Foie Gras with Various Sauces and two Sauternes

Epicurean Exploits - Food and Recipes
1

Tonight’s dinner, eaten up on our balcony so we could hear the preparations for tonight’s burning of Zozobra (or Old Man Gloom), was pieces of Foie Gras sautéed in their own rendered fat. The foie gras pieces were served with four sauces - confit of figs in balsamic, fig-walnut butter, shallot confit, and whole figs in syrup. My favorites were the first two; the fig-walnur mix was noticibly sweeter; the balsamic-fig mix was more complex. We started with two small glasses of the Sauternes left over from Wine Geeks which was very good with the foie gras, then finished with a half-bottle of 1997 Chateau d’Yquem - not as distinctive as most Yquems, but quite enjoyable with the foie gras.

Then after the Foie Gras, listening to the chanting and music leading up to the burning, we had truffled popcorn with a lovely 1980 Grgich Hills Cabernet Sauvignon (34% Napa, 66% Sonoma) - cork jaggedly colored from a half inch to over halfway up the cork, fill at the junction between the neck and the body; very nice nose & flavors of cassis and berries; mid-palate of marginally adequate acidity, good fruit, and resolved tannins; with a medium long cassis finish. It was delightful with the popcorn, the only way we drink Cabs these days.

2

Some years ago, to go with a bottle of Essenzia, I made seared foie with a balsamic reduction, lingonberries and fresh grilled figs. I recall that the reduction was just too heavy and caramelly that only accentuated the bitter grill marks on the foie. (I sear in a ridged pan.)

I learned then that lighter is better. I no longer reduce the balsamic into a sauce. I prefer to use Extra-Vecchio alone as a condiment. A few drops are perfect, no matter what else goes on the foie plate.

With sauternes, I like to keep the foie prep lighter and brighter.

3

This time the foie gras was irregular pieces left from a whole foie gras that I had served for one of our ‘Battle’ dinners. It had been frozen since last November; so I cooked it a little more than I normally would. Both wines were more rich fruit than sweet. The two glasses we had of the 1975 Sigalas Rabaud were very good with pieces of the foie gras and any of the ‘sauces’. The 1997 Yquem wasn’t very Yquem-like, but still with rich fruit and good with all but the shallot confit.