Category Archives: meat

Pressure Cooker Split Pea Stew

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kokblog_pressure_cooking

I feel more and more secure about using our pressure cooker even if I sometimes still think its going to explode. In this dish it may look like it actually happened, as it’s not a particularity attractive meal! However this hearty stew is perfect for lazy evenings when its freezing cold outside. It’s warm and delicious and shamelessly easy to make…

(for two people)

6-7 slices of bacon
1 medium onion
fresh or dried thyme
one small parsnip
one medium potatoe
a small piece of celery
1 cup (240 ml) dried split peas
2 ¾ cups (650 ml) of stock (preferable your own home made: veg., meat or chicken)
1-2 bay leaves
1 clove garlic
(salt and pepper)

Cut the bacon into thin slices and fry in a pan on medium heat until it starts to get a little crisp. Chop the onions and sauté in butter or with remaining bacon fat on very low heat until soft and almost transparent. At the end add some thyme (if using dried). Place onion, bacon, split peas (rinsed), chopped potato and parsnip in the pressure cooker. Add stock, bay leaves and press in some garlic. (If necessary season w/ salt and pepper). Stir everything and bring the mixture to a boil. Close the lid and bring pressure to high until the steamer begins to steam. Lower the heat and continue cooking for 15 minutes. Remove the cooker from heat and let cool. When the pressure has completely gone open the lid.

Serve the stew with a nice ale.

We use both yellow or green spit peas for this dish. However I have noticed that the yellow split peas gets mushier and at the same time drier. Therefore I cook them for only 13 minutes and use just a little bit more stock. You can also use other vegetables such as: turnip, carrot and celery. This recipe came originally from a soup recipe at cd kitchen.

Ragu Sauce

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As its impossible for me to write down a recipe on how I make a ragu sauce, I decided instead to make a flowchart with two feed options. For the minced meat I often use beef, lamb or wild boar. Sometimes I use a mix of minced beef and minced pork (common in Sweden). Lamb works especially well with the anchovy version and the beef with the ancho flavor. Sometimes I add one or two vegetables to the sauce, such as eggplant, carrot, parsnip, celery etc. For both options I add some stock, either my own or the vegetable base from “better than bouillon”  (organic). If the sauce at the end needs a touch of ‘bite’ or sweetness, you can season with some paprika powder or/and brown sugar.

Serve with your favorite pasta and top with fresh grated Parmesan.

kokblog_flowchart

Duck in Vermouth

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kokblog_little_duck

So we had duck this thanksgiving and I am really happy with how this recipe turned out.

(serves about 4 people)

one duck (about 5lb/ 2.5 kg)
½ lime
2-3 teaspoons salt
pepper

2 lb small potatoes (for example fingerling), cut in small pieces
2 parsnips, cut in small pieces

prune and fig stuffing

6-10 prunes
6-10 dry figs
1 cup dry vermouth
½-one pear
thyme

for the stock (will be used to baste the duck and for the sauce)

duck neck and giblets
one small onion, sliced
one small carrot, sliced
small piece of celery (or what ever you have at hand)
½ cup dry vermouth or white wine
sage
6 black pepper corns
salt
water

The day before: Cut the figs and prunes into small pieces and soak them with dry vermouth overnight or at least for 6 hours.

About an hour before you roast the duck you need to prepare the stock. Take out the giblets and the neck from the duck. Sauté the giblets in a saucepan. When brown add the sliced onion, carrots and pour in the vermouth. Let it bubble and reduce for a couple minutes. Add thyme, sage and some salt. Cover with water and let simmer for about an hour. Taste and season with salt if necessary.

Just before you are ready to stuff the duck, chop the pear in small pieces. Add the pear and thyme to soaked fruit and blend together carefully. Wash the bird under running water. Rub the duck inside and out with lime. Rub on some salt and pepper. Fill the duck with the stuffing.

Put the duck on its side on a rack in a roasting pan. After 30 minutes in the oven @345°F(175°C), turn the bird on the other side and pour 1/2 – one cup of warm stock over the bird. Let it cook for another 30 minutes. Turn the bird facing up and place the potatoes and parsnips at the bottom of the pan. If you think there is too much fat at the bottom of the pan, you may take some out. However I really recommend keeping the fat for another occasion as it’s  fabulous to fry potatoes in.  Put the bird back into the oven and cook for about 45-60 minutes. The breast should be gorgeously brown and the legs loose. Take out the bird and let it rest for a about 15-20 minutes before carving.
Serve the duck and baked potatoes/ parsnips with the prune and fig stuffing, gravy, gherkins and cranberry sauce.

Wildboar Paté

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wildboar road

 

about 1 lb (450 gram) spinach or chard
2-3 cloves of garlic
some chili flakes
1 lb  (450 gram) minced wild boar (fresh)
salt
milled black pepper
2-4 tablespoons of port
1-2 teaspoons fresh ground black mustard seeds
rosemary (chopped or crumbled if dried)

I sautee the spinach with chili and garlic. Let cool on the side. Squeeze out any juice and mix with the minced meat. Add the port, ground mustard seeds and rosemary. Season with salt and black pepper. I make a seasoning test by frying a small amount of the meat mixture. Add more seasoning if necessary.
Grease a loaf tin with butter and turn the meat mixture into the rectangular baking dish (ceramic or glass). Cover the dish with a buttered sheet of  paper or aluminum foil. Bake the pate in the oven in a water-bath at 330º F for about 45-60 minutes.  Be careful not to over-bake as you don’t want to make the pate dry.
I serve my pate as a starter, cold on dark bread, topped with red currant jam.

The recipe is based on Elizabeth David’s recipe of Pork and Spinach Terrine recipe in the book “South Wind Through the Kitchen”.

*

I suggest you serve this paté with:

Sourdough Knäckebröd (recipe at the end of the post)
Plain Sourdough Bread
Mushroom Confit by Andrew Janjigian

 

Venison Sausage

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sausage2

One sunny day in November I finally got to do something I have been wanting to for a long time, home-made sausages. As our friend Russel has a food grinder and a sausage stuffer kit we went to his house in Brooklyn. On the way we stopped by at the butcher to get the meat and the pork casings. The butcher got so excited about our project that he gave me plenty of pork fat for free! This was what we made…

4 lb venison
1 ½ lb pork fat
some red chili, fresh or flakes
15- 20 juniper berries
rosemary
sage
4 teaspoons mustard seeds
5-6 garlic cloves
salt
pepper
and
pork casings – They came 50 feet long in a small container. I used hardly any. However the casing can be stored sealed in the fridge for a long time.

Clean the pork casing by rinsing it in water. Let it soak in fresh water while preparing the filling. Mush the juniper in a mortar, together with chili, mustard seeds, rosemary and sage. Cut the venison and the pork fat into smaller pieces and ground the meat in a food grinder.  Its important to keep the meat cold, in fact it can actually be a little frozen. Add the prepared spices to the ground meat,  and season with salt and pepper. To be sure the sausage has enough flavor, I recommend you fry some up to taste before you start stuff the casing. Get your stuffer ready and slip on the casing to the pipe and finish with a small knot at the end. Feed the grinder (*or whatever you are using) and gently fill the casing. At last, when all meat is filled, make “knots” in between the sausages by twisting the casing.

As the weather was lovely, we decided to have a barbecue. I served the sausages with a warm tomato salsa and a fresh salad.

*If you don’t have a sausage stuffer kit you can try to use a cake decorator.

Also check out my Pork Sausage