recipes – luxlifefinn

Homemade chicken stock

I take great pride for making most things from scratch. I would say a general rule is that homemade is always much tastier and healthier, whatever it is. Please don’t be put off making your own chicken stock even though it does take quite a while to make; after the initial steps it won’t need much attention from you, and you can use the remaining cooking time doing other things. The absolute key to a good, flavoursome stock is bones. You must, must, must use chicken on the bone, and for richer flavour you do also want to ensure you have some meat. I usually use chicken legs, drumsticks and wings. Once the cooking of the stock is finished, you can remove the meat off the bone and use it for other meals. Once cooled, I freeze the stock in portion sizes. Since I started making my own stock, I hardly ever use shop bought ones anymore, those are now in my cupboard merely for back up for when I’ve run out of my own. I often make a double batch of the recipe, as it does take quite a long time to make.

1 chicken leg
475g chicken wings
500g chicken drumsticks
3 liters water
1 celery stick, chopped into big pieces
1 carrot, chopped into big pieces
1 medium onion
~15 black peppercorns
4 garlic cloves
3 bay leaves
1 tsp sea salt
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I sometimes make a Chinese variation, and replace the celery, carrot, onion and bay leaves (use the other remaining ingredients) with

1 thumb size piece of root ginger, sliced
4 spring onions

1. First, place the chicken and water in a large pot, and bring to simmer. Bare in mind that for the best results, the stock shouldn’t boil at any stage, only simmer.

2. ‘Scum’ will start coming to the surface of the stock. Keep skimming this away, however don’t stir or disturb the stock otherwise. I use a slotted spoon for this. At this stage, it’s important to give the stock attention.

3. Once there is no more scum rising to the top (this can take about half an hour), you can add all other ingredients. Then cover with lid, and set the temperature to a low simmer, making sure it doesn’t boil. Cook for 3 hours.

4. Strain the stock through a sieve. I tend to also use muslin, to get rid of even finer impurities.

5. If freezing some of the stock, let it cool. Portion into containers, and put in the freezer. Work through all the wings, legs and drumsticks (by hands) to remove all the meat. If not using straight away, freeze in portion sizes. You will get quite a lot of meat out of them, don’t waste them!

Oven baked creamy salmon and vegetables

Salmon is a great versatile, tasty and meaty fish that can be cooked in many different ways. It is also very healthy, and in particular is rich in Omega 3.

Serves 2
2 large handfuls of spinach
1/2 courgette (zucchini)
2 small turnips
100g green beans
~6 florets of broccoli
2 cloves of garlic
2 salmon fillets
200ml cream
salt
white pepper
cayenne pepper

1. Preheat the oven to 180°C / 360°F. Peel and chop the turnips into bite size chunks. Chop the courgette, green beans and broccoli also into bite size pieces. Place the spinach at the bottom of an oven dish, followed by the other vegetables. Squeeze the garlic on top. Sprinkle with some salt and pepper.

2. Place the salmon on top of everything, pour the cream over, and season the salmon with some salt, pepper and cayenne pepper.

3. Place in the preheated oven, and bake for 20 minutes. If you don’t like your vegetables crunchy, you might want to bake the vegetables on their own first for 5-10 minutes, before adding the salmon and cream.

Meatballs and tomato sauce

I’m a kind of cook who usually just throws ingredients together, without exact measures (unless required by the recipe). I’ve sometimes made my recipes by just checking which ingredients certain food requires, and just come up with a perfect result through trial and error. Sometimes I swap ingredients depending on what I have in my cupboard or fridge. This is why writing this blog may be a challenge at times, however one I embrace and enjoy at the same time. Below you can find a recipe for my meatballs and tomato sauce.

Meatballs
500g mince beef (you can also replace half by mince pork)
3 eggs
1 dl breadcrumbs
1 onion
2 cloves of garlic
1 tsp salt
1 tbsp black pepper
1 tbsp paprika
1 tbsp allspice
2 tbsp fresh parsley
olive oil
butter
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2 tbsp grainy Dijon mustard or
1 chilli

1. Finely chop onion and garlic, and fry in olive oil. Let cool.

2. Add all ingredients together, and either mix in a blender (for finer texture) or by hand. If mixture is too hard/dense, you can add some water (or cream), or if it’s too soft add more breadcrumbs. Sometimes, I add a finely chopped chilli for a bit of a kick. This time, for the balls in the picture I added grainy Dijon mustard instead.

3. Shape into even size balls, and fry in butter in a frying pan.

Tomato sauce

This is my basic tomato sauce I use for everything, from bolognaise to pizza. I don’t usually use cream with tomato sauce, but I wanted to try how it would work this time, and it worked well.

1 celery stick
1-2 carrots
1 medium onion
2-3 garlic cloves
handful of fresh basil leaves
handful of fresh parsley
1 tin of chopped tomatoes
4 tbsp tomato purée
dried oregano
dried herbs de provence
olive oil
salt
black pepper
(splash of cream – optional)

1. In a blender, finely chop onion, garlic, carrot, celery and fresh herbs, and fry in olive oil in pan.

2. Blend the chopped tomatoes, and add to the pan. Add dried herbs and tomato purée, and season with salt and pepper.

3. Put back in the blender, to make extra smooth texture, otherwise it’ll be somewhat coarse.

4. If using cream, add a splash.

Spicy honey roasted parsnip soup

One of the great things about this time of the year is it’s the season for root vegetables. I’ve not been that experimental with parsnips in the past though, so I thought I need to explore this ingredient outside the normal roast vegetables on Sundays. I’ve decided to use parsnips for my soup of the week. This recipe will make quite a thick soup, you could always add more stock if you’d like it less so. Also, if you’re not a fan of spicy, I would suggest you go with one chilli rather than the two I’ve used. This soup is actually packed with the best medicines nature has for fighting off colds, so fantastic dinner option for these cold autumn days.

750g parsnips
2 medium onions
2 medium potatoes
3 garlic cloves
2 fresh green chillies
thumb size piece of fresh root ginger
3 tbsp olive oil
3 tbsp clear honey
2 tsp ground turmeric
1.2 l beef or vegetable stock
2 dl cream
salt
pepper

1. Heat oven to 190°C.

2. Peel the potatoes, rinse and cut into smaller pieces. Wash the parsnips, and cut the end off. Cut in half, then half the thinner pieces, and quarter the thicker pieces. Cut peeled onions into wedges, and finely chop the garlic, chillies and ginger. Add all these to a roasting tin, coat with the oil and honey, as well as the turmeric. Mix all together, and roast for 45 minutes.

3. Once cooked, transfer to a pan, and add the stock. I’m using my homemade beef stock as I think it goes well with parsnips, but you can use vegetable stock too. Let simmer for 5 minutes, and move aside to cool.

4. Add cream and purée in a blender until smooth. Reheat and check the taste, adding salt and pepper as required.