Everyone has probably heard about the chic dish of French cuisine foie gras. Although not everyone has had a chance to try it. So what is foie gras? Foie gras is a fatty liver: this is how fois gras is translated from French. In other words, foie gras is goose liver made from goose fed in a special way.

First of all, foie gras refers to goose liver cooked in a special way. However, modern craftsmen have learned to cook foie gras from both duck liver and quail liver, and even from pork and beef liver, which are more familiar to us.

The history of foie gras is quite long and interesting. In fact, the French delicacy - foie gras - has quite Egyptian roots. The ancient Egyptians were generally distinguished by their special intelligence and observation - they already noticed almost 5 thousand years ago that at the end of winter the geese preparing for the flight to their homeland eat well and accumulate the most tender and delicious fat in the liver area.

The adherence to goose liver delicacy from the Egyptians was adopted by the next progressive people - the Romans, one of whose legends even, as you know, says that geese saved Rome from a fire. However, the main, main secret of foie gras lies not so much in the fact that this dish is prepared from goose liver, but in the fact that not every goose's liver is suitable for making foie gras according to all the rules of the recipe.

It is important that the goose is also properly fed with the right food! There are two versions of what the goose's diet should consist of, whose liver should become the signature dish on the table. So, according to one version, the goose must be fattened with figs and barley flour, and according to another version, with walnuts and flour.

How to cook foie gras? Foie Gras Recipe #1

In the Middle Ages in France, the fashion for foie gras surged with renewed vigor and continues to this day. The recipe for foie gras from the French chef Jean-Pierrot Kloz is as follows: you need to stew goose liver with salt and spices in the juice of goose fat. Another recipe for cooking foie gras from the Jew Michel Levy is that fatty goose liver is stewed in a frying pan in honey and milk, then it is taken out and carefully cut with a warm or even hot knife into slices 1 cm thick, after which it is eaten with tender, fresh white bread without impurities.

How to cook foie gras? Foie Gras Recipe No. 2

There is another recipe for how to cook foie gras: for this, goose liver is stuffed (filled) with goose fat and good minced beef, plus a delicacy mushroom - truffle is added inside the liver, this is all fried in the most accurate way, stewed in goose fat, cooled, sliced ​​languidly and served as a separate dish or as sandwiches on white, tender bread.

How to cook foie gras? Foie Gras Recipe No. 3

The easiest and most delicious way to cook foie gras is when the cook takes fresh goose (in extreme cases - duck) liver, salts it and peppers it with his favorite spices very delicately, drowns goose fat in a pan and fries goose liver in it, which then served in the middle of the plate with various sauces, berries and citrus fruits, fruits.

Foie gras is canned and pickled, and what is not done with it!

How to cook foie gras? Foie Gras Recipe No. 4

Here is the recipe for making foie gras in wine. It is necessary to buy foie gras from suppliers - it is best from Perigord or Picard, defrost goose liver, put it in warm water for 10 minutes so that our foie gras does not crumble, remove all ducts, salt and pepper with white or black pepper, put it in earthenware or other suitable dishes with thick walls 15-20 cm long liver, crush the foie gras well so that it “fits” tightly into the mold (this is very important! so that the foie gras fits snugly to the edges), and pour strong, favorite alcoholic drinks - best of all a mixture of Armagnac or cognac with fortified wine - port or banyuls. Also, foie gras can be poured with cognac with truffles, nutmeg, and anything else - in general, your favorite drink.

All this is a miracle for 24 hours - leave for a day so that the liver marinates, and then into the oven - cook in a water bath, and cover the surface of the foie gras tightly with foil. Served with warmed bread or toast.

How to cook foie gras? Foie Gras Recipe No. 5

At home, you can cook goose liver simply by throwing its chopped pieces into a hot frying pan with the addition of grapes - it cooks almost instantly. Gourmets like to pour over foie gras with fig jam or eat it with vanilla sauce. Delicious foie gras is obtained if it is baked in foil - you will lick your fingers!

How to cook foie gras? Foie Gras Recipe No. 6

A personally verified recipe for making foie gras is as follows. We take absolutely fresh foie gras, that is, goose fatty liver, 500-600 grams, 30-50 grams of port, a little salt, white pepper, baking foil. First, carefully remove all nerves, bile ducts from foie gras, coat the result with salt and pepper, pour port wine and determine in the refrigerator for 30-60 minutes.

