 |
| Dish as in the book |
I've had mixed experiences with foie gras. Having found out what it was and wondering why chef's prize it so much when its literally 90% grease I had to try it for myself, the first time I had it in a terrine with black truffle and minced pork at a specialist duck foie gras restaurant in Paris which was delicious and fresh and not a one bit greasy.
In the same trip I had it cooked with caramelised apples and thought less of it, very greasy and a strange texture. So given that this recipe requires the foie to be pan fried I was a little edgy about it all, especially given that I have never cooked fresh foie gras at home before.
 |
| Mis-en-place |
I managed to get hold of a grade A foie gras at Allen's of Mayfair while down in London for a very fair price than the astronomical quotes from some specialist websites. Accompanying the foie gras in the recipe are lentil's cooked with thyme, mirepoix, garlic and butter finished with sautéed cep's and a sherry vinegar-infused Madeira sauce.
 |
| Whole duck foie gras |
To begin with I started with the sauce, preparing shallots, cep's, morels, garlic, thyme and a bay leaf to be sizzled in a dash of oil until caramelised and acting as a free air freshener for your kitchen. Additions of sherry vinegar,cognac, madeira, chicken and veal stocks and then water combined with 20 minutes reducing time gives you a complex sauce with deep flavour.
Next up were the lentils, not my favourite ingredient I must say, bringing back memories of horrible soups and stews that elderly relatives would rustle up normally in the middle of summer. The lentils are simply cooked with thyme, garlic and bay leaf in water for 25 minutes, drained and then a fried mirepoix (carrots, shallot, celery) is mixed into the lentils, be generous with the seasoning as mine were quite bland.
 |
| Mirepoix |
 |
| Lentils |
One thing to watch out for with foie gras is the interconnecting vein network within the liver itself, when chef's slice through foie you just think its going to be solid, right? Wrong! The liver took every opportunity to melt and change shape whilst being gently prised open to take out the veins. After patching it back up together and slicing two escalope's, we were ready to fry.
Gordon Ramsay does an excellent tutorial on Youtube, showing a young commis how to set the foie gras in the hot pan, colour one side, remove from the heat and glaze the back of the liver and then turn it over before placing in the oven. I went with this technique finishing by placing the liver on a butter paper in a red hot oven for around 4 minutes.
 |
| Foie Gras escalope's |
After sauteeing the mushrooms with a little shallot and butter finely diced with the foie gras resting in the pan I moved onto finishing the sauce, pretty tricky when you've got three different elements to keep warm and you're concentrating on how much cream to put in the sauce whilst checking the acidity.
So time to plate up and everything came together in the end quite nicely with the foie gras sitting on a bed of the lentils and the mushrooms with the sauce laid around the outside.
 |
| The final plate |
Was it worth the effort? I was a little underwhelmed, the foie was good, crispy, smooth and well seasoned however some of the larger parts were slightly undercooked. The lentils were slightly undercooked, pot luck really as the lentil's I had tried when tasting had been well cooked. The sauce as per usual was delicious as practically every sauce in the book so far has been.
Would I make it again? Possibly but by paying more attention to the cooking times, the flavours are bold within the sauce but perhaps by adding smoked pancetta it would boost the lentils.
No comments:
Post a Comment