Chicken Stock

One thing that most good cooks know is that a delicious homemade chicken stock is always going to taste better than any store bought stock and can be the magic ingredient/flavor enhancer to many recipes. Since I've been carving up so many chickens for lunches, I am left with a lot of chicken bones. Rather than throw them away, I freeze the carcasses and leg bones until I have 3-4 chickens worth and then make stock.

For any basic chicken stock, you will need chicken bones, onion, carrot, and celery or fennel. I am not very fond of celery. I think it is rather bland, stringy, and never keep it in my kitchen. I have found that fennel bulbs can replace celery in almost every recipe (except maybe Thanksgiving stuffing where I tend to add both). Fennel has a mild licorice flavor that is slightly sweet and just as aromatic as celery, and tends to become even more subtle as it cooks. Don't be afraid. I use the white part of the bulb in most recipes and save fennel tops in the freezer to add to the stockpot when I have enough chicken bones.

So, the vegetables get chopped into quarters and added to a large stockpot with the chicken bones, about a teaspoon of salt, and enough water to just barely cover everything. Bring to a boil, then turn down to a very low simmer. When the stock comes to a boil, a brown scum starts to collect on the surface. I usually skim off most of it, but don't worry about getting it all. Once the stock up to temperature, cover and let it simmer for 3-4 hours. When it is done, the carrots have turned to mush and any meat left on the bones has no flavor left.

I use a large slotted spoon to remove all the bones and bigger pieces of vegetable from the stockpot, then bring to a boil to reduce the volume by about a third to make a more concentrated stock. You will have to taste it to determine if you need to do this. I usually like to use less stock in my recipes and dilute with water if necessary. When you have the volume and strength of stock that you desire, strain the stock through a sieve into clean canning jars and cap tightly. You should have a beautiful golden-brown stock with a little fat floating on top. The fat will harden, protect the stock from spoiling, and can easily be scooped out before using. Let the jars cool on the counter top overnight then refridgerate or freeze until you're ready to use them. If you add the stock to the jars while it is still almost boiling hot, it will sterilize the jars and create a small vacuum as it cools.

Now, in most recipes, I only want a couple tablespoons of stock as liquid (instead of adding water!) so I like to make a couple trays of ice cubes out of a portion of the stock and a couple jars for soups. The Danes have invented these insanely cool ice cube bags that are great for freezing stock. There is a self-sealing valve at the top of the bag that allows you to pour in liquid that won't seep out when you lay the bags on their sides. They're so awesome that I'm planning to bring a couple of them back to the States with me whenever I leave this country.

Oven Roasted Chicken Lunches

If there is one thing that I have learned to deal with here in Denmark, it's how expensive food is compared to California. Eating out can easily cost over $100 for two at one of the less expensive restaurants in town. Lunches are especially expensive. The average price for a hamburger is around 100 kroner (about $18)! It's ridiculous. Even a simple sandwich for lunch lunch at the local cafe runs 65 kroner (about $11). Grocery store options for sack lunches are not much better. Cold cuts for two sandwiches will run you around 35 kroner ($5.50) and will make a pretty wimpy sandwich by American standards. Needless to say, we had to figure out a cheaper way to eat a delicious lunch and luckily for me, my husband loves sandwiches.

Before we moved here, I had experimented a little bit with high-temperature roasting chicken in the oven with great results. Since my husband's favorite sandwich is the chicken club, now is the perfect time to hone my chicken carving skills and prepare some freshly roasted chicken breasts and thighs for lunches. A whole chicken runs about 60 kroner ($10) which is a great deal considering a whole chicken will make lunches for both of us for the entire week. Buying just the breasts is a bit more expensive (just like in the US) so learning how to easily fabricate (the fancy kitchen term for cutting up a raw bird) a chicken is crucial. Luckily youtube has some awesome tutorials. I particularly like these two by Chefs Martin Yan and Jaquecs Pepin.



Now, I am not as fast as either of these chefs, but I can fabricate a chicken in about 15 minutes, which isn't too bad in my book.

