This dish is a favorite among gourmets, but for most people it causes rather conflicting feelings. It is tender, melts in the mouth and leaves an unusual aftertaste. What are you talking about? Of course, about a special way cooked goose liver paste. This gastronomic masterpiece from French culinary experts is a traditional Christmas dish and a symbol of luxury. Every self-respecting person should try it at least once in his life. We will tell about the name of goose liver paste, how to cook it and serve it correctly to the table, in our article. Imagine several options for its preparation.
Goose liver pate: what is it called and why?
This dish is unique not only in France, but throughout the world. They prepare it from a goose liver and call it a paste, although the ingredients for it are almost never crushed to a homogeneous state. And there is one simple explanation for this. But first you need to say what is called goose liver paste. And only after that you can begin to prepare it.
In French, the name of the paste is foie gras. In Russian, the dish is called foie gras. Translated, this means "fatty liver." For its preparation, an offal of a goose, fed in a special way, is really used. To make the liver large and fat, the bird is placed in a cage. Then goose is fed forcefully, literally by the hour. This diet leads to an increase in offal in an amount exceeding the normal 10 times.
So why is foie gras still a paste? The fact is that the goose’s fatty liver after heat treatment is so tender that it simply melts in the mouth and, accordingly, does not need additional grinding. Thus, the taste and texture of the finished dish resembles a real paste. It turns out so dense that it is cut into slices, and not spread on bread, as most people are used to.
In addition to the natural goose liver, other ingredients can be added to the paste. But their content should not exceed 50%. In France, this is enshrined in law.
Dish history
Although the foie gras recipe belongs to French cuisine, the technology of forced feeding of geese in order to obtain a more fat and high-quality liver was invented by the ancient Egyptians 4000 years ago. They raised their poultry on figs. Later, the same technology was adopted by Jews, who ate only goose fat, and the liver itself, which was considered non-kosher, was profitably sold. But the Romans, on the contrary, prepared only an offal of geese and ducks. Goose liver pate was one of the most popular dishes of the ancient world.
The first foie gras recipes date back to the 4th-5th centuries. But there is no step-by-step description of the cooking process. But in the French cookbooks, starting from the XVII century, all actions are described in stages. That is why France is considered the birthplace of foie gras.
In French, goose liver paste is called foie gras. It is believed that the word foie, which translates as “liver,” came from the Latin ficatum, which means “figs”. But the ancient Egyptians just fed the geese with figs.
Today, France is considered the leader in the production of goose liver. Hungary, Belgium, Spain, the USA and Poland keep up with the French. And in the Alsace region, special breed birds are grown, the liver of which weighs up to 1.2 kg.
Foie gras with pear: ingredients
To prepare the most famous goose liver dish, you will need the following ingredients:
- goose liver - 500 g;
- pear - 1 pc.;
- cognac - 70 ml;
- butter - 20 g;
- salt - ½ tsp;
- black pepper - ½ tsp;
- sugar - ¼ tsp;
The liver can be used as whole pieces, or as a block, but always raw. Any pears will do. But note that first you need to soak them in cognac, and only after that proceed to the liver.
Step by step cooking
The foie gras recipe includes the following steps:
- Cut the liver lengthwise into plates 0.8-1 cm thick. The slices should not be too thin, since a lot of fat will be released from them during the frying process.
- Salt goose liver plates, add black pepper.
- Put the slices on a dry frying pan heated over medium heat. Neither vegetable nor butter need to be added. The fat in the liver will be enough.
- Fry the slices on each side for exactly 1 minute. Put foie gras on a clean plate. Drain the fat from the pan. It can still be used for cooking other dishes.
Now you can deal with fruit for serving dishes.
Pears in cognac
This stage of foie gras preparation can be divided into steps:
- Peel the pears and cut into 4-6 parts. Pepper them a little, add sugar and cognac. Stir the pears in alcohol and leave for 40-60 minutes at room temperature so that they are marinated.
- In a stewpan with a thick bottom or in a frying pan, melt a piece of butter and fry fruits on it, after draining the juice from them. The fire must be strong so that the pears cook quickly and do not fall apart.
- After a couple of minutes, pour the alcohol into which the fruit was soaked in almost ready fruit. At the same stage, pears are recommended to be flamed. To do this, lower the burning match into cognac. A fire will immediately flare up. If there is little alcohol, it will go out on its own. If after 30 seconds this happens, the stewpan must be covered.
Serve foie gras with cognac pear immediately. To do this, put the liver on a slice of whole grain bread and pour over the remaining juice.
Goose liver terrine
The next dish is a great snack option for the festive table. This is a real delicacy, with a mild exquisite taste and pleasant aroma. Terrine, or baked paste, is both soft and dense in texture. It can be served as an appetizer on crackers or toasts.
Terrin is prepared quite simply:
- Goose liver (1 kg) cut lengthwise into three layers.
- In one container, combine 150 ml of port and 50 ml of cognac.
- Fold all 3 layers of the liver into a 25 cm baking dish. Sprinkle each layer with salt, pepper and nutmeg and pour over a mixture of alcohol.
- Tighten the form with cling film and refrigerate for 5 hours.
- Preheat the oven to a temperature of 150 degrees.
- Prepare a deep pan. Put the terrine mold in it, tightening it with foil or covering it with a lid. Pour enough hot water into the pan so that it reaches the middle of the mold.
- Cook terrine for 20 minutes. Then remove the form from the oven, remove the lid, and put 0.2 kg of oppression on top of the liver.
- Cool the dish first at room temperature, and then in the refrigerator for 12 hours.
The easiest goose liver paste
As a rule, foie gras are not crushed to a homogeneous state. This simply is not necessary, because the liver, which contains so much fat inside, is already so soft that it literally melts in the pan and in the mouth. But if you wish, you can cook a more familiar goose liver paste. How to do it, the following step-by-step instruction will tell:
- Melt the pork fat (100 g) in a pan and fry 3 onions and 2 carrots, chopped in an arbitrary way.
- After 5 minutes, add the goose liver (0.5 kg) to the vegetables, cutting the offal into small pieces. Cook for 10 minutes. At the very end, add 2 tsp. salt, 1 tsp. black pepper and ½ tsp. nutmeg.
- Transfer the liver with vegetables (without fat) into a convenient dish and grind with a submersible blender until smooth.
- Return the paste to the pan, pour 200 ml of milk into it. Dip the dish under the lid for another 5 minutes, then cool and serve.
Duck liver pate
Almost 90% of foie gras are not made from goose liver at all. And all because raising ducks is more economically feasible than geese. Such a dish turns out to be more budgetary, and it is possible for almost every person to cook it. And you need to do this like this:
- Cut duck liver into pieces of 1.5 cm each.
- In a pan with a little olive oil, fry the shallots (4 pcs.) Until golden brown.
- Put onion slices to the onion. Fry them on one side and on the other side for 1 minute. Season with salt, pepper, Provencal herbs to taste.
- Grind the ingredients with a blender until tender, adding 30 ml of cognac if desired. Give the finished paste a beautiful shape, and then cool it in the refrigerator for 2 hours.
How to serve foie gras
This goose liver dish is served with a side dish, or just with bread or a cracker in the form of a sandwich. So that a thick paste can be easily cut into portioned portions, it must be well cooled, and 15 minutes before the start of cooking, get the snacks out of the refrigerator.
When serving, foie gras is cut into thin slices no more than 1 cm thick. To taste, the delicate liver harmonizes well with sweet sauces and red wine.