Terry Boyd's Valentines Day Love Birds

When you are thinking about a romantic dinner, presentation is as important as taste. You want to create something that is delicious, but that also honors the beauty of the occasion. And it helps to have something that is easy to assemble, and that you can put together beforehand—no sense fussing around in the kitchen when you could be with your guest, opening the champagne.
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Method

Take the hens out of the refrigerator about an hour before you intend to roast them so they can come to room temperature.

Slice one of the lemons very thinly. Cut the other two into eight wedges each. Peel the garlic cloves. If they are large, cut them in half lengthwise. Clean and prepare the leeks. Slice off root end and most of the green tops. Slice leeks in half lengthwise. Rinse under running water, fanning layers to wash out any trapped grit. If the olives are standing in their brine, drain them.

Coat a roasting pan (not a deep one—I used the shallow glass baking dish you see in the photo) with olive oil. Place the leeks in the pan, cut side down and spaced evenly; then pour in the olives so they are evenly spaced around the dish. Scatter the lemon wedges and garlic cloves around everything. The idea is to create a bed on which you will roast the hens.

Loosen the breast skin on each of the hens. Slip lemon wedges under the skin so the breast is completely covered with slices. If you have any left, put them in the hen’s cavity. The same goes for any tag ends of the lemon.

If you are doing advance prep, at this point, cover the hens and put them back in the refrigerator, cover the baking pan and put it in the fridge too. Take them both out an hour before you want to start roasting, so everything can come up to room temperature.

When you are ready to start the hens, preheat the oven to 425. Arrange the hens on the bed of olives, lemon, leeks and garlic. Paint them well with olive oil, give everything a good grinding of black pepper, then salt the hens lightly.

Put the pan in the hot oven and set a timer for 20 minutes. At 20 minutes, lower the heat to 350 and set the timer for another 25 minutes. At that point, check the hens. They should be golden brown and the little legs should move easily. Check the temperature with an instant read thermometer in the thickest part of the breast (I know—trying to find a thickest part on these tiny things is not so easy). The hens are ready when they reach 165° F.

At that point, take the pan out of the oven. Let it sit for five minutes. For the presentation, place a hen in the center of the plate, arrange a couple of leeks to one side, and a little mound of rice, if you are serving it, on another side. Simple, elegant, delicious.