Glazed maple syrup chicken with chestnut-pear filling

I have to admit, I never really cooked a whole bird before. Breast, yes. Legs, yes. But a whole bird? Never. I know it's not that difficult on the one hand. But on the other things can go wrong easily, as well. My biggest fear is dry meat.

I found this recipe on the website of German Brigitte magazine and altered it a little bit. I didn't want to go with something as elaborate as goose, duck or turkey right away. But this chicken with chestnut stuffing sounded perfect. Just a chicken, but with some fancy and wintery extras and ingredients. Wohoo!

Unfortunately it turned out a little too dry in the end. I decided to cook the chicken in a terracotta cassserole (Römertopf) instead of steaming it beforehand, as the original recipe suggested. The terracotta gets soaked in water for at least ten minutes before and keeps whatever meat is inside nice and moist. Unfortunately the chicken looked quite pale, even though the meat was already cooked. So after removing the lid I had to cook it for another 30-45 minutes in order to fry/broil the skin.

That caused some dryness in the breast sections. But hey! My first bird! Next time I will just take the lid  off earlier, so that this won't happen again. And besides that, it was delicious!

Here's what you need:

1 red onion, chopped

400g/14 oz. chestnuts (pre-cooked, peeled and vacuum-sealed)

80g/2.8 oz. butter or margarine

1 pear, core removed, cut into cubes

2 celery stalks, chopped

5 twigs of fresh majoran (I only had dried one)

(A few fresh twigs of rosemary and thyme)

3 tbsp maple syrup

salt, freshly ground pepper

1 chicken (organic, approx. 1.5kilos/3.3 pounds)

1 garlic clove, finely chopped

200 ml / ¾cups white wine/cidre (or apple juice)

400ml / 1¾ cups chicken broth (in a glass)

150g / ⅔ cups creme fraiche

Directions

Halve 250g (a bit more than half of the total amount) of the chestnuts.

Mix with onion cubes and sauté both with 20g /0.7oz. butter until onions are translucent.

Mix in chopped celery and pear cubes. Remove the leaves from 3 majoran twigs and add them to the mixture, as well. Stir in 1tbsp maple syrup and season to taste with salt and freshly ground pepper.

Rinse the chicken under cold water, cleaning the in- and outside and dry it with paper towel.

Rub it with salt (in- and outside, as well).

Fill the chicken with as much chestnut-pear mixture as possible and close it up with tooth picks or small iron spits.

Carefully place some herbs (twigs of rosemary, thyme, majoran) directly underneath the skin. Just try to separate the skin from the meat and push the herbs between. That adds some extra nice flavour!

Preheat the oven to a maximum of 180°C (the lower the longer it needs to cook, but the better and more tender the meat gets.

In the meantime soak a terracotta casserole for at least ten minutes in warm water.

Brush the bottom of the cassserole with a bit of oil. Place the chicken in the casserole, close the lid and cook the chicken for about 30-45minutes. In the meantime melt 40g/1.4oz butter. Remove the lid and cook for another 30-45 minutes at 180°C. To give it a proper tan while keeping it moist and adding some flavour brush the chicken top with melted butter and maple syrup, one at a time, every 10-15minutes. If the skin gets too dark before the meat is fully cooked, just cover it up with some aluminium foil. You know that the chicken is done when the meat comes off the leg bones. This is a pretty good indicator for all kinds of poultry. Once you notice it cook it maybe 10-15 minutes longer, just to make sure. But it should be about perfect!

While the chicken is in the oven puree the rest of the chestnuts (you might wanna add some of the chicken broth to make it easier to puree). Sauté garlic with the leftover butter in a saucepan. 

Add chicken broth and white wine, bring to a boil and let simmer for 10 minutes, do not cover.

Stir in creme fraiche then the pureed chestnuts. Season to taste with salt, pepper and maybe some of the maple syrup and serve the sauce with the chicken.

Yum!

PS: If you have a tip on how to get chicken unresitibly moist, let me know. One info ahead: the minimum temperature of our gas oven is 150°C. That's as low as it gets...

The original recipe didn't use rosemary and thyme just majoran and didn't glaze the chicken with maple syrup, just melted butter. They also added honey instead of maple syrup to the pear-chestnut mix.

Why Onglet and Bavette is the new Filet

I love a good medium-rare Filet Mignon. It's tender and when prepared correctly almost melts in your mouth. The only problem with filet, compared to other parts of a cow, is that it is not as flavorful. It doesn't have much fat and comes without a bone, which both usually add quite a bit of flavour to the meat. It's also kind of "lazy" meat and doesn't get used much by a cow, means, it sits nicely protected in a body part where there is not much muscle activity, which as well, would make more flavourful meat.

