Hoirino me Seleri

Griekse winterstoofpot van varkensvlees en selderij.

500 gram varkensvlees met zout en peper van de schouder in 100 ml olijfolie en 2 eetlepels echte boter bruin braden.

Vlees uit pan scheppen.

In achtergebleven olie 1 ui en 1 prei in 5 minuten zacht fruiten.

Een flinke kop kippenbouillon erbij en 4 selderij-stengels: 10 minuten stoven.

Het vlees teruggooien en een flinke hand verse dille erbij. 45 minuten stoven.

Avgolemono-saus erbij mengen. Zorg dat de stoofpot niet te heet is. Avgolemono maak je door het wit van twee eieren schuimig te kloppen. Daarna de dooiers erdoor roeren, het sap van twee citroenen en een kopje van het kookvocht uit de stoofpot. Goed mengen en in de kookpot gieten.

Even tien minuten laten staan. Het mag niet meer koken, anders gaat het mis met het ei. Op smaak brengen met zout en peper. Er kan maar een ding echt mis gaan met dit recept: te veel of te weinig citroen. Blijven proeven!

Geen idee hoe de Grieken dit serveren. Het gaat prima met aardappel uit de tuin. Wellicht wat dille overhouden om op het bord te strooien?

Confit de canard

According to Wikipedia 'confit de canard' is a French dish made with the 'leg of the duck'. I conserved a whole duck. Confit is a process of preservation, which consists of salt curing and poaching in fat.























First you need to divide the duck in useable parts. Duck breast is quite easy to separate from the carcass, the other parts are the legs. Remove some of the fat and keep for the gravy. I found one lead shot. Since I don't own a butcher's knife I used my little Fällkniven U2. This diminutive knife had no problem cutting through bone.

I cured the duck in a generous amount of coarse salt, fresh thyme, crushed garlic and black pepper overnight in the fridge, or a minimum of 8 hours.






















The next day you will need to rinse the duck very thoroughly to remove all the salt. Pat dry with kitchen paper.






















The proper way would be to poach the duck in duck fat. I couldn't find any duck fat so I used goose fat. Make sure the duck is completely covered in fat. I poached the duck for 3 hours in a 100 degrees Celsius oven. If you poach the duck on a lower temperature, say 75 Celsius, you'll need to poach (much) longer.










































The result can be stored in jars for up to six months. I used the confit de canard the same day for a sautéed dish with potatoes, dupuy lentils, haricots verts and forest mushrooms.

Gravy
I used the carcass to make a stock. The stock is used as a basis to make a gravy.

Fry some onion and duck fat (cut from the duck parts) and add a splash of white wine. Reduce till almost dry and add 200 ml of the stock and some fresh thyme. Reduce to half, add another 200 ml and repeat. This process will take more than one hour. Run the gravy through a sieve and season with pepper and salt.

To prepare my sauté I made confit potatoes. Cover sliced potatoes (parboiled for 2 minutes) in olive oil with fresh thyme and garlic and heat in a 140 degrees Celsius oven for one hour.










































I cooked the dupuy lentils for 30 minutes and parboiled the haricots verts. Set aside.

To make the sauté
Heat some goose fat in a skillet. Fry the confit de canard. Add the mushrooms and confit potatoes. Put the skillet in a hot oven for 6 minutes. Return to stove and add the dupuy lentils and haricots verts. Heat for a couple of minutes and arrange the ingredients on a dish: potatoes on the bottom, then the vegetables and the duck on top. Add the gravy made from duck stock.

Wine: Château Le Clou Cassiopée 2008 (AOC Côtes de Bergerac); 75% Merlot, 15% Cabernet-Sauvignon, 10% Cabernet Franc.

Sauerkraut soup

Sauerkraut soup is best served with a glass of Gewürztraminer.
The base of this classic sauerkraut soup is homemade chicken stock. Get a cheap chicken carcass. I bought € 1,- worth of chicken bits and pieces at the market.

Heat the chicken carcass in the oven until lightly brown.

Add leek, carrot, onion, celery, thyme, pepper corns, bay leaf, mace and about 4 litres of water.

Don't boil but simmer the stock for 3 hours on a very low fire.

Strain the stock and reduce to two thirds. Add salt according to taste. At this point you could make a consommé but this will prove to be time consuming.


For two plates of sauerkraut soup you will need one litre of the chicken stock. Freeze the remaining stock for later use.

Add 150 grams of sauerkraut to the stock and simmer for 30 minutes. Remove the sauerkraut and use it for something else, like choucroute garnie.

In the meantime prepare the meat. Heat one rookworst in hot water. It pays off to buy a properly smoked butchers' rookworst instead of an industrial rookworst with smoke aromatics. If you live in Amsterdam Slagerij Zuid (Albert Cuypstraat 95) is the perfect address for smoked meats.

Fry 50 grams of cubed smoked pork cubes ('dobbelsteentjes') in a little butter. Drain the smoked pork on kitchen towel and set aside.

Cut the rookworst in slices and quarter the individual slices. Add the rookworst and smoked pork to the sauerkraut soup. Serve with a glass of Gewürztraminer.