Cherries and foie gras
It has been cherry time here in the the sunny SW of France for a few weeks now and I am lucky enough to possess 4 venerable, fully-charged trees in my garden. In this context, Life being a big bowl of cherries comes down to lots of confitures, crumbles, clafoutis, and freezer bags that have been assiduously and unrelentlessly pitted, baked and boiled.
Ultimately the same question that pops up every year pops up now — what else can a foodie do with cherries?
Some years the responses are pretty boring (buckwheat cherry pancakes with cherry compote topping is good but will make no one’s recipe shelf). This year, though, I think I cracked it.
It started on monday lunch when I cooked a cuisse de canard confit for Monique and I, accompanied by a cherry marmelade made with shallots, fresh garlic, and a splash of balsamic. The latter was slow-cooked, deep red and it just displayed harmoniously on the plate with the duck (which, BTW, was made just up the road from me. Definitely one of the nice things about living in the SW of France). Cherry marmalade is now on my recipe shelf.
But the crux was tuesday dinner, cause my dear friends Robin and Meredith and Luc and Agnès were coming, and I wanted to do something special for them, a) as a way of increasing the great enjoyment of passing a few hours together (obviously), but also to thank them for all the great meals that I’ve had at their respective homes.
So monday lunch à deux became tuesday dinner à six thusly:
Cut out 6 discs of Pichard pate feuilleté which I pre-cooked for a few minutes, let cool. Made another batch of cherry marmelade (added a glass of red wine this time). A few minutes before serving, topped the individual pie crusts with the cherries and put in oven. Put the skillet on the gas, and when HOT, added 1 cm slices of raw duck foie gras that I sizzled one minute per side.
Took the cherry marmelade tarts out of oven, onto plates. Posed a few slices of pan-fried foie gras on top of tarts. Drizzled a reduction of cherry juice, foie gras drippings and red wine onto and around each serving.
Et voilà, foie gras poelée on cherry tatin!
PS: I don’t eat like this every night!
PPS: If I weren’t such a wimp, I would have taken photos.
PPPS: It was delicious 
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