So, starting with my whole chicken and a small paring knife, I cut down one side of the sternum between the breasts then slide my knife underneath the breast at the tip and slowly work back up to the neck to remove the tender with the breast in one piece. You will have to cut along the wishbone at the neck to separate the breast entirely. Repeat on the other breast. Then remove the wings cutting into the back to include any medallions that might still be there to get a nice meaty wing. Next, I move on to the leg, cutting along the back to include the oyster like Chef Pepin demonstrates, and cutting down the spine to remove the whole thigh and drumstick together.

When I am done, I am left with two beautiful thick breasts, two legs, two wings, and a carcass for stock. These are great on their own, but for sandwiches, I really want boneless legs to slice. So, I follow Chef Pepin's suggestions and cut along the knuckle of the thigh and drumstick, and scrape along the bone to remove as much meat as possible. His trick with cutting along the bottom of the drumstick, then grasping the bone with a [paper]towel to remove the bones from the meat is an amazingly simple way to remove the bones. Don't worry too much about being neat, once you roast the thighs, the meat sort of sticks back together and nobody will know. You end up with these two perfect boneless legs of dark meat that also work great stuffed with spinach, rice, and swiss cheese as a different take on Chicken Kiev.

Then, with the wings, cut off the little nub sticking out at the "wrist" joint and fold the wing tip over the shoulder joint to create a neat little triangle that is perfect and compact for roasting.

Now I have these wonderful boneless chicken pieces for any meal I want. But, I want to roast them for sandwiches so they go into a small roasting pan with a little seasoning on both sides. For a club sandwich I like to use a little salt, black pepper, cumin, coriander, and chipotle chile. They go into the oven at 250°C or 450°F for 35 minutes and come out moist, perfectly cooked, and with delicious crispy skin. Even if you don't plan to eat the skin, roast the meat with the skin on as a protective layer to prevent drying out.

When done, I let them cool in the roasting pan then slice thin for sandwiches. Each breast or leg will make 2-3 good sandwiches (especially if you add a couple slices of bacon, cheddar cheese, and some lettuce). Yummy!

Of course, my favorite is the wings which make a great accompaniment to a small side salad for my lunches.

Brisket Roasted in a Toaster Oven.

My love affair with BBQ began at 23 when I bought my first grill and a copy of Cook's Illustrated "Summer Grilling". I learned that with patience, a little bit of technique, a great dry rub, and some smoking chips, you can make anything taste fantastic on a grill. Over the years, I have adapted their recipes and made them my own, and graduated on to bigger and tougher cuts of meat. There is nothing quite as delicious as a 12-pound brisket that has been slowly smoking for 16 hours over mesquite charcoal. The melt-in-your-mouth tender, smokey brisket with slightly salty, slightly spicey, slightly sweet rub has been a hit at many backyard BBQs that I have thrown. Yum.

Unfortunately, the Danish style of BBQ is BYOM (bring your own meat)! The host provides a hot grill and sides (usually bread and salad), and you bring your choice of meat and drinks. This does not really inspire the slow smoked BBQing that I am used to doing. So, I have improvised my brisket recipe to be done in a kitchen, or more specifically in my toaster oven.

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Cooking brisket in the oven is surprisingly simple and tastes remarkably similar to the slow smoked BBQ version. The only thing missing is the char on the fat and the beauty and taste of a smoke ring that only develops after hours on the grill. Still, on a cold rainy Danish autumn day like today, oven brisket tastes heavenly.

To start, we need the brisket (oksespidsbryst) and spices for our dry rub. Look for a cut of brisket that has some fat on top and seems to have two layers of muscle on the side. Larger cuts will cook better than smaller cuts. I usually choose a 1-2 kg (2-4.5 lbs) brisket (0.3 kg (0.6 lbs) per person. It shrinks a lot!) and hope for leftovers for sandwiches and salads.

