Tour de France '20 - Stage 8: Cazères to Loudenvielle
Today we find ourselves in France's basement. Much like experiencing a cellar as a child, it's dark, smelly and sometimes scary. To celebrate Gascony, home to fatty meats and intense cheeses, I threw together a nice charcuterie board while facing my own fear: I made my own pâte of duck's liver and heart. Thanks to the guidance of "Grandpa Jacques" (as my girls and I call him), there is much to be celebrated and little to fear with this delicious spreadable treat!
Never having made pâté before, I started this dish based upon the Duck Liver Pâté recipe from Essential Pepin. Not able to find duck livers sold separately, I bought myself a nice roasting duck, as I would need it for another meal down-the-road, and figured I’d use the liver that comes with the bird. I bought a roughly 5-pounder which matched with the recipe of a liver from a ~5 lb duck. However, I soon found out that the liver weight was nowhere near the weight that was listed in the recipe, like not even half the weight, lol. What was I going to do?! Well, the duck also came with the heart and something else, but what was it exactly?
My quick-thinking fiancé ran to the other room and procured the squishy human body kit that Santa had brought the girls for Christmas last year and we started comparing parts. The best we could determine was that it was probably the lungs. I smelled the two and decided to chuck the lungs and use the heart along with the liver and that got us to half the desired weight. I wasn’t going to bastardize this pâté with chicken livers, so I went along halving the recipe which is how I’ve adapted the original, with some other things I learned along the way, below. I highly recommend D’Artagnan products. They even liked a couple of my posts on Instagram which is pretty cool for this newbie.
Duck Offal Pâté
Adapted from Essential Pepin, Jacques Pepin
1.5 oz rendered duck fat
Shallot
Duck liver and heart (approximately 1.5 oz.)
Herbs de Provence
Garlic
Cognac
Quarter the liver and heart, removing any sinew and mince a garlic clove. Melt the rendered duck fat in a small sauté pan over medium-high heat. Stir in minced shallot and cook for about 30 seconds. Add in the offal, garlic, and a heavy pinch of dried herbs de Provence, and some salt and pepper, stirring and cooking for about 90 seconds.
Add in ¾ tsp cognac, stirring constantly for 10 -15 seconds. Transfer everything to a mini-food processor and blend until smooth. You may need to mince the mixture afterward by hand and smashing/smearing against a plastic cutting board (like making a garlic paste) reaching your desired consistency.
Place in a small bowl, let it come to room temp, stir, and refrigerate for about 30 mins to chill (you can leave it in the fridge, covered, for a few days). Serve with sliced baguette.
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Copyright 2020, Brendan McCann, All Rights Reserved.
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