Claus Meyer: The man who revolutionized Scandinavian cuisine
Growing up in the 60s, Claus Meyer says food in his native Denmark was often frozen, canned and tasteless. Later while working in France, he fell in love with great cooking and wanted to bring it home.
In 2003, he co-founded Copenhagen's Noma, hailed as the best restaurant in the world four times over. Now, he's come to America with the Great Northern Food Hall and the Michelin-starred Agern, both in New York's Grand Central Terminal.
Here are some of Meyer's signature recipes:
Beet tartare with horseradish cream
Tartare ingredients
14 oz beets
2 tablespoons cherry vinegar or another fruit vinegar
Sea salt flakes and freshly ground pepper
1 cooking apple
1 red onion
1 tablespoon cold-pressed canola oil
1 handful of chervil, chopped
1 tablespoon honey
1 tablespoon mustard
Directions
1. Peel 3 ½ ounces of the beets and cut into cubes
2. Marinate the beet cubes in the vinegar with some salt and pepper
3. Wrap the rest of the beets in foil and bake in a preheated oven at 400 degrees for 1 hour or until tender
4. Take the beets out of the oven and set aside until cool enough to handle, then rub the skins off
5. Wash and core the apple, and peel the red onion
6. Cut the baked beets, apples and onion into tiny cubes similar in size to the raw, mainating beets
7. Mix baked beet, apple, onion mixture with raw beet cubes
8. Add the oil, then season with the chopped chervil, honey, mustard, salt and pepper
9. Toss together and season again, if necessary - the tartare should be fresh, sweet and sharp, but at the same time rounded in flavor
Horseradish cream ingredients
½ cup Greek yogurt, 2% fat
½ lemon - finely grated zest + juice
1-2 tablespoons freshly grated horseradish, to taste
1 teaspoon honey
Sea salt flakes and freshly ground pepper
Preparation:
Directions
1. Mix all the ingredients together ina bowl
2. Let the cream sit for 5 minutes in the kitchen to allow flavors to infuse, then season with salt and pepper
3. If necessary, add some extra horseradish before serving
Roasted duck with prunes, baked apples and gravy
Ingredients
1 duck (6 1/2 - 8lb) including giblets, neck and wing tips
Sea salt flakes
2 ¼ pound apples, such as Gala
1 lb 2 oz whole pitted prunes
4 thyme sprigs
Freshly ground pepper
1/3 cup all-purpose flour
1 ½ quarts water
1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar or other light fruit vinegar
1 tablespoon sugar or Apple Gastrique (recipe below)
Directions
1. Wipe both the cavity and outside of the duck with paper towerls and then rub both with salt
2. Wash the apples, cut them into quarters, and remove the cores, then cut them into large cubes
3. Mix with the prunes, chopped thyme, salt and pepper
4. Stuff the duck with the fruit mixture - it is important that you stuff it as full as possible, since the filling helps to retain the juices and thereby prevents the meat from becoming dry
5. Tie the thights tightly up against the breast with butcher's twine, which will help to keep the breased fillets nice and juicy
6. Place the bird, breast-side up, on an oven or roasting rack with a roasting pan underneath containing the duck's neck, wing tips and giblets
7. Brown in a preheated oven at 550 degrees for 15 minutes and then remove the roasting pan from the oven
8. Add the flour from the pan, and turn the duck pieces over a few times so taht all the fat is absorbed by the flour
9. Pour the measured water into the roasting pan and place it back underneath the duck
10. Turn the oven down to 300 degress and roast for another 2 - 2 ½ hours
11. The duck is ready when the skin is beautifully golden and crisp and the thigh meat is creeping up the bone, which, should be about to fall off by itself
12. Take the duck out of the oven and let rest of 20-25 minutes before you start carving it
13. Meanwhile, strain the gravy from the roasting pan through a sieve into a saucepan - the flour you added earlier will have thickened the juices into a sauce
14. If there is excess fat, skim if off the top
15. Adjust the consistency of the sauce - season with some apple gastrique, along with salt and pepper
16. Cut the bird into 8 pieces (4 breasts, 2 thighs, 2 drumsticks) and serve it with the fruit stuffing and gravy
Directions
1. The gastrique adds bitterness and acidity to your gravy and dressings and enhances overall flavor. It is an acidic, bittersweet, caramelized vinegar syrup that can be made by caramelizing sugar in a pan, and then adding some good vinegar (not balsamic) and letting the caramel dissolve into it.
Warm red cabbage
Ingredients
1 red cabbage
Juice of 2 oranges
1 cinnamon stick
3 star anise
4 bay leaves
2/3 cup superfine sugar
1 ¼ cup concentrated chery juice
1 ¾ cups red wine
1 tablespoon sea salt flakes
Directions
1. Slice the red cabbage into quarters and cut out and discard the stalk
2. Slice the cabbage finely and place in a large saucepan with the remaining ingredients and stir over high heat
3. Bring to a boil, then reduce the heat and let the cabbage simmer, covered for 1 – 1 ½ hours, stirring occasionally
4. The liquid should all be absorbed
Caramelized and boiled potatoes
Ingredients
2 pounds small potatoes - preferably a waxy variety such as new potatoes or red bliss
6 tablespoons sugar
6 ½ tablespoons water
2 tablespoons butter
Directions
1. Boil the potatoes until just tender and cool them down with cold water
2. Peel them and leave to cool completely (these can be made up to a day in advance)
3. For the carmelized potatoes, melt the sugar in a pan on medium heat, do not stir the suger, instead tilt the pan occationally as the sugar melts
4. When the color is golden, add the water gradually and cook until the caramel has no lumps
5. Add half the potatoes (the ones not being kept for boiled potatoes) and leave them to simmer in the caramel 5-10 minutes, stirring frequently
6. Add the butter and stir to incorporate into the caramel
Risalamande with warm cherry sauce
Porridge ingredients
1/2 cup short grain rice
4 cups full-fat milk
1 vanilla bean
1/3 cup sugar
1/4 tsp salt
Directions
1. Gently bring the milk to the boil in a large pot, add the rice and stir.
2. Scrape out the seeds from the vanilla pod
3. Mix the seeds with a tablespoon of the sugar and save the vanilla sugar for the following day
4. Add the empty vanilla pod to the pot along with the remaining sugar and the salt
5. Turn down the heat and let the rice simmer slightly for about an hour under lid, stirring occasionally
6. Pull the porridge from the heat an allow to cool, stirring occasionally; refrigerate overnight.
Whipped cream ingredients
1 ¼ cup cream
Remaining vanilla sugar
Directions
- Whip the cream with the vanilla sugar to a soft peak. Chop ¾ cup almonds
2. Mix half of the whipped cream and the almonds with the chilled rice porridge
3. Fold in the rest of the whipped cream to make the dessert light and fluffy
Cherry sauce ingredients
1 cup pitted cherries - frozen will work
Zest and juice of 1 orange
1 tablespoon cherry vinegar or another dark fruit vinegar
2 tablespoons sugar
1 cinnamon stick
1 star anis
1 tablespoon corn starch
Directions
1. Bring everything but the corn starch to a boil in a pot
2. Simmer for 3-4 minutes.
3. Dissolve the corn starch in a little water, whisk the starch into the sauce for a sticky, but still runny sauce and continue boiling for another minute
4. Adjust with sugar or vinegar to taste.
5. Serve the cold rice pudding with the warm cherry sauce.
