FOIE GRAS FOLLIES

By CINDA CHAVICH

Foie gras is the kind of luxury food most people only eat occasionally at the finest restaurants. But if you’d like to pass a sliver of house-made duck liver terrine on a bit of baguette at your next party – or just hoard a whole jar of foie gras pate and that bottle of Sauterne yourself – it’s now possible to find a steady supply of all things foie, right here in Calgary.

THE FOOD

On the culinary controversy scale, foie gras is right up there in the red zone. Foie gras – literally “fat liver” – is the enlarged liver of a duck (or sometimes goose), a liver that has reached its big, fatty (and ergo, extremely rich and delicious) state by force-feeding a duck large amounts of grain during the last two weeks of its life.

That said, foie gras is an authentic Canadian artisan food product. It’s been produced this way in France (and now in Quebec) for centuries. It’s something that’s decadent and expensive and not to be scarfed everyday – like caviar, ramps and wild sockeye salmon, foie gras is a delicacy, something special to eat for a special occasion. We need to respect the rarity of the product and use it accordingly.

And to be fair, wild ducks and geese gorge on grain naturally as part of their annual migration ritual, storing fat in their enlarged livers to sustain them for long flights across continents. Which is doubtless how some early French forager first discovered the addictive richness of duck liver for pate. We’ve just discovered a way to replicate the process, and add value to that Moulard duck, on the farm.

Foie gras producers are also duck producers, so companies like Rougie and Palmex (the country’s largest producer of foie gras in Quebec) sell a variety of duck and duck liver products, from whole ducks, to duck breast, duck confit, whole lobes of liver for terrines, smoked duck breast, and foie gras products, from foie gras mousse in jars, slabs and ficelle (convenient little rolls of mousse for slicing into coins), and duck confit.

THE FIND

There are a few places in Calgary to indulge in take-out foie gras.

Dominique Moussu of Teatro – and now L’Epicerie – is a French chef with a penchant for fattened duck liver. Where Moussu grew up in Brittany, nearby farms used the classic “gauvage” method to feed ducks during the last two weeks of their lives to fatten their livers for terrines and decadent seared appetizers. The rest of the duck went to the meat market, as it does today – legs for confit and tender breasts (magret).

That’s exactly what you’ll find Moussu doing with duck in the kitchen at Teatro, and at his L’Epicerie, tucked into the little mall between Bernard Callebaut and Manuel Latruwe Belgian Bakery.

The day I visited, Moussu was rolling the fresh liver into mini-terrines – enough for 6-8 servings – stuffed with his own fig compote, apple and Calvados, or black truffles and speedily steamed to perfection in the pressure cooker.

At $139 per kg these products aren’t cheap, but you’re getting true artisan charcuterie from a master chef. The torchon, rolled and cooked in duck fat, is the housemade foie gras delicacy that Moussu uses in his now-famous foie gras sandwiches - creamy slices with topped with arugula and Fleur de Sel, on his own rustic breads ($14 with hand-cut potato chips).

Bite Groceteria in Inglewood is another hot spot for foie gras lovers, a chic little gourmet grocery that’s built its business on importing foie gras – and whole ducks - from Quebec.

Paul Rogalski, the chef and co-owner of Rouge, was one of her first customers, she says, and foie gras was the big seller.

So now, along with the authentic Italian Torrone, artisan pasta and cheese, Bite Grocerteria dedicates a complete corner (and cooler) to foie gras in its many forms. More than 200 kg of duck arrived the day I was there – that’s a week’s worth of whole ducks, magret, and foie gras for Calgary chefs, and the rest of us. Most of it comes from Quebec – via the big French producer Rougie – and the price ranges from whole ducks ($15/kg) and legs ($24/kg) to the Rougis Foie Gras pate with armagnac ($36/80 g).

The whole big yellow duck liver comes vacuum packed, as it does at L’Epicerie, with a price tag of about $90-$125/kg, ready for you to bake or sear at home.

THE FIX

There’s nothing particularly pretty about a coin of creamy foie gras mousse, perched on a piece of toasted baguette, or a lobe of fresh fat, yellow duck liver, but with a sip of sauternes, a dab of ice wine gelee or a bit of port-infused fig paste, the foie gras taste experience is ambrosia. That’s the beauty of foie gras – simply seared and caramelized in its own rich fat, even an unappetizing looking slab of anemic liver is transformed into the kind of appetizer you won’t soon forget. Rich, unctuous, decadence with very little work on behalf of the cook.

You can pick up the pre-cooked torchon, terrine or mousse – or take home the whole lobe of duck liver and start from scratch. You’ll need one or two 1.5-pound livers (about $150 worth) for a classic terrine.

Moussu says it’s important to work with fairly cold foie gras (too warm, and it melts like butter). Each lobe comes apart into two sections (much like a chicken breast) and then you need to use your tongs or tweezers to gently pull out the veins that connect the lobes and reach deep inside the flesh. For a classic terrine, marinate the pieces of liver in sweet wine or cognac, salt and white pepper, for 24 hours in a sealed plastic bag, then pack into a heavy loaf pan, cover with plastic and foil, and bake slowly, in a water bath, at 200F for about 45 minutes until the internal temperature reaches 120F, no more. Lastly, cover with foil, top with a piece of cardboard, and a tin of tomatoes to weigh it down neatly in the fridge. Two or three days later, it’s ready to slice, although under it’s thick layer of duck fat, your terrine will keep for a week.

Unmold and slice with a hot chef’s knife, dipped in boiling water. Serve with toasted bread.

For seared foie gras, just slice the cold, raw foie gras with a hot knife, season with salt and pepper, then sear it quickly in a hot dry pan, and serve warm over a bit of frisee with a dab of rhubarb confit or fig sauce.

Canadian producers of foie gras do feed their ducks a paste of crushed corn and warm water, twice a day, for 14 days, through a tube that fits into the duck’s mouth, but each feeding only lasts three seconds. As chefs like Dominique Moussu say, those who worry about foie gras production methods might ponder the conditions faced by the factory farmed fast food chicken or other of our modern meat animals. Foie gras is graded, he adds, with any product that shows signs of damage losing value, making it important to treat the animals, and their precious livers, with care.

(This article appeared in Avenue Magazine)

©Cinda Chavich 2008

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