To make the dry rub, we combine (clockwise from the top) black pepper, white sugar, brown sugar, oregano, thyme, cumin, coriander, chipotle pepper, paprika, and salt (center). The black pepper, sugars, salt, and paprika make the basis of almost every BBQ spice rub out there. The other ingredients can be tweaked to your own tastes. Try adding some cayenne for heat, or cinnamon or fennel to jazz it up, or some of your favorite chili powder to round out the flavors. The chipotle pepper adds a little bit of heat but more importantly adds a smokey flavor that is otherwise missing. You can also use smoked paprika, if available. I haven't been able to find any in Denmark yet.

Next, we have to prepare the beef. Wash and dry the brisket thoroughly. Trim the fat to about 1 cm (0.5 in) thick. A little bit of fat is necessary on this cut of meat. Brisket is a tough muscle with a lot of connective tissue that only breaks down after long roasting at very low temperatures. The fat layer protects the meat from drying out during the long cooking time.
Brisket is made of two different muscles on the breast of the cow. Try to find a piece that clearly shows those two muscles like mine above. Check out this website for a very detailed explanation of how to pick a good brisket and how to grill it low and slow. (This was one of my favorite references while I was learning how to smoke brisket on a grill.) I have found Danish butchers trim most of the fat off of ALL cuts of meat, including the brisket. My brisket here has a little too much fat trimmed off so there's nothing for me to do.

Liberally coat all sides with the spice rub. For my 1.5 kg (3.3 lbs) brisket, I used about half a cup of dry rub.
Transfer the brisket to a baking dish and add all of the extra spice rub from your cutting board on top. Choose a baking dish that is not too much larger than your brisket. The meat will shrink with cooking by a lot and you do not want the drippings to dry out and burn. I use the largest baking dish that will fit into my toaster oven. Cover and refridgerate overnight if you can, otherwise you can start cooking right away.

Bake uncovered in a 130°C (250°F) oven for 4-8 hours. Plan on about 4 hours for the first 1 kg (~2 lb) and 2 hours for each additional 0.5 kg (~1 lb). The internal temperature of the brisket should be close to 80°C (180°F) when it's done. I don't have a meat thermometer yet here, so I usually test by pulling a little piece off the corner and tasting it for tenderness and flavor. Above is after 2 hours of baking, with 4 more to go.

This is what my brisket looks like when it's done. It has shrunk a lot and released yummy juices. It has a dark spice bark that tastes like the perfect combination of salty, sweet, spicy, and BBQ. You can turn the oven to broil for 2-4 minutes at the end to achieve the caramelization necessary to turn the spice rub into a crunchy bark and get a little bit of "char" that will remind you of a god BBQ.
When the brisket is done, remove it from the oven and cover with foil for at least 20 min. Slice across the grain and serve with some of the drippings as a sauce and a side of your choice.

Here, I'm serving brisket tonight with oven roasted garlic-herb potatoes (recipe found here) and sunchokes (from Diane Morgan's awesome "Roots" cookbook.) Enjoy!

Here is the condensed recipe for oven roasted Texas-style brisket.

Oven Roasted Texas-Style Brisket

Serves 4-6.

Ingredients:

1-2 kg (2-4.5 lbs) beef brisket
0.5-1 cup BBQ Spice Rub

Methods:

Wash and trim the brisket. Leave about a 1 cm (0.5 in) thick fat layer. Dry the brisket thoroughly. Cover all sides with the spice rub (0.5 cup per kg or 2 lb of brisket). Place in a baking dish, with extra spice rub on top, and cover tightly. Refridgerate overnight if possible.

Preheat oven to 130°C (250°F). Roast brisket uncovered for about 4 hours for the first 1 kg (2 lb) and 2 hours for each additional 0.5 kg (1 lb). Remove from oven when the interior has reached 80°C (180°F) or the corner easily pulls off the roast. Cover with foil and let rest for 20-40 minutes.

Strain the drippings through a seive and remove the oil on top to make a sauce. Cut the brisket into 1 cm (0.5 in) slices across the grain. Serve slices of brisket with sauce.

