Boneless Birds / Benløse Fugle

Classic Boneless Birds.

Boneless Birds is an old Danish classic, that you nowadays would call mormormad or Grandma food. It’s old school meat and potato food with a brown gravy. It’s a good comfort food on the heavier side. I served a side of lightly roasted carrots and some boiled fingerling potatoes along side, but other crispy vegetables and maybe a crisp salad would work too. But I still make this dish during the fall or winter months.

When my mom made it she used a piece of smoked speck instead of bacon, making the dish take a more smoky note. As a child the I really disliked the fatty piece of speck. Later she started using a thick piece of bacon, and the dish became more pleasing to me.

The name is kinda weird, but similar dishes, stuffed veal or beef, is known in France and England, where they are called headless birds or veal birds. And maybe beef were more common and cheaper compared to veal, so maybe that’s why veal birds became a beef dish.

I was lucky to get hold of a slap of nicely smoked bacon in the store, making me able to cut some thick slices that I cut into sticks, to roll into the beef. I have made a boneless bird dish earlier, but back then I used a smoked Gouda cheese for a more updated version.

Serves 4.

Ingredients:

• 4-6 slices of beef scallopini (thin slices of skirt steak)

• 4-6 thick slices of smoked bacon, cut into sticks the size of string cheese

• ½ medium onion, grated

• salt and pepper for seasoning

• 300 ml (1¼ cup) beef stock

• 3 bay leaves

• 200 ml (¾ cup) heavy whipping cream

• gravy browning

• gravy thickening (shake to mix some milk + 3 tablespoons flour+ pinch salt)

Directions:

Season the steak slices generously on both sides with salt and pepper.

Take a strip of the steak and lay it with the short side towards you. Place 1-2 sticks of bacon and about a teaspoon grated onion in one end, roll the steak up over the filling, securing it with a toothpick or trussing layers along the length of the roll. Repeat with the remaining meat slices.

Brown the rolls on all sides in a large sauté pan, making sure not to crowd the pan. Crowding the pan will boil the meat instead of searing. Add beef stock and bay leaves to the pan, and turn down the heat. Let the rolls cook on a low simmer for about 1 hour, until the meat is cooked tender. Remove the steak rolls from the pan, and add cream to the drippings/sauce. Let the sauce cook to a boil, and add the thickening and let it cook for a few minutes to remove the taste of flour. Season the sauce with salt and pepper, and add gravy browning to get a deep brown color. Place the rolls back in the pan, covering them with the sauce. Serve immediately with boiled or mashed potatoes.

Enjoy!

Millionbøf - Million Beef

Millionbøf - Million Beef

Millionbøf can be translated to a million steaks or beef. But its roughly a danish bolognese, without the tomatoes and only seasoned with salt and pepper. Generally oldschool Danish food is kinda bland. We didn't use many spices or herbs. Danes are basically meat and potatoes people. Well a bit more potatoes than meat, because the potatoes were inexpensive. Nowadays the Danes eat a lot of meat. But like everyone else that is changing again. The food trends in Denmark are to eat more local produce and less meats.

Millionbøf had a lot of names. Tusindbøf (thousand beef) and væltet lokum (tipped toilet 😳) is coming to mind. But it’s actually quite tasty in contrast to the nasty name. Growing up we had millionbøf regularly, it’s an easy weeknight dinner. Normally we would get it with mashed potatoes and pickled beets. But it’s not uncommon to serve it with pasta and pickled cucumber or Danish cucumber salad. This time I added some brussel sprouts to my boiling potatoes the last 5-10 minutes. I chopped them and added them to the mashed potatoes, giving it some texture.

Serves 4-6.

Ingredients:

• 1 tablespoon butter

• 400 g ground beef (about 1 pound)

• 2 yellow onions, chopped

• 3 bay leaves

• 400 ml beef stock

• salt & pepper to taste

• kulør (gravy browning)

For thickening:

• 100 ml water (mix with the flour, to thicken the sauce)

• 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour

• a pinch of salt

Directions:

Saute the onions in the golden brown butter. When they start taking color, add the ground beef, and brown it well. This is an important process to create flavor. Add beef stock, bay leaves and pepper. Let it simmer for about 20-30 minutes with the lid on. Stir occasional. Mix the water and flour and add some of it in the million beef while whisking, add more until you have the desired consistency; not to runny and not too thick. Season the million beef with salt and pepper, and add the gravy browning.

Serve the million beef with masshed potatoes and pickled beets.

Enjoy!

Chili Con Carne a la me

Chili Con Carne a la me.

This chili con carne is my version of a chili. You will find more original recipes out there. But this is the way I like it. Years ago I started out with the recipe my mom used, not spicy at all. Through the years my version became more spicy, more smokey and got more colors and beans. And one thing is for sure, we never had any toppings on my moms chili.

Serves 8-10.

