The Foie Fest Chronicle
Sunday, July 29th, 2007 11:34 amIt all started last November or so, when ![[profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
bzdchrisand busman1994decided to purchase 4(!) pounds of frozen foie gras from D'Artangan because it was on sale. Once faced with the 4 lbs of excess in hand, it became clear that a steady diet of seared foie gras atop everything would soon lose its lustre, so bzdchris decided the best way to handle the "problem" would be to plan a dinner party that featured the beloved foie in every course. Several months of planning and recipe gathering later, we finally celebrated Foie Fest last night in our lovely backyard dining room.
bzdchris and busman1994arrived around noon to finish their prep, and I was in the middle of prep for my course, which was planned to be 4th. I still have trouble with the digital oven timer though, and somehow didn't get it set. When I realized this, I panicked and started looking in the oven every 5 minutes. Finally, after all 4 of us conferred, we decided the flans were finished, and removed them to cool until the appointed time. They were nicely set and a beautiful golden color.
Around 4, our sommelier arrived, bearing gallons of water, ice and the ingredients for a campari fruit punch, which was tart like a pink grapefruit - yum. We all started in with our first drinks of the day (not counting the half of an organic beer I'd had with lunch). One of our party of eight had to drop out, but when all 7 of us were finally gathered, we were delighted to find the outdoor temp had suddenly dropped perfectly into the realm of comfortable.
Under a canvas gazebo and against a backdrop of white lace, green linen, crystal glasses and pink roses, we began. First, we toasted the ducks who gave their lives for our decadent repast, then we toasted all fowl, everywhere.
Hors d'oevres were an artichoke-caper spread and roasted heads of garlic to spread on fire-toasted french bread rounds. The sparkly Cristalino Brut put us all in a festive mood.
Next up was a miniaturized version of nicoise salad with fois gras "cracklins." The red potatoes were the tiniest I've seen, there were fresh green beans and baby beets cooked and sliced. Instead of croutons, we had tiny cubes of pan seared foie gras scattered amongst the greens. The whole dish was lightly dressed with a dijon-champagne vinaigrette flavored with tarragon. Delicious! More sparkly Cristalino was poured.
The pasta course cosisted of foie gras and white bean ravioli, presented with pesto and cherry tomatoes. Two large, hand-made ravioli were filled with a puddle of white bean puree and slivers of foie gras and a flat parsley leaf. The pesto drizzle was nearly chunky and the tomatoes were obviously vine-ripened. We finished the open bottle of Cristalino.
Finally, it was my turn to serve. The truffle flavored foie gras flan on a bed of wild mushroom fricassee looked and sounded wonderful in the Foie Gras: A Passion cookbook, but the recipe wasn't written for people who don't cook with amazing ingredients every day. My earlier confusion with the oven timer resulted in only half-cooked flans. Thank goddess there was an extra, so that when I turned it out onto the plate and saw half the custard slosh over the sides, I still had enough servings to rescue. Back in the oven they went.bzdchriswas gracious enough to move the next course up so our guests wouldn't be twiddling their thumbs waiting for the flan. The mushroom fricassee went back in a bowl to stay warm, we rinsed the plates and turned our attention to the Tournedos Rossini.
Tournedos Rossini is ta traditional presentation of tenderloin served with seared foie gras and port wine sauce.bzdchristoasted slices of semolina bread as the base, layered them with rare tenderloin slices and the seared foie. The port wine sauce was painted artfully over the plate by busman1994. They served a 2005 beaujolais that paired nicely. We all took great delight in making sure we tried every combination of foie, tenderloin and bread available during this course.
Back to the flan! I pulled them out of the oven after determining that a knife stuck between the side of the ramekin and the edge of the flan no longer resulted in pure cream welling up. They were also puffed up, pulled away from the sides and quite dark brown on top. I started plating the mushroom fricasse again, whenbzdchrislooked at me and said "oh no! I forgot the palate cleanser!" Okay, my flans were supposed to sit for 15 minutes anyway, after they came out, so I dumped the mushrooms back in the bowl, laughing hysterically by this point, since I now had to wash my plates again, and we still hadn't eaten any flan.
The palate cleanser of Ambrosius blood orange sorbet was so intense! YU-UM. Seriously.
