Taking Stock

Baby borders on near obsession when it comes to making stock. His passion, I think, is wrought from a meditation on the slow simmering of a collection of ingredients overnight, a comfortable bounty that serves as a base of so many dishes and reductions--as well as a tribute to family and the things that they taught him along the way, growing up, even if he was merely observing, peeking into a pot.

For me, I've never tasted better. As Baby tirelessly teaches me patience, here, in honor of kitchen and kin, I offer the wealth of good, patient stock; a guideline and an encouragement to make several different kinds, to either be used with a sense of immediacy or to freeze and have on hand at a later time, when occasion requires.

Chicken Stock
2 lbs. chicken wings
2 rotisserie chicken carcasses (reserve the meat to make chicken soup later with noodles)
1 large onion with skin, quartered (root bottom removed)
2 large carrots, broken in half
3 ribs celery with greens, broken in half
1/2 leek, well rinsed to remove dirt
1 turnip, halved
1 parsnip broken in half
10 whole black peppercorns
Salt to taste

Place all ingredients in an 8-quart stock pot (except for salt, add at the end). Add cold water, covering ingredients by one inch. On medium low flame, bring to a simmer (never boil) and continue to simmer for at least three hours, skimming fat and foam off of top as you go. Drain through a colander to remove large pieces, strain through a fine mesh sieve to remove smaller bits. Add salt and pepper (if needed) to taste. Cover and let cool. Refrigerate overnight. The next day, remove hardened fat from the top to reveal the golden gelatinous goodness beneath. The more gelatinous the better! Stock may be reheated and used for your favorite soups, or frozen for up to three months. If space in your freezer is an issue, stock can boiled and reduced by half to be reconstituted at a later date.

Beef (or Veal/Lamb/Pork) Stock*
8 lbs. of marrow bones (beef, veal, lamb or pork bones, depending which stock you're making; leg bones are the best to use) and 1 lb of bones with meat on them (such as rib meat)
1 large onion with skin, quartered (root bottom removed)
2 large carrots, broken in half
3 ribs celery with greens, broken in half
1/2 leek, well rinsed to remove dirt
1 turnip, halved
1 parsnip broken in half
10 whole black peppercorns
Salt to taste

*If you like, for the beef stock, a tablespoon of tomato paste may also be added.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Place bones in baking dish or cookie sheet in a single layer. Cook for approximately one hour until bones are nicely browned. Place bones in an 8-quart stock pot. Add remainder of ingredients (except for salt). Add cold water, covering ingredients by one inch. Over medium low heat, bring to a simmer, and continue to simmer for six hours, or as we do, place over lowest flame overnight. Drain, strain and refridgerate, and as with our chicken stock, proceed as you may.

For tips on a Maine Lobster Stock that I improvised, intended for a bisque, click here.

And of course, I turn to the great lady herself for a classic lobster stock, with my comments in italics:

Julia Child's Lobster Stock from The French Chef Cookbook
For about 1 cup
Lobster shell trimmings and debris (I've sauteed them in a skillet first until fragrant or put them under the broiler)
A stainless-steel or enameled pan
1/3 cup each of celery, onions, and carrots (I've used just onions, doubling the amount)
1 cup dry white wine or 3/4 cup dry white vermouth (I go for the wine)
1 bay leaf
6 sprigs parsley (I've used dried parsley)
1/2 tsp dried tarragon (Try Penzey's Shallot Pepper, which is laced with dried tarragon)

Chop the shell debris into 2-inch pieces and place in pan. Add the vegetables, wine, herbs, and water to cover. Boil slowly for 40 minutes, strain, then boil down until liquid has reduced to about 1 cup.

BOOK/A TABLE - Halibut Burgers Dugléré

Going through books I’d read and probably no longer needed to keep in my already overstuffed bookshelves, I came across The Pigeon by Patrick Süskind (also author of the fantastically creepy Perfume: The Story of a Murderer). Before parting with it, I flipped through the pages and found I had tagged the following quote:

“People went off to drink an aperitif, to go to a restaurant, to go home. The air was soft with a slight fragrance of flowers. It had grown quiet. Paris was eating.”

Gorgeous! Now, how could I leave that book to languish in my building’s lending library in the laundry room?

I also thought the quote was an ideal accompaniment for my Halibut Dugléré recipe, inspired by French Chef Adolphe Dugléré, who toiled famously at the Café Anglais in 1866. He created Pommes Anna as well as Fish Dugléré made with his classic vin blanc sauce of wine, tomatoes, and parsley.

I created a variation of Fish Dugléré (the more elaborate recipe is below and linked here) by using pre-packaged halibut burgers and streamlining the rest for those evenings when you’d like something nice to serve, but don’t necessarily have a lot of time. My apologies to the great Chef Dugléré, who might have taken umbrage with such shortcuts!

