What is the name of goose liver pate? Foie gras: cooking recipe

2024 Author: Isabella Gilson | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:14

This dish is a favorite among gourmets, but for most people it causes rather conflicting feelings. It is tender, melts in your mouth and leaves an unusual aftertaste. What are we talking about? Of course, about a specially prepared goose liver pate. This gastronomic masterpiece from French chefs is a traditional Christmas dish and a symbol of luxury. Every self-respecting person should try it at least once in their life. About the name of goose liver pate, how to cook it and serve it properly, we will tell in our article. Let's imagine several options for its preparation at once.

Goose liver pate: what is it called and why?

This dish is unique not only inFrance, but throughout the world. It is prepared from goose liver and is called pate, although the ingredients for it are almost never ground to a homogeneous state. And there is one simple explanation for this. But first you need to say what the goose liver pate is called. And only after that you can start cooking it.

In French, the name of the pâté is foie gras. In Russian, the dish is called "foie gras". Translated, it means "fatty liver." For its preparation, the offal of a goose, fattened in a special way, is really used. To make the liver large and fat, the bird is placed in a cage. Then the goose is forcibly fed, literally by the hour. Such a diet leads to an increase in offal in a size exceeding the normal 10 times.

So why is foie gras still a pâté? The fact is that the fatty goose liver after heat treatment turns out to be 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 pate. It's so thick that it's sliced rather than spread on bread like most people are used to.

In addition to natural goose liver, other ingredients can be added to the pate. But their content should not exceed 50%. In France, this is enshrined at the legislative level.

History of the dish

Although the foie gras recipe refers toFrench cuisine, the technology of forced fattening of geese in order to obtain a more fatty and high-quality liver was invented by the ancient Egyptians 4000 years ago. They raised their poultry on figs. Later, the Jews adopted the same technology from them, who ate only goose fat, and the liver itself, which was considered non-kosher, was sold at a profit. But the Romans, on the contrary, prepared only 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 they do not have a step-by-step description of the cooking process. But in French cookbooks, starting from the 17th century, all actions are described in stages. That is why France is considered the birthplace of foie gras.

French for goose liver pâté is called foie gras. It is believed that the word foie, which translates as "liver", comes from the Latin ficatum, which means "fig". But the ancient Egyptians just fed the geese with figs.

Today, France is considered the leader in the production of goose liver. Do not lag behind the French Hungary, Belgium, Spain, USA and Poland. And in the Alsace region, birds of a special breed are raised, the liver of which weighs up to 1.2 kg.

Pear Foie Gras: Ingredients

To prepare the most famous goose liver dish, you will need the following ingredients:

• goose liver - 500 g;
• pear - 1 piece;
• cognac - 70 ml;
• butter - 20 g;
• s alt - 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 they need to be soaked in cognac, and only after that proceed to the liver.

Step by step cooking

The foie gras recipe includes the following steps:

1. Cut the liver lengthwise into plates 0.8-1 cm thick. The pieces should not be too thin, as a lot of fat will be released from them during the frying process.
2. S alt the goose liver plates, add black pepper.
3. Place the pieces in a dry frying pan heated over medium heat. You don't need to add vegetable oil or butter. The fat in the liver will suffice.
4. Fry the pieces on each side for exactly 1 minute. Transfer the foie gras to a clean plate. Drain the fat from the pan. It can still be used for cooking other dishes.

Now it's time for fruit to serve.

Pears in cognac

This foie gras cooking step can be broken down into steps:

1. Peel the pears and cut into 4-6 pieces. Pepper them a little, add sugar and cognac. Stir the pears in the alcohol and leave for 40-60 minutes at room temperature to marinate.
2. In a saucepan with a thick bottom or in a frying pan, melt a piece of butter and fry the fruit on it, after draining the juice from them. The fire must be strong so that the pears cook quickly and do not fall apart.
3. After a couple of minutes, pour the alcohol in which they were soaked onto the almost ready fruits. At the same stage, it is recommended to flambé the pears. To do this, lower the burning match into cognac. Fire will immediately break out. If there is little alcohol, it will go out on its own. If this happens after 30 seconds, cover the saucepan with a lid.

Serve the foie gras with cognac pear immediately. To do this, you can 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 appetizer for the festive table. This is a real delicacy, with a mild, refined taste and pleasant aroma. Terrine, or baked pâté, is both soft and dense in texture. It can be served as a snack on crackers or toast.

Terrine is easy to prepare:

1. Goose liver (1 kg) cut lengthwise into three layers.
2. In one container, combine 150 ml of port and 50 ml of cognac.
3. Put all 3 layers of liver into a baking dish25 cm long. Sprinkle each layer with s alt, pepper and nutmeg and pour over the alcohol mixture.
4. Tighten the form with cling film and refrigerate for 5 hours.
5. Preheat the oven to 150 degrees.
6. Prepare a deep baking sheet. Put a terrine mold in it, tightening it with foil or covering it with a lid. Pour enough hot water into a baking sheet so that it reaches the middle of the mold.
7. Cook the terrine for 20 minutes. Then take the mold out of the oven, remove the lid, and put a weight of 0.2 kg on top of the liver.
8. Cool the dish first at room temperature and then in the refrigerator for 12 hours.

Easiest goose liver pate

Normally, foie gras is not ground to a smooth consistency. There is simply no need for this, since the liver, containing 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 pate for us. How to make it, the following step-by-step instructions will tell:

1. Melt pork fat (100 g) in a frying pan and fry 3 onions and 2 carrots, chopped in an arbitrary way.
2. After 5 minutes, add the goose liver (0.5 kg) to the vegetables, cutting the offal into small pieces. Cook 10 minutes. At the very end, add 2 tsp. s alt, 1 tsp. black pepper and½ tsp nutmeg.
3. Pour the liver with vegetables (without fat) into a convenient bowl and grind with an immersion blender until smooth.
4. Pate return to the pan, pour 200 ml of milk into it. Darken the dish under the lid for another 5 minutes, then cool and serve.

Duck liver pate

Almost 90% of foie gras is not made from goose liver at all. And all because it is more economical to grow ducks than geese. Such a dish turns out to be more budgetary, and almost everyone can cook it. And you need to do it like this:

1. Cut the duck liver into 1.5 cm pieces.
2. Fry 4 shallots in a frying pan with a little olive oil until golden brown.
3. Put pieces of liver on the onion. Fry them on one side and on the other side for 1 minute. Season with s alt, pepper, herbes de Provence to taste.
4. Crush the ingredients with a blender to a soft consistency, adding 30 ml of cognac if desired. Give the finished pate a beautiful shape, then cool it in the refrigerator for 2 hours.

How to serve foie gras

This goose liver dish is served as a side dish, or simply with bread or a cracker in the form of a sandwich. In order for a dense pate to be easily cut into portioned pieces, it must be cooled well, and 15 minutes before the start of cooking the snacktake it out of the fridge.

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.