Then we wrap the foie gras soaked in port wine and spices in foil, pierce it in several places and place it in a preheated oven (170-190 degrees). It is very important to calculate the time correctly and not to overexpose the liver in the oven. Fat will flow out through the pierced slots into the bowl in which the foil with foie gras lies, and at the above degrees of 500-600 grams, foie gras will cook for about 30 minutes. If possible, focus on the foie gras baking time indicated on product label.

You can look forward to the next time. First, before placing the foie gras in the oven, it must be heated for 5 minutes at 160 degrees. Cooking in the oven 500-700 grams of foie gras at 160 degrees will take 30 or 40 minutes, depending on what degree of doneness, readiness of foie gras you need.

It is impossible to taste foie gras during cooking, because it is useless: cold and hot foie gras are two different differences. And once you've taken the foie gras out of the oven, there's no going back. If goose fat gets into the foil or into the form with foie gras, it must be carefully drained. Next, the foie gras should cool down (do not open the foil!) And it is placed in the refrigerator, where, according to the recipe, it needs to “lie down” for 2 days (or you can do without “bedding”), and then it can already be used in all forms and with any side dishes and sauces.

How to cook foie gras? Foie Gras Recipe No. 7

In principle, foie gras is also prepared in a water bath. Only foie gras is initially placed not in foil, but in a saucepan, where it is covered tightly with foil on top, and then the saucepan is then placed in a slightly larger saucepan in which water is poured.

How to cook foie gras? Foie Gras Recipe No. 8

You can also cook foie gras in a peasant way: a frying pan (!) Is sprinkled with coarse salt (but not much!) And freshly ground black pepper, warmed up - foie gras is placed in it, to which a little sherry and balsamic vinegar are added.

How to cook foie gras? Foie Gras Recipe No. 9

Foie gras is also good, cut into 1 cm thick slices and fried almost without fat in a hot frying pan so that it has a crust on both sides, and tenderness itself inside. It goes well with a pickled pear or fresh melon. Delicious foie gras is obtained by combining goose liver with bacon.

How to cook foie gras? Foie Gras Recipe No. 10

Frozen foie gras can be prepared quite quickly and tasty simply by laying it out on a clean towel and sprinkling well with coarse salt and ground pepper. A towel with foie gras is wrapped and placed for a day in the lower, warmest compartment of the refrigerator with vegetables. Then the salt is scraped off and the foie gras is eaten with onion, raspberry or fig jam. Heat treatment is not required in this case!!!

The uniqueness of foie gras lies not only in the fact that this dish is very healthy due to its nutritional value, and not only in the fact that the choice of true gourmets invariably falls on foie gras. The strength of foie gras lies in the fact that this dish can be adapted to any cuisine of the world and combined with almost any product - with kiwi and pineapple, orange and pear, cherry and cranberry, fig and dried apricots, Jerusalem artichoke and dates, plum and raspberry, apple and bread, white and red wine, champagne and port wine, sauerkraut and even... with ice cream!

In the process of preparing foie gras, it is very important to carefully get rid of all vessels, bile ducts and nerves so that the goose liver itself does not lose its presentation and integrity.

Foie gras dishes are served both cold and hot, and even raw - embalmed with balsamic vinegar and flower salt! For cooking hot dishes, according to professional chefs, goose liver from Chaloss is more suitable, and for cold dishes - from Perigord.

Foie gras is at the highest esteem among people in autumn and winter, when it is cold outside, but the stomach is hungry and you want something tasty and satisfying. In order to taste the perfect foie gras prepared exactly according to the recipe, of course, you need to go to France, because in Kiev and Moscow restaurants most often serve foie gras made from duck liver.

You can buy foie gras in an ordinary food supermarket, however, one must be aware that it will most likely be made from duck liver, and secondly, it is unlikely to compare with the real, authentic delicate taste of foie gras.

Foie gras is a fatty and “heavy” dish for the liver, so light, vegetable side dishes, mushrooms and sweet and sour sauces should be served with it.

For reference: in France, in deli supermarkets, 1 kg of ready-made foie gras costs from 70 to 500 US dollars, and in restaurants, one tiny portion of foie gras costs from 25 euros per dish. But without foie gras, the French cannot imagine New Year and Christmas - they have the same family-national dish as we have red caviar. A "correct" foie gras weighs exactly 600-700 grams (and a normal goose liver - 700-900 grams), and well-cooked foie gras will never leave the eater with a feeling of heaviness in the stomach or fat.