There are however parts that get used a lot and are quite active. That's where butchers cut steaks such as Bavette or Onglet. Bavette, which is also called Flank-steak is cut from the abdominal muscles of the cow. Onglet, or Hanger-steak, is V-shaped and obtained from the diaphragm of the heifer or the steer. Both are significantly tougher than other meats. Therefore it's best prepared when marinated and quickly seared on both sides for about 3 minutes in a hot cast-iron pan. When served you're better to cut it into thin slices. With thin and tough cuts like this, you should only salt the meat after searing it.

original image found on wikipedia

Especially Onglet used to be what butchers would rather keep for themselves. Everyone likes their meat to be as tender as possible, so there has not been much interest in those kinds of cuts, until now.
But a butcher's preference can't be that bad, right? And really, it's not that tough if you prepare it right. Just make sure it stays medium rare or absolute maximum medium. Then everything should be fine.

In a very hot (cast iron) pan sear the steaks on both sides for 2.5-3 minutes

Onglet is so strong in flavour that it almost tastes organy, like liver or heart. For some people maybe a bit too intense. Bavette is a little milder, so that might be a better to start off with. But really Onglet is pretty damn good. You should try it.

After searing, wrap the steaks in aluminium foil and let it sit for at least 6 minutes.

Here in Germany Onglet and Bavette are so unpopular, or let's better say unknown, that they get sold (if they get sold) surprisingly cheap. We bought both at Galerie Lafayette, that fancy department store on Friedrichstraße. They were well-aged and each costed around 10€ for about 500g. That's nothing over here, where 100g of filet usually ranges between 4 and 8€.

it's perfect when it's medium rare!

PS: we ate ours unmarinated. Just had it reach room temperature, rubbed it in crushed pepper corns and a tiny bit of olive oil and seared it from both sides for 2.5 - 3 minutes in an extremely hot cast iron pan. Than wrapped the steaks in aluminum foil and had them rest for at least 6 minutes.

Grünkohl - German Style Green Kale with sausages and ham steak

If you think this is going to be light and healthy and vegan-friendly, you better leave this page now.

German style green kale is one of THE grandma generation dishes, that, served as a main dish usually contains quite a bit of (goose) fat and meat, bacon and sausages. You can also find it as a side dish with goose. It's rich, heavy and savoury - a perfect meal for cold days or after a long day of physical work outside. In North-West Germany it is served with a special kind of sausage, called "Pinkel", which contains grit, groats, oats and minced meat and is hard to get in the other parts of Germany. I'm not that attached to this kind of sausage and think you can just leave it out or make a mixture of grits and minced meat (pork) yourself and add a little bit of that mix to the cale. I faked a whole "Pinkel"-sausage, cause I couldn't get it anywhere here in Berlin but wanted to do it right. But it wasn't that great...so not worth the whole effort. The other sausage that are quite hard to get if you don't live in or around Germany is "Mettwurst". It's like a soft salami, smoked and strongly flavoured.

In North America and Australia you may be able to find it in German or Polish grocery stores.

The grey thing in the back is my home-made pinkel sausage. Again, not worth the whole effort. Therefore just ignore it.

What you need:

1-1.5 kg green cale (frozen)

50g goose fat

3/4l meat broth, highly concentrated 

(if you use these cubes or powder, take the double amount of what is usually required for this amount of water )

450g onions chopped

approx. 100g minced meat (pork)

50g grits

a dash of allspice

salt, pepper, sugar

sugar

white vinegar

500g smoked bacon

4 ham steaks

4 Mettwürste

1-4 tbsp oat flakes

In large sauce pan heat up the goose fat. Add chopped onions and sauté for 2-3 minutes. Add minced meat and a dash of all spice and mix everything. Cook until the meat is well-done and crumbles.

Now add the frozen green cale. Heat up the meat broth and pour over green cale. Close the lid and let everything simmer at low heat so that the cale can defrost. Stir in the grits. Add the bacon (as a whole!) and two of the Mettwürste. Before adding prick the sausages with a fork several times, to make sure they won't burst. Let everything simmer at low heat for about two hours.

Remove the bacon and sausages and set aside.

Now season the cale with salt, pepper, sugar, mustard and a bit of vinegar, if necessary.

Let it sit at a cool place (fridge, balcony...) overnight.

The next day, heat up the cale again. It should be kind creamy and viscid. If it is too liquid, just slowly mix in some of the oat flakes until the cale reaches the right density. Cut the sausages and bacon that went into the cale the day before into bite-sized cubes and add them back to the cale and bring everything to a boil. Make sure to stir every once in a while to avoid the cale from burning on the bottom of the sauce pan. 

Meanwhile in a second saucepan heat up some water. 

Add the other sausages, as well as the ham steaks and let simmer for around 8-10 minutes.

Serve the green cale the ham steaks, sausages and potatoes.

PS: 

The minced meat, grit, all spice and some of the onions that I added to the cale sort of replaced the "Pinkel" sausage here.

