Create your own homemade 'Foie Gras Mi-Cuit' for the holidays!
A staple of French cuisine and the undisputed star of year-end dining tables, foie gras remains a much-loved classic. Delight your guests by choosing a homemade terrine, which you can serve with pride and satisfaction on New year's eve! For this, Chef Greg, straight from the La Pergola restaurant, shares his foie gras mi-cuit recipe.
Why choose a mi-cuit over a ready-made foie gras?
Contrary to popular belief, making your own foie gras mi-cuit is not particularly challenging and doesn’t require a lot of time. Certainly, a shorter recipe than if you were to embark on a beef bourguignon or a Provençal stew, for instance!
Beyond its tender texture due to being semi-cooked, which allows the foie gras to retain more fat and thus be creamier, another advantage of using raw foie gras to create a mi-cuit is that it proves to be two to four times less expensive than pre-cooked foie gras available in jars or tins.
Once prepared, your foie gras mi-cuit can easily be stored for several days in the refrigerator, or even up to three weeks if properly stored between 0 and 4°C.
Ingredients
For 12 to 15 servings, you will need:
- 1 kg of foie gras
- 11 g of fine salt
- 4 g of black pepper
- 1 pinch of sugar
- 2 cl of cognac
You can replace the cognac with armagnac or even Martini. The key is not to use too much alcohol, to absolutely avoid altering the taste of the foie gras.
Culinary preparation
- Begin by taking the foie gras out of the fridge and let it come to room temperature for a good hour, making it more pliable to work with.
- Devein the lobes and lay them flat on a tray.
- Mix the fine salt, black pepper, and sugar. Evenly sprinkle half of this mix on one side of the foie gras before flipping it to sprinkle the other side with the remaining mixture.
- Add the cognac next and let the foie gras marinate for about 15 minutes.
- In the meantime, prepare terrine moulds: line them with cling film and place them in a gastro tray filled halfway with water, creating a water bath.
- Place pieces of foie gras into the moulds, filling them to three-quarters full, and press down lightly to avoid gaps when slicing.
- Cover with aluminium foil and bake at 120°C for 20 minutes. The internal temperature should reach 45 to 50°C (measure using a cooking thermometer).
- Remove the moulds from the water bath and, if desired, take off any excess fat from the top of the terrines.
- Chill for at least 12 hours before unmoulding.
Tip from the Chef
Chef Greg suggests enjoying your foie gras on fresh country bread, paired with an onion confit to elevate all the flavours... A fruit chutney can also be chosen: select from apples, dates, figs, or mangoes, depending on your preference!
Another professional tip for the deveining step at the start of the preparation:
- if you are not comfortable with this technique, ask your butcher for a pre-deveined liver
- otherwise, carefully use the thumbnail to detach the veins, and then remove them meticulously one by one
