Nothing Says Friday Night Like Chicken Stock

Thank God for the Discovery Channel, which has recently brought us up to speed on the Netherlands' long and storied history of engineering genius.  This newfound knowledge should come in handy the next time we're at a Dutch cocktail party.

Oddly, the Discovery Channel didn't highlight a Dutch invention just as revolutionary as the windmill or the sea wall: de ijsblok zakje.  Instead, we were left to discover it on our own at our neighborhood mega-mart, Albert Heijn XL.

Last week, we had a very nesty moment  in which we used our luxury hotplate to make a pot of chicken stock.  Our plan was to freeze the stock in ice cube trays, just like we do at home, and then use it a cube or two at a time in later cooking.  

But, as we discovered after making a giant pot of stock, ice cube trays are a rare commodity in the Netherlands.  I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that this is related to the fact that our freezer is roughly the same size as our Dutch-English dictionary. 

After a fruitless search for trays, John wandered into the saran wrap section of Albert Heijn and stumbled upon the ijsblok zakje.  As it turns out, one pours water (or in our case, chicken stock) into a long, segmented plastic baggie, ties it at the top, and lays it flat in the freezer. 

Four hours later? Lekker ijsbloks.