Start by making the fish fumet (a concentrated, aromatic fish stock) or as I call mine, the much simpler faux fumet. This will be added to your sauce, which is similar to a tomato bruschetta. Also, I used evaporated lowfat milk to give body to the sauce, without all the fat from heavy whipping cream.

Halibut Burgers Dugléré

Serves 2

Ingredients
1 small can diced tomatoes
2 TB butter
2 teaspoons flour
1 cup faux fumet*
2 teaspoons chopped parsley
¼ cup evaporated lowfat milk

Salt
2 halibut burgers (or other fish patty, such as salmon), cooked according to packaging

Melt butter in a frying pan on medium heat, stir in flour, and cook for 2-3 minutes. Add tomatoes and faux fumet, bring to a simmer, and cook for 3-5 minutes more. Add parsley and heat, then stir in condensed skim, but do not let boil. Finish with a pinch of salt.

Plate the fish and top with the sauce. Bon appetit!

*Faux Fumet (simple fish stock):
Ingredients
2 lbs fish bones
Peel of lemon, pith removed
5 peppercorns
Handful of frozen or fresh onions, chopped
Handful of frozen or fresh carrots, chopped

Handful of torn parsley 
2 bay leaves
Salt, to taste

Method
Cover fish bones with water in a large pot. Add other fumet ingredients and do something else while it simmers for about an hour; strain and set aside.

Fish Dugléré
Serves 4 
Ingredients
1.2 to 1.4 kg (2 1/2 - 3 lbs) of round fresh white fish that can be filleted
20 g (0.7 oz) of butter
20 g (0.7 oz) of shallot (finely diced)
40 g (1.4 oz) of onions ( finely diced
400 g (14 oz) of tomatoes (skinned seeded and diced)
20 g (0.7 oz) chopped parsley
50 ml (1.7 fl oz) of white wine
300 ml (10 fl oz) pure cream (heavy whipping cream)

To make the fish stock:
20 g (0.7 oz) of plain butter
20 g (0.7 oz) of shallots (finely diced)
40 g (1.4 oz) of onions (finely diced)
40 g (1.4 oz) of carrots (roughly diced)
1 small handful of mushroom trimmings
Remaining fishbones from filleting the fish
1 bouquet garni
1/2 tsp of black peppercorns
1 tsp of salt
200 ml (6.8 fl oz) of white wine
Water to just cover the fish bones

Method
Start by washing, peeling and cutting the vegetables.

To make the chopped tomatoes: plunge the tomatoes into boiling water for 30 seconds then take them out and plunge them into icy water. The skin should detach easily with a knife. Remove the skin, cut the tomatoes in half and remove the seeds with a teaspoon. Roughly chop the tomatoes.

Wash and clean the fish and cut the fins with kitchen shears. Pat the fish dry and then fillet each fish. Transfer the fish filets to a container and keep covered in the fridge.

Keep the fish bones in a pan with cold water ready to make the fish stock.

To prepare the fish fumet, place a large sauce pan on the stove on medium heat and melt the butter until it starts to foam.

Add the vegetables and cook for 2 minutes. Drain the fish bones and add them to the pan mixing well.

Pour in the white wine followed by enough water to just cover the fish bones. Add the bouquet garni and the salt and pepper.

Bring the stock to the boil then simmer for 25 minutes uncovered.

Filter the stock through a sieve into a separate container and leave to cool down.

While the stock is cooling down, prepare the rice, potatoes or sides you plan to serve with the fish,

To cook the fish, coat the bottom of a a deep saute pan or large stainless saucepan with butter followed by some salt and pepper. Then sprinkle in the shallots, onions and parsley.

Place the fish filet over the garnish next to each other and pour in the wine (avoid pouring the wine directly on the fish filets to avoid them turning a dark greyish colour). Add some cold fish stock, 3 quarters of the way up to the fish filets. Then cover the fish with a circle of baking paper which will act as a lid.

Turn the heat to medium and bring slowly to a simmer. As soon as the stock is simmering, transfer the pan to a preheated oven at 170°C/338°°F and cook for a maximum of 5 to 6 minutes.

As soon as the fish is out of the oven start making the sauce. Things have to happen quickly as your fish will starting cooling down.

Transfer the fish cooking juices to a clean large bottom pan (this will facilitate the reduction).

Reduce the the cooking juices to a syrupy consistency on high heat and then add the cream. Reduce by half until the sauce starts to thicken. Add the chopped tomatoes and stir gently taking care not to colour the sauce too much with the tomatoes.

Turn the heat off and add 20 grams of butter, stirring gently until the butter is melted into the sauce.

Serve immediately on individual plates or in a dish.

BOOK/A TABLE - Duck à l’Orange

                                                                         

While my father was building our cottage in Friendship, Maine back in the summer of ’79, my mother and I joined him every weekend. (I was eleven years old and being left to my own devices at home wasn’t an option). We all ate from a decently-stocked cooler, perhaps had a small grill, and slept in tents on the bare foundation before the walls went up. We were ‘roughing it’ but I didn’t mind, for the most part. I had Muscongus Bay to float around in, woods to explore, and I had my books.

