Monday, January 21, 2008

Taking Bourdain's advice - Making Demiglace

I've made white chicken stock numerous times, using Julia Child's old-school classic Mastering the Art of French Cooking, but had never roasted bones and/or tried another main ingredient. I used the following recipe for veal stock from Gourmet magazine, adapted from Bourdain's buddy, Michael Ruhlman (also check out the Las Vegas episode of Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations):
http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/105520

I bought the veal bones at Wagner's Meats, aka the Mt. Airy Meat Locker.
http://www.wagnersmeats.com/

Roasted bones and vegetables make the house smell great and the stock is rich, flavorful, and salt-free, making it perfect for reducing into a demiglace. The high amount of gelatin in the veal knuckle bones makes the stock gelatinize when refrigerated.

For the demiglace recipe, I used Bourdain's list of ingredients and combined several recipes I'd found. I used the following:

Veal Demiglace
4 1/2 cups veal stock (from the above recipe)
1 cup dry red wine (I used a cabernet)
1/2 cup finely chopped shallots
1 tablespoon black peppercorns
2 sprigs fresh thyme
1 bay leaf

I reduced it until it coated the back of a spoon, which yielded a 1/2 cup. Tasted straight, I felt it was a bit heavy on the shallots and black peppercorns but I've been very pleased with it in sauce for steak.






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