Ingredients:

• 2 pounds ground beef 
• 2 onions, chopped
• olive oil
• 5 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 can tomato paste
• 4 cans (15 oz) diced tomatoes
• 1 can chipotle in adobo sauce, chop the chipotles, use less if you do not like it spicy
• 2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder, I use Valrhona 
• 4-6 bell peppers, bite-sized diced
• 6 cans beans, rinsed, I used black beans white beans, and red kidney beans
• salt & pepper

Toppings:

• sour cream
• jalapeno, sliced
• scallions, sliced
• cheddar cheese
• cilantro

Directions:

Heat olive oil in a large pot. I use my large slow cooker, where the insert goes on the stovetop.  Sauté the onions until they are golden brown. Take the onions out and into a little bowl. 

Add a little more oil to the pot and brown the ground beef, crumbling the meat with a wooden spoon. Try not to stir it to much, the more you move the meat around, the more you cool down the pan. And you want the meat to get some searing and color. When the meat is browned, add the tomato paste, letting it get some heat, to get a sweeter and deeper tomato flavor. Then add the garlic, onions, diced tomatoes, cocoa and the chipotle with the sauce. Season with salt and pepper. 
Here you can add more spices like paprika, cayenne, cumin or chili powder. Before I fell in love with chipotle, I used fresh jalapeños and some smoked paprika in my chilies.
Let the chili cook covered at a low simmer for 2-4 hours, stirring occasionally. I set my slow cooker to 8 hours on low.  

After 2-4 hours, (6 hours in slow cooker), add the bell peppers and after another 30 minutes add the rinsed beans, and let it simmer for yet another 30 minutes, before it is ready for the final seasoning and serving. 

Serve the chili with toppings to your likings and a few slices of good baguette.

Enjoy!
 

Danish Hamburger - Dansk Hakkebøf

Danish hamburger or Hakkebøf med bløde løg, is a traditional danish dish. Normally it is served with a brown gravy made with the dripping from the frying of the hamburger and onions. I rarely make brown gravy, but my mom always made it, she put the onions in the gravy, making it extra yummy. But if you want to indulge you can serve the hamburger with béarnaise sauce.

A hamburger/hakkebøf is a cheaper take on a steak dinner, great for a weeknight.

Serves 3-4.

Ingredients:

• 1 Ib (450 g) ground beef (7-10% fat)
• salt
• freshly ground pepper
• 2 large onions
• oil for frying

Directions:

Form 3-4 round hamburgers season with salt freshly ground pepper. Fry them in a little oil or butter on a large frying pan for 5-7 minutes on each side.

Peel the onion and slices them thinly. Heat oil in a skillet over medium heat, Fry the onions until they get soft, translucent and get some golden caramelizing. Season with salt. Add a splash of water to prevent to much browning.

Serve the hamburgers with boiled potatoes, the soft onions and petit green peas. 

Enjoy!

How to Cook the Perfect Steak

The Perfect Steak

In my family we like a good steak. We have been trying to find the best technique to get the perfect prepared steak every time. We have been sous vide-ing steaks, the nerdy way to getting a  steak with the same color and temperature all the way trough the steak. But not all people have the equipment to cook sous vide, even though it's become more affordable the last couple of years.

I think it's a lot of work and effort, making a water bath and vacuuming the steak, for just ONE steak. The time aspect is another thing. Sous vide 2 hours at 131℉/55℃, or 8 minutes in a skillet at high heat. If we were having company, I would make it sous vide for making more than 3 steaks.

A few years ago we started to slice up the cooked steak, and sharing just one steak. Somehow I think a steak is more enjoyable thinly sliced. I know some people likes a large steak for themselves, go ahead and indulge. But I find less is more, when you get a good quality meat.

I alway buy grass-fed boneless ribeye steaks at Whole Foods Market. They are about an inch (3 cm) thick, with a good marbling. 

After a lot of trials, I perfected my steak-cooking-skills, and this is how I cook the perfect steak.

Serves 1-2.

Ingredients:

• 1 ribeye steak
• olive oil
• salt & pepper
• 1-2 teaspoons butter, cold and salted
• 1 garlic clove, thinly sliced
• 1-2 sprigs of thyme

Directions:

Let the Steak get to room temperature. 

Pad the steak dry with a paper towel, and season it with a good amount of salt and some cracked pepper.

Heat oil in a skillet over high heat. Sear the steak on both sides, and keep turning the steak every 20-30 second, still over high heat. This will cook the steak faster than just flipping the steak just once. 

By flipping just once, the steak won't cook faster or more evenly, it's just easier. Generally you can say, that the more you turn the steak, the faster and more uniformly it will cook. Of cause within limits. When you sear food the surface touching the skillet, will quickly get hot, dehydrate, caramelize and get well done and overcooked. The overcooked part will act as an insulation layer between the heat source and the rest of the food. Resulting in longer cooking time and sometimes even burn food. By flipping the steak more often, you get a cooling of the searing surface, helping to heat up the center of the steak, and getting less of an insulating layer. 

Keep cooking and turning until just under the preferred doneness. (Rare: 130℉/54℃, Medium-Rare: 135℉/57℃, Medium:  146℉/63℃, Well done:  155℉/68℃.)  Generally I cook the steak until it has a dark sear, and the steak has some give to it, about 8 minutes in total, this will result in a medium to medium rare steak.

Turn off the heat, add butter, thyme and garlic. Baste or turn the steak in the now seasoned butter, and let it rest for a few minutes.

Slice the steak in thin slices, and serve immediately.

Enjoy!