive alternative to a traditional turkey or ham this holiday season, consider the Cornish hen.
Smaller, less cumbersome and easier to cook than its larger feathered brethren, a single Cornish hen can feed two people — and add a dose of elegance to the plate, too.
Just ask Malcolm Campbell, who has presided over the menu at the picturesque Cabot Cape Breton resort as the Panorama Restaurant’s executive chef for the past five years.
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Guests at Cabot Cape Breton, which is stunningly situated on Nova Scotia’s rugged Atlantic coastline and was recently honored as one of GOLF’s Top 100 Resorts, tend to gravitate toward steak or seafood. But a taste of Campbell’s Cornish hen may change their minds.
Campbell serves his iteration with creamed polenta (included for its ability to hold and retain the dish’s many flavors), grilled broccolini and radicchio and a caper albufera sauce, which is enriched with a mix of foie gras, chicken stock and a little cream and butter. The hen’s legs are confit in duck fat, glazed with house-made piri piri sauce and then barbecued to order.
Though the ingredients and prep may sound exotic, there’s a comfort-food quality to the Cornish hen that Campbell loves — and a touch of the unexpected from the piri piri, which includes a blend of shishito, poblano and bird’s eye peppers.
“That sauce preparation really helps elevate the dish a little bit more,” Campbell says.
So, the next time you find yourself dining cliffside at Cabot, give the seafood a break and the humble hen a try. With Campbell at the helm, you won’t be disappointed.