Sach moan nung chee van souy parang.
(Braised Cornish hen with celery.)

Braised cornish hen with saffron, coconut juice and celery is absolute delicious.
Tiny, dried, reddish filaments saffron produces delicious flavor and natural orange or reddish color when add to foods. You can get saffron powder, or filaments saffron that most Khmer Krom prefers. High quality saffron is the most expensive spice in the world, 1 pound of good saffron could cost up to thousand dollars. The reason why good saffron is very expensive because saffron filaments are actually the stigmas from pretty, purple saffron flower, that blooms mostly in fall. A single saffron flower has only 3 stigmas, and these stigmas must handpick by each one, and it took about 80.000 saffron flowers to make 1 pound of dried filaments saffron. India is world famous for produces the best saffron follows by Greek, Iran and Spain.
For this dish, I used the cheapest saffron filaments that I found at local Asian market. :)

• Ingredients :
  • 1 Whole Cornish hen, cleaned and cut quartered
  • ½ Teaspoon salt
  • 2 Tablespoons vegetable oil
  • 2 Cloves garlic, minced
  • 1 Yellow onion, chopped
  • 1 Cup fresh young coconut juice or 1 cup canned coconut juice
  • 3 Cup water
  • 2 Tablespoons soy sauce
  • 1 Tablespoon fish sauce
  • 1 Tablespoon saffron filaments
  • ¼ Teaspoon black pepper
  • 1 Bunch celery, cleaned and cut an inch in length
• Procedures :
  In a large bowl, marinated chicken meat with salt, and set it a side.
  Pre-heat a large skillet or wok with high temperature.
  When skillet is hot, add oil and chicken, pan fry chicken till both sides light brown.
  Add garlic, onion, coconut juice, water, soy sauce, fish sauce, saffron and black pepper, stirs well.
  Top with celery, covered skillet with lid, and simmering till meat tender and water reduce.
  Serve hot with rice or with crusty Italian or French bread.