Back to the kitchen with me and the flans. Withbarley52and the sommelier's help, I managed to unmold them finally. They were still slightly runny, so that a puddle of custard developed on the plates, and we had to scrape the bottoms of the ramekins out onto the tops because that was where all the minced truffle and cracked black pepper had settled. Once the ramekins were empty, barley52created a ring of mushrooms around each flan and garnished each with a sprig of fresh sage. The sommelier poured our Luzon Jumilla and we finally, finally got to business. Oh. My. God. The flan was some kind of silken foie and truffled heaven! Seriously - I was so full already, but this was fantastic. I felt it was at this point in the evening, maybe a little too large of a serving (even though I'd used only 3/4 cup ramekins), but no plate went unlicked. If someone was incapable of finishing theirs, another was there to volunteer. "I now know that clouds are not made of ice water, they are made of truffled foie gras flan" was the best quote of the course.
Time for another palate cleanser: peach sorbet served with fresh peach slices. So light and lovely. So refreshing. So thankfully tiny. LOL
The final frontier, the savory dessert was served. Foie gras-onion-leek-apple streudel with toasted almonds and caramel-madeira sauce. The phylo sheets had been brushed with rendered duck fat during the layering, and then sauteed onions, leeks and apples were the stuffing with small cubes of foie gras sprinkled along the length before rolling up and baking. The streudel was crispy and warm, and so so so fantastic! The caramel was just enough sweet counterpoint to the savory. Even better, the wine was a Viu Manent Late Harvest Semillon. It was deeply sweet and perfect for dessert.
Finally, amongst groans and mmmmgasms, home made chocolate truffles flavored with cointreau, amaretto or chili and marzipan fruit were savored with a final bottle of Cristalino. ::sigh::
When it was all said and done, we'd run the dishwasher 4 times in the course of 11 hours! A personal best, I think. Also, we used the crystal glasses, the old-fashioneds, the water glasses, the red wine goblets and the white wine glasses. The table was a riot of glass sparkling in the candlelight by the end of the night. Hopefully soon, I'll be able to link to the pics taken bydrstarbuckand mc_beth
Can you believe we were all in bed by 11:30 pm?! I am so glad we started early.
bzdchrisand busman1994decided to purchase 4(!) pounds of frozen foie gras from D'Artangan because it was on sale. Once faced with the 4 lbs of excess in hand, it became clear that a steady diet of seared foie gras atop everything would soon lose its lustre, so bzdchris decided the best way to handle the "problem" would be to plan a dinner party that featured the beloved foie in every course. Several months of planning and recipe gathering later, we finally celebrated Foie Fest last night in our lovely backyard dining room.bzdchris and busman1994arrived around noon to finish their prep, and I was in the middle of prep for my course, which was planned to be 4th. I still have trouble with the digital oven timer though, and somehow didn't get it set. When I realized this, I panicked and started looking in the oven every 5 minutes. Finally, after all 4 of us conferred, we decided the flans were finished, and removed them to cool until the appointed time. They were nicely set and a beautiful golden color.Around 4, our sommelier arrived, bearing gallons of water, ice and the ingredients for a campari fruit punch, which was tart like a pink grapefruit - yum. We all started in with our first drinks of the day (not counting the half of an organic beer I'd had with lunch). One of our party of eight had to drop out, but when all 7 of us were finally gathered, we were delighted to find the outdoor temp had suddenly dropped perfectly into the realm of comfortable.
Under a canvas gazebo and against a backdrop of white lace, green linen, crystal glasses and pink roses, we began. First, we toasted the ducks who gave their lives for our decadent repast, then we toasted all fowl, everywhere.
Hors d'oevres were an artichoke-caper spread and roasted heads of garlic to spread on fire-toasted french bread rounds. The sparkly Cristalino Brut put us all in a festive mood.
Next up was a miniaturized version of nicoise salad with fois gras "cracklins." The red potatoes were the tiniest I've seen, there were fresh green beans and baby beets cooked and sliced. Instead of croutons, we had tiny cubes of pan seared foie gras scattered amongst the greens. The whole dish was lightly dressed with a dijon-champagne vinaigrette flavored with tarragon. Delicious! More sparkly Cristalino was poured.