However, the minute our neighbors suggested to my mother that I might rather spend a night in their guest room, I leapt at the chance. A cozy bed! Running water! 

I slept that evening in a tidy, wood-paneled room and when I woke up the next morning, the earth might as well have fallen quite away. I didn’t know the time or where anybody was—I didn’t hear a sound. I opened my copy of Sidney Sheldon’s page-turner Bloodline and got lost in a jet-set world of international intrigue, reading for several out-of-pocket, undisturbed hours until I finished. I didn’t have to use the bathroom, I wasn’t hungry, I required nothing: I was of myself, solely—and impossibly young. It was one of the most perfect mornings I’ve ever had.

“They flew to Paris in a private jet, and had a superb dinner. It began with a paté de foie gras with truffles, lobster bisque, crisp duck à l’orange and Maxim’s special salad, and ended up with champagne and a birthday cake. Rhys drove Elizabeth down the Champs-Élysées afterward, and they returned to Switzerland late that night.”

I didn’t actually experience duck à l’orange for myself until my father took me to New York several years later, where we had dinner at the Oak Room in the Algonquin hotel. We started with escargots, finished with cheesecake. All of these things have remained tucked in my heart ever since.

So without further ado, here’s a recipe for excellent duck à l’orange. It’s Julia Child’s version, with a few well-considered tweaks from Hank Shaw at honest-food.net. I hope it creates some delicious memories for you, too.

                                                           

Duck à l’Orange 
Servings: 4 people
Author: Hank Shaw

Ingredients
2 fat ducks, like mallards or pintail
Salt
3 tablespoons sugar
1/4 cup red wine vinegar
2 cups duck stock or beef stock
4 sweet oranges
1 tablespoon arrowroot or corn starch
3 tablespoons Grand Marnier or other orange liqueur
1/4 teaspoon orange bitters (optional)
2 tablespoons room temperature butter

Instructions
Use a needle or sharp knife point to pierce the skin of the fat ducks all over, taking care to not pierce the meat itself; go in at an angle. This helps the fat render out of the bird. Salt the ducks well and preheat the oven to 325°F.

Put the ducks in an ovenproof pan. I rest them on celery leaves to prop them above the level of the pan; this helps them crisp better. If you want, surround the duck with some root vegetables. Roast for 90 minutes.

Take the pan out and increase the heat to 425°F. When it hits this temperature, put the birds back in the oven and roast until the skin is crispy, about 15 to 20 minutes.

Meanwhile, boil the vinegar and sugar in a small pot until it turns brown. Pour in the stock little by little, stirring all the while. Set aside.

Shave the peel off the oranges, grating some fine and keeping the peel of 2 oranges in large pieces. Juice 2 oranges. Cut segments from the other 2 oranges. Here is a tutorial on how to do that.

When the ducks are ready, remove them from the oven and let them rest on a cutting board.

Finish the sauce. Bring it to a simmer, then add about 1/2 cup of orange juice and the large bits of peel. Simmer 5 minutes. Whisk together a little of the sauce with the starch, and, when it's mixed well, stir it into the saucepot to thicken. Add the Grand Marnier and enough salt and orange bitters to taste. Swirl in the butter one tablespoon at a time.

To serve, carve the duck and arrange on plates. Give everyone some orange supremes and pour over the sauce. Garnish with the grated zest, and serve with good bread, mashed potatoes or celery root, or polenta.

A Selection of Sweets - Tea Jammies

I made these Honey-and-Tea Jammers in my pajamas, so let's start there.

Dorie Greenspan recently shared her Honey-and-Tea Jammers adapted from Dorie's Cookies in the Dec/Jan 2017 Saveur and I was immediately enraptured by her 'dream cookies' built on French shortbread with streusel in a delightful confluence of just what you'd expect--honey, loose tea and strawberry jam. In the actual recipe here, the cookies are served individually cut, like thinly rolled tarts made in a muffin tin, but lacking that particular device, I giddily fiddled about and created a single, thickly rolled large tart (seen above) with apricot jam in a spring-form pan. For another batch, armed with a two-inch cookie cutter, I neatly fitted nine cut-out cookies in a nonstick cake pan and eased them out readily once completely cooled.

The unexpected pockets of brown sugar in the genial shortbread! The luscious jam poking out of the crumbly streusel! Best of all, I had all of the ingredients on hand (friends had recently given us wild honey and homemade vanilla extract over the holidays and we actually had loose rose tea for the shortbread!) and didn't have to leave the apartment. Comfortable as I was in my jammies, I set out to make my honorary Tea Jammies.

The smell of a bakery right at home was so incredibly pleasing I couldn't help but think what a treat such aromas would be for guests upon arrival--even before taking a single, gorgeous bite. Since none of the ingredients are particularly perishable, stock up for the next pajama day! Just remember to change before any guests shows up. Or eat them by yourself. Or not. The important thing is that you do make them.