Recipe: Tskune by Mads Battefeld – From His Yakitori Pop-up at Vinhanen (2024)

One of the best restaurant events I attended last year was the yakitori pop-up at Vinhanen. The former sous chef of Henne Kirkeby Kro, Mads Battefeld, sometimes does special food events for friends and fans when he’s in Copenhagen. Since I live in Oslo I miss most of them, but this particular one actually made me extend my Copenhagen trip last summer. That’s probably one of the better decisions I’ve made, because that day was filled with so many great experiences. One of Mads’ skewers, the tskune, was one of the absolute best dishes I had in the whole of 2015. Mads is a very nice guy and gladly shared the recipe with me. You’ll find it below.

After a quick visit to the famous John’s hotdog deli and Copenhagen Streetfood Market at Papirøen, Vinstudinen and I rode our bicycles over to the yakitori pop-up at Vinhanen at Vesterbro. We sat down at one of the tables, where we met some new acquaintances: the lovely Ulla and her husband. These beautiful Danish people turned out to enjoy good food as much as we do. If I remember correctly their son was actually one of the owners of Vinhanen.

Mads and his girlfriend Anna was busy preparing the hundreds of skewers that were going onto the Japanese binchō-tan grill this afternoon. A few vegetable skewers with spring onion and baby corn, Danish eel and a wide selection of chicken: meat, skin, liver,and hearts. The main attraction, the skune, was made by mixing all the chicken parts together (and following the recipe below). The best part? They all cost 10-15 DKK.

The first time I met Mads was at Bornholm. I never had the pleasure of visiting Henne Kirkeby Kro while he was cooking there, but I could tell he was a dedicated chef. At the time Mads worked on the West Coast, a long drive and a flight trip away from Copenhagen, but when he got home some weekends he still made restaurant pop-ups. That shows true passion for your trade.

I’ve later met Mads several times, e.g. at the chef’s meetup at Hotel Frederiksminde where he made a fabulous ice cream with Indian flavors and burnt pineapple on the side. I really hope I get to visit one of his pop-ups this summer as well, or maybe his restaurant if he ever decides to open one. I have a feeling something must be going on, because recently he went to Stavanger and worked as an apprentice of Roger Asakil Joya at Sabi Omakase. He also did an inspiration trip to Asia this winter together with Anna. In my opinion, all that talent should not remain idle too long, at least.

Wine on Tap at Vinhanen

Vinhanen at Vesterbro was a lovely place, which I’ll be sure to return to. They serve you wine on tap! Besides the uniqueness of that, the wines were really nice too. Refreshing and deliciously summery. Vinhanen has a bar at Nørrebro as well, and I hope to grab a glass there this summer. In the meantime I will ready my grill, open a bottle of some delicious natural wine from , and make tskune on the balcony. As soon as the weather allows it that is, ‘cause right now the Gods decided to sprinkle snow over Oslo in late April… Below is Mads’ superb recipe.

Recipe:TskuneSkewers by Mads Battefeld

(4 persons)

• 200 grams minced chicken (preferably leg meat)
• 50 grams chicken skin, finely cut
• 50 grams chicken liver, finely cut
• 10 chicken hearts, finely cut
• 5 grams salt
• 2 eggs
• 1 tbsp rice flour
• 1 tbsp sesame oil
• 3 tbsp soy sauce
• 1 tbsp white sesame seeds
• 2 liters chicken stock

Sauce for brushing:

• 2 dl soy sauce
• 1 dl cane sugar

Side:

• 4 egg yolks

Instructions:

• Mix chicken meat, skins, liver and hearts together with salt until you have a sticky dough. Add eggs, rice flour, sesame oil and soy sauce. Mix it thoroughly and place in the fridge for 1 hour.
• Reduce the soy sauce and cane sugar to half the amount and pour it through a strainer. Set aside. Put the chicken stock to simmer.
• After one hour in the fridge, shape thechicken forcemeat into 8-12 thick sausages. Poach them in the chicken stock until they are almost done, put on skewers and grill until done.
• Brush with the reduced sweet soy sauce and sprinkle with white sesame seeds.
• Dip the Tskune in a raw egg yolk to enhance the flavor and to prevent your tongue from burning.

Let me know in the comments if you try Mads’ recipe and what you think.