The pasta course cosisted of foie gras and white bean ravioli, presented with pesto and cherry tomatoes. Two large, hand-made ravioli were filled with a puddle of white bean puree and slivers of foie gras and a flat parsley leaf. The pesto drizzle was nearly chunky and the tomatoes were obviously vine-ripened. We finished the open bottle of Cristalino.
Finally, it was my turn to serve. The truffle flavored foie gras flan on a bed of wild mushroom fricassee looked and sounded wonderful in the Foie Gras: A Passion cookbook, but the recipe wasn't written for people who don't cook with amazing ingredients every day. My earlier confusion with the oven timer resulted in only half-cooked flans. Thank goddess there was an extra, so that when I turned it out onto the plate and saw half the custard slosh over the sides, I still had enough servings to rescue. Back in the oven they went.
bzdchriswas gracious enough to move the next course up so our guests wouldn't be twiddling their thumbs waiting for the flan. The mushroom fricassee went back in a bowl to stay warm, we rinsed the plates and turned our attention to the Tournedos Rossini.Tournedos Rossini is ta traditional presentation of tenderloin served with seared foie gras and port wine sauce.
bzdchristoasted slices of semolina bread as the base, layered them with rare tenderloin slices and the seared foie. The port wine sauce was painted artfully over the plate by busman1994. They served a 2005 beaujolais that paired nicely. We all took great delight in making sure we tried every combination of foie, tenderloin and bread available during this course.Back to the flan! I pulled them out of the oven after determining that a knife stuck between the side of the ramekin and the edge of the flan no longer resulted in pure cream welling up. They were also puffed up, pulled away from the sides and quite dark brown on top. I started plating the mushroom fricasse again, when
bzdchrislooked at me and said "oh no! I forgot the palate cleanser!" Okay, my flans were supposed to sit for 15 minutes anyway, after they came out, so I dumped the mushrooms back in the bowl, laughing hysterically by this point, since I now had to wash my plates again, and we still hadn't eaten any flan.The palate cleanser of Ambrosius blood orange sorbet was so intense! YU-UM. Seriously.
Back to the kitchen with me and the flans. With
barley52and the sommelier's help, I managed to unmold them finally. They were still slightly runny, so that a puddle of custard developed on the plates, and we had to scrape the bottoms of the ramekins out onto the tops because that was where all the minced truffle and cracked black pepper had settled. Once the ramekins were empty, barley52created a ring of mushrooms around each flan and garnished each with a sprig of fresh sage. The sommelier poured our Luzon Jumilla and we finally, finally got to business. Oh. My. God. The flan was some kind of silken foie and truffled heaven! Seriously - I was so full already, but this was fantastic. I felt it was at this point in the evening, maybe a little too large of a serving (even though I'd used only 3/4 cup ramekins), but no plate went unlicked. If someone was incapable of finishing theirs, another was there to volunteer. "I now know that clouds are not made of ice water, they are made of truffled foie gras flan" was the best quote of the course.Time for another palate cleanser: peach sorbet served with fresh peach slices. So light and lovely. So refreshing. So thankfully tiny. LOL
The final frontier, the savory dessert was served. Foie gras-onion-leek-apple streudel with toasted almonds and caramel-madeira sauce. The phylo sheets had been brushed with rendered duck fat during the layering, and then sauteed onions, leeks and apples were the stuffing with small cubes of foie gras sprinkled along the length before rolling up and baking. The streudel was crispy and warm, and so so so fantastic! The caramel was just enough sweet counterpoint to the savory. Even better, the wine was a Viu Manent Late Harvest Semillon. It was deeply sweet and perfect for dessert.
Finally, amongst groans and mmmmgasms, home made chocolate truffles flavored with cointreau, amaretto or chili and marzipan fruit were savored with a final bottle of Cristalino. ::sigh::
When it was all said and done, we'd run the dishwasher 4 times in the course of 11 hours! A personal best, I think. Also, we used the crystal glasses, the old-fashioneds, the water glasses, the red wine goblets and the white wine glasses. The table was a riot of glass sparkling in the candlelight by the end of the night. Hopefully soon, I'll be able to link to the pics taken by
drstarbuckand mc_bethCan you believe we were all in bed by 11:30 pm?! I am so glad we started early.
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