Christmas Tiramisu and Anton and Katy's Thanksgiving dinner

Last Thursday was American Thanksgiving and our Anton and Katy invited us over to Anton's studio to celebrate this day with food and friends. I think we were around 13/14 people and Anton made a turkey and a duck that both turned out pretty damn good. We also had tons of vegetables, two kinds of stuffing, gravy, mashed potatoes, and vodka and wine to pair with the food. It was a feast and we all had so much fun!

Rachel and I brought the desserts. She made delicious pumpkin spiced muffins that were really moist and soft. I went with my christmas dessert classic, Christmas Tiramisu.

When my Mum first made it I was so stoked and immediately asked her for the recipe.

Everyone loves it and it is so easy to prepare. 

The only tricky part may be the "quark" (or curd cheese, farmer's cheese or fromage blanc...), and spekulatius (which is a gingerbread spiced christmas cookie) cause these are German products and you may not find it everywhere. 

If you cannot find it in your grocery store you could try to replace the "quark" with cream cheese (low fat), Greek yoghurt or cottage cheese (mixed in a blender to make it smooth).

Instead of the spekulatius, try gingerbread cookies, but make sure that they are not glazed or anything cause they will have to soak.

Okay, here is what you need:

250g quark

250g mascarpone

200g heavy cream

100g white sugar

1 tsp Bourbon Vanilla sugar

400g morello cherries in a glass (drained net weight)

at least 200g spekulatius or gingerbread cookies

unsweetened cocoa powder

Directions:

In a bowl mix quark, mascarpone, sugar and vanilla sugar until smooth. 

Whip the cream until stiff and carefully fold in the quark-mascarpone mixture.

Drain the morello cherries.

Now take a square pan or casserole (approx. 25x15cm/10x6inches) and cover the bottom with a thin layer of the cream mixture (3 tbsp). Side by side place the spekulatius cookies in one layer on top. 

Cover the cookie layer with first the drained morello cherries, then another thick layer of cream.

 Top everything off with a second layer of spekulatius cookies. 

Spread the cookies with rest of the cream (3-4tbsp). 

Chill for at least 4-5 hours (preferably over night). 

Sprinkle unsweetened cocoa powder over it and serve!

PS: 

• If you cannot find bourbon vanilla sugar (that's the one with the little black vanilla bean crumbs), just take regular vanilla sugar and maybe slice up a vanilla bean, scarpe out the inside and add that to the cream.
• You can also try all different kinds of berries and fruits with it. I find cherries the best, though, but rasberries might be good, as well...
• I always use quark with 40% fat. The recipe asks for low-fat quark and I might go for it next time, as well cause the mascarpone and whipped cream are already heavy enough.

And here are some thanksgiving impressions:

the food

the hosts

the fun

Easy Peasy Pumpkin Soup

Last Monday, on Halloween, was the first time ever I got to carve a pumpkin.

Halloween is not a big thing in Germany really, and pumpkins for a long time were one of these forgotten vegetables, until a few years ago. Thanks to globalization Halloween is slowly establishing itself more and more as a new kid's event over here, and pumpkin dishes successfully fought their way back into the hearts of German food lovers.

This one here is a very simple and easy to make pumpkin soup that tastes delicious.

You'll need:

500g pumpkin cubes (I use hokkaido pumpkin, cause you can cook it with the skin)

250g carrots roughly, chopped

1 medium-sized onion, roughly chopped

1 Tbsp butter

juice of one orange

100ml heavy cream

1.5 l water

2 tsp vegetable stock

salt, pepper, cinnamon, nutmeg

roasted sunflower seeds, pumpkin oil and cream for garnish

Directions

Melt butter in a large saucepan. Add pumpkin carrots and onion and sauté for a few minutes while stirring. Add the vegetable broth and water and bring to a boil. Have everything boil for about ten minutes, or until the carrots and pumpkin are soft.

With a hand blender mix everything until smooth. Mix in the orange juice (careful, you might not need all the juice) and heavy cream. Season to taste with salt, pepper, a dash of cinnamon and nutmeg.

Sprinkle pumpkinseed oil, a bit of cream and roasted sunflower seeds over it.

Serve!

PS: 

I decided to serve the soup with bacon-wrapped cod rolls. Therefore cut the cod into slices and season to taste with pepper and a tiny bit of salt (the bacon is already pretty salty). Place the cod slice on a slice of bacon and roll it all up with the bacon being on the outside. Pin the fish-bacon package with a toothpick so it won't fall apart, when frying. Fry the rolls in a pan from each side on high heat for 2-3 minutes.

Turn the stove down to medium/low heat, cover the pan with a lid and let the rolls cook for another 3-5 minutes to make sure the fish inside is properly cooked.

Serve on top of the pumpkin soup. It's delicious!

PPS: 

You can also add a little parsley for garnish. I just didn't have any...

This was us with our pumpkin on our tiny spontaneous halloween party

I think I did a pretty good job on my first carved pumpkin ever...

We even captured something weird with my camera. There was nothing there, I swear. But it felt strangely cold right next to me.... 

spooky isn't it?

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