i had to give you the entire name of this little dish in the post title.  because i wanted to hit you with full impact…  because foie gras is a full impact kinda dish and well, god, i love this stuff… so.  much. 

you see i had about 3 tablespoons of leftover miso maple sauce from the scallops, so i saved it with no good reason in mind, except that it was absolutely wonderful and i couldn’t imagine tossing it.  surely i could come up with a way to use it.  i mean, it was the weekend and friends were coming over and all i had to do was try and BE CREATIVE.

these days when i cook dinner there is rarely an appetizer or an hors d’oeuvre (bitch of a word to spell, no?), especially if i am serving dessert.  i might have a bowl of olives out – or some roasted nuts to serve along with the first glass of wine, but i don’t like to over feed my guests or detract from the main attraction.  as with most things, i believe i have learned this the hard way.

but exceptions have to made and i had a small but nice chunk of foie gras in my freezer from this past new years eve, just waiting for the right moment.  in a moment of quasi-inspiration, i called my friends and asked them to pick up a baguette, and as the foie defrosted i took my leftover sauce of sherry vinegar, miso and maple syrup and began to heat it gently while i removed the stones from the half forgotten cherries hidden in my fridge.  slicing them into quarters, they went into the pan along with about a teaspoon of sugar and when the cherries released most of their juice i shut off the burner.

i thinly sliced about 5 shallots and fried them in canola oil until they turned brown and crisp.  they were drained on paper towels and sprinkled with my guerende salt.

to avoid smoking up the house with duck fat, i’ve taken to putting a cast iron pan on my gas grill and searing foie gras outside.  the baguettes were sliced and brushed with olive oil, grilled on the grates and then plated with first the sauce, then the foie and then the crispy shallots.

talk about leftovers…

new years eve. first course. a lightly salted 1" slice of hudson valley foie gras alongside a pear poached in vanilla infused cranberry cherry juice with a squeeze of lemon – then filled with a sauteed shitake blue cheese mixture. a friend of mine had this winning combination while on holiday and decided to recreate it for the big night. i’d never actually tackled a whole foie gras. it was interesting – as in the deveining process, and liberating to know that i could do it. i could make kick ass foie gras. i mean it’s really quite easy, if nearly impossible to screw up. we put a cast iron skillet directly on the grill so as not to smoke up the house. it couldn’t have worked better. it was crisp on the outside and still rare in the middle. personally i don’t like it too underdone. too mushy for me. but this was smooth and velvety. and rich beyond rich. and the accoutrement’s were just wonderful. this is the epitome of decadent food and the four of us each had thirds. seriously. three. each.

and it was definitely worth every fat gram…