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Suvi's BBQ Spice Rub:

1 tbs each of:
     Paprika
     Black pepper
     White sugar
     Brown sugar
     Salt
     Chili powder (optional)

2 tsp each of:
     Cumin
     Coriander
     Oregano
     Chipotle Chili
     Thyme (optional)

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Oven Roasted Garlic Potatoes

Serves 4.

Ingredients:

16-24 new baby potatoes
3 large cloves garlic, finely chopped
1 tbs fresh rosemary and/or thyme, finely chopped
2-3 tbs olive oil
salt and black pepper pepper

Methods:

Preheat oven to 180°C (250°F).
Mix all ingredients in a bowl and spread in an even layer on a baking dish. Sprinkle generously with salt (about 1 tsp) and freshly ground black pepper.
Roast in the oven for 1-1.5 hrs or until easily pierced with a fork. Serve with all the roasted garlic and herb bits for added crunch.

To speed up cooking time, potatoes can be parboiled in unsalted water for 10 minutes, then mixed with the remaining ingredients and roasted in the oven for 35-45 minutes. Though still delicious, the potatoes lack a subtle sweet and savory flavor that comes out of slow roasting and will be fluffier in texture.

Try adding chopped carrot or parsnip to the potatoes for an autumn mixed root vegetable dish.

A kitchen without an oven.

One of the disadvantages of choosing an apartment overseas is finding one with all the features you want. In Aarhus, as a foreigner, there is such a huge housing crunch that just finding an apartment at all can be a feat. We must have written to more than 20 landlords with vacancies in our desired region of the city and heard back from only 5 of them: all with "Sorry, it's already rented". We were lucky and a friend hooked us up with his landlord as soon as a vacant apartment became available in his building. So, we rented the apartment, site unseen, two weeks before we moved halfway across the world, going off of a couple pictures our friend took with his phone from the entryway as the floors were being refinished.

When we got here, we found a gorgeous apartment with 3 rooms, great molding details and a small but cozy kitchen. Everything looked perfect. Upon closer inspection, we realized that the apartment did not have an oven, only a glass cooktop, a toaster, and a microwave. Now, this wouldn't be an issue for the average Dane who apparently eats a lot of open faced sandwiches on rye bread (I know, I'm stereotyping), but not for someone like me who loves to bake and uses an oven for braising and roasting all the time. One of the drawers in the kitchen was even filled with all of the baking ingredients (baking soda and powder, deerhorn salt, potash, vanilla, etc) you need to make Danish cooking and treats. What a horrible way to pour salt on the wound!

Needless to say, one of the first things we had to do was find the largest, affordable toaster oven we could. The one we found is large enough to roast a chicken but not a turkey or a duck. There goes my visions of cooking an American Thanksgiving feast for my new Danish friends. But, I can still make all of my favorite baked dishes like potatoes gratin, lasagne, pulled pork, brownies and cake, the list goes on and on. Now I'm making myself hungry.

Here is our kitchen now, with two toaster ovens (a little one for toast, a big one for baking), a glass cooktop, and our awesome retro bread box. The sink is to the side with separate faucets for hot and cold water. Luckily the hot water is the perfect temperature for washing dishes and the cold water is perfect for drinking. Our kitchen may look like it needs some updating, but the food coming out of it is delicious as is.

So tonight, for my first inaugural recipe, I am braising brisket for 6 hours in my little oven.

An American in Denmark.

My husband and I moved from Los Angeles to Aarhus, Denmark a few months ago. We left behind a city where we could get any type of cuisine any day of the week. From Japanese to Hunan, Indian to Italian, we gain inspiration from restaurants and have successfully recreated many of our favorite restaurant dishes at home in our own kitchen.

 In Denmark, we have not been able to find the diversity of restaurants or ingredients we were used to having at our fingertips. For the first few weeks, going to the grocery store was an adventure in guessing at the translation of products, cuts of meat, and produce. Now, we are learning to adapt Danish ingredients to our style of cooking. This is a collection of some of my favorite recipes, recreated in this foreign land.