Delicious Foie Gras Treat

Foie gras fried in butter and served on a bed of flambéed apple rosette, surrounded with curly endive salad and seasoned with a veal stock flavored with Medeira and Calvados, this not you typical healthy recipe by Chef Johann Lafer of the famous Johann Lafers Stromburg is a delightful appetizer that will please the most sophisticated of palates. The rich and creamy foie gras is browned to perfection and perfectly complemented by the sweet and tart apples. The refreshingly crisp salad cuts into the richness of the foie gras and the veal stock with Calvados and Medeira adds an exquisitely savory element.

Foie gras is quite a delicate ingredient and should be cooked perfectly or the perfect texture will be ruined. The best way to cook foie gras is quickly on high heat just like searing steaks. The foir gras is seared on both sides, flipping only once and cooking each side just until the exterior turns a beautiful golden brown color. This gives the foir gras a subtle crunch while keeping the interior soft and melt-in-your-mouth decadent. Now the only thing to think about is choosing the right wine for this dish.

The presentation of this dish and the way the ingredients are arranged on the plate is a very important component for the full gustatory enjoyment of your guests. The thinly sliced apples are arranged like a rose blooming, also known as a rosette. For best results, the apples should be sliced the same size and thinness so that it looks impeccable when arranged. Layer them gently one over the other like a fan that opens into a full circle.

Make the veal stock ahead of time using veal bones and meat or carcass. For a flavorful stock, simmer the bones overnight or half of the day and diligently skim off the foam from time to time. Never let the stock boil to concentrate the flavors and use a heavy bottomed and thick saucepan or Dutch oven.

Ingredients

2 apples

1 ½ tablespoons butter

1 tablespoon sugar

1 tablespoon cane sugar

4 slices foie gras (goose liver, 2 to 2 1/2 oz. each)

walnut oil

1 tablespoon veal fond with Madere Calvados apple brandy

½ lb. salad (rucola, roquette or curly endive)

grilled pine nuts

olive oil

white balsamic vinegar

1. Peel then slice apple thinly. Melt some butter in a frying pan and gently heat the apples. Sprinkle some brown sugar. Add a few drops of calvados. Using a kitchen blowtorch, glaze the sugar over the apples. Set aside when cooked.

2. In a separate pan, fry two slices of foie gras in butter. When done, place on some paper napkins to remove excess oil.

3. Heat up the veal stock with Medeira and add some calvados.

4. Arrange the apple rosette on a serving plate. Surround the rosette with a few leaves of curly endive salad to decorate. Sprinkle the leaves with fine nuts, Greek olive oil, and white Balsamic vinegar. Arrange the foie gras on top of the dish. Pour some heated veal stock. As a final touch, sprinkle some veal stock around about the edges of the serving plate.

Caramel French Toast

Pain Perdu, which translates to “lost bread,” is the traditional French version of the American “French Toast.” It is an age-old technique for making use of leftover or stale bread by dipping them in a creamy mixture of milk and eggs and frying them in clarified butter. This recipe has a richer batter than the regular French toast or snack recipes similar. When cooked, the result is a custard-like texture in the interior and a crispy golden coating. The addition of caramel sauce adds mouthwatering sweetness that kids will love. Pain Perdu with Caramel-Benjamin is almost like dessert for breakfast. It is an easy recipe that is fun to do and as Chef Clement Bruno demonstrates here, kids can make this dish or assist you for a lovely way to start the morning.

Chef Bruno uses stale French bread for this recipe. You can also use day-old Italian bread or leftover brioche but not sourdough. Stale bread soaks up more of the milk-egg mixture without crumbling or falling apart, which fresh bread tend to do. Before frying the soaked bread, make sure that the butter in the skillet is sizzling hot to get a crispy outer crust.

This recipe makes use of the simplest of ingredients to make the batter: milk, eggs, sugar, and a pinch of salt. The thick slices of day-old bread are dipped on the batter generously covering both sides. Large amounts of butter are used to fry the dipped bread thoroughly. Other versions of Pain perdu add cinnamon or vanilla or both to the batter for more flavors. Others also like to top their pain perdu with fruits, honey, jam, Vegemite, apple sauce, whipped cream, maple syrup, powdered sugar, yogurt, marmalade, cheese, chocolate, or marmalade. Like pancakes or waffle syrup, it can also be served with bacon, beans, or sausages.

Ingredients

Waffle dough:

½ lb. flour

1.8 oz. sugar

1 ½ tablespoons baking soda

2.8 oz. butter

salt

4 egg yolks

4 egg whites

0.77 lbs. milk

Light cream:

1 cup cream

powdered sugar

vanilla

Apples:

5 apples, Calvados apple brandy

3.5 oz. butter

1.8 oz. sugar

water

Chocolate sorbet:

270 dark chocolate chips

3 1/2 oz. cocoa

2 pints water

1/2 lb. sugar

Chestnut syrup:

1/2 lb. water

½ lb. sugar

1 lb. chestnuts

vanilla

1. Make the batter by mixing the beaten eggs, milk, sugar and a pinch of salt and vanilla. Place in a shallow dish.

2. Slice the day old French bread into thick slices. Dip the slices on the batter, making sure that both sides are well covered. Don’t soak them in the batter too long and dip only two or three at a time, cooking them immediately after dipping. Place soaked slices on a clean dish.

3. Heat the saucepan and melt a generous amount of butter. Fry the bread slices until crispy and golden brown.

4. To make the caramel, heat sugar in a pan on very low heat. Keep stirring with a whisk until the sugar dissolves into a liquid.  As the liquid boils, stop stirring and swirl the pan to dissolve any remaining granules. When all crystals have melted, add the butter and whisk until the butter melts.  Turn the heat off and after about three seconds, add the cream in the pan and whisk vigorously until it foams and incorporates and becomes a smooth caramel. Allow to cool and store in a jar.

5. Arrange on a plate and pour caramel sauce over the bread. Serve and enjoy!

Delicious Escargot

Snails are cooked in stock and dry white wine and seasoned with butter, parsley, garlic and shallots in this uniquely French treat also known as Escargot. Considered a luxury food since the Roman times, snails were a common feature in Roman cuisine. A specialty in French gastronomy, escargot is often featured in the menu of fine-dining French restaurants around the world and some people even made this as one of their favorite gourmet foods.

Live snails need to be purged and prepared for several days before they can be cooked safely. Snails sold in the market or grocery is usually already purged. Canned snails are also available and are sold in various sizes. Typically a small size consists of four-dozen small snails, a medium size contains three-dozen medium snails, and a large pack contains two-dozen large snails. Canned snails are already cooked in a court bouillon consisting of water, salt and spices. The snails are soaked in the cooking water and packed along with the liquid. You can also use canned snails to make this recipe. Make sure to drain the snails thoroughly and rinse under cold running water to get the saltiness out of the snails. You don’t have to cook the snails until they are tender. Simply heat them in the butter and flavor them with the wine and veal fond. Cover them in the parsley butter sauce and serve with a bottle of wine.

If you are using land snails from your garden, make sure that they are the edible variety. The most commonly eaten species of snails in France are Helix pomatia and Helix aspersa (petit-gris), and Helix lucorum. Before cooking the land snails, place them in a wooden box and purge them for several days. The live snails are forced to fast so that harmful toxins they might have ingested will go out of their body. You can also put them on a diet of cornmeal. Wash the snails well with running water before cooking.

Ingredients

For the Snail Butter:

28 tablespoons softened butter

2 tablespoons minced parsley

1 ½ tablespoons chopped shallots

1 ¾ tablespoons chopped garlic

3 teaspoons salt, pepper

6 dozen snails

3 ½ tablespoons butter

¾ cup wine (Sylvaner)

3/4 cup veal fond (stock)

salt, pepper

1. Combine softened butter, minced parsley, chopped shallots, and chopped garlic, mixing well until you get a smooth and even paste. Season with salt and pepper and set aside.

2. Prepare and clean the snails well then carefully remove them from their shells. Set the meat and the shells aside.

3. In a saucepan, melt the butter. Add the snails and sauté them until tender. Add wine and veal fond. Add salt and pepper. Simmer for 5 minutes.

4. With a slotted spoon, separate the snails from the sauce and put them back in their shells, along with some of fluid used to cook them. Season the shells with the snail butter mixture.

5. Place the buttered snails on a baking dish and cook in a 356 degrees F. oven for about 10 minutes. Serve warm.