Foie Gras And Magrets At Palais Royal

Saturday was one of those absolutely perfect warm autumn days in Paris.  As soon as I hit the lovely Palais Royal gardens, the heavenly odor of foie gras sizzling in a pan perfumed the air.

Les Toques du Canard was well in process celebrating the famous foie gras ducks of the Landes region in southwest France.   What a treat to enjoy a regal treat in palatial surroundings!

It was to be my first stop of the weekend to celebrate Fete de la Gastronomie, that would take me to fancy vegetables purveyors on Rue Martyrs and operettas at Bercy.

What should have been an easy trip up to Palais Royal on bus 68, turned into a challenge, when the driver suddenly announced it was terminating at Sèvres Babylone due to a manifestation and a parade.

Why didn’t they announce that when we started? Undaunted by the surprise, as Paris is always surprising in some ways or another , I set out to walk the rest of the way, albeit a rather long jaunt.

Half way up Rue de Sevres I had trouble crossing through a crowd of deaf/hard of hearing demonstrators marching in protest of not having a sign language telephone relais promised in 2009, and rightfully so.

After that, it didn’t take long to cross Saint Germain by the Deux Magots cafe and head up Rue Bonaparte to reach the Seine. The Pont des Arts foot bridge was loaded with teens drinking beer and wine galore listening to the blaring heavy cords of Rock on the other side.

The Techno Parade had slowed to a stop along side  of the Louvre with musicians continuing to belt out electronic music that was deafening, at least to my ears.

Policeman stopped me to check my purse before I could proceed off the bridge and  get pass the hoards of youth in various stages of drunkenness, some already laying on the sidewalks around the corner of the Louvre.

So now they are condoning off to protect the parade route as well!  Rue Rivoli was full as usual of tourists on both sides, so I made a beeline to Saint Honoré for the final walk to the gardens.

After another purse check to get inside, I witnessed another wedding photo session, which I often run into, being that Paris offers beautiful backdrops everywhere.

The Palais Royal was originally built for Cardinal Richelieu and later became a royal residence for young king Louis XIV and his mother, before he eventually constructed Versailles.

Chef Michel Trama had just started to demonstrate his magrets de canard with, cepes, foie gras and red fruits. A massive whole breast of foie gras duck was quickly seared then finished off in the oven, while he sautéed the foie gras and then deglaced with a sweet white wine from the Landes.

A gentil swirl of raspberries, blackberries and red currents in the sauce was all that was needed. Magret is a French culinary term for breasts coming from foie gras ducks and has a thick layer of fat that is generally melted off before serving rosé.

By this time we observers were all salivating by the delicious aromas, in hope that morsels would be passed around. Generous portions of the magret were succulent and rosé throughout as they should be.

No luck in getting any foie gras though, as they were keeping it for another recipe! Understandable, as the price of foie gras and foie gras duck magrets has spiraled up, since farmers have just started the recovery from the aviary flu epidemic, that hit back in winter.

Another chef was making some cute cones of phyllo like pastry stuffed with minced spiced roast duck, as a way to promote using up leftovers.

The French have generally always been very good at this,  having been brought up by generations where nothing was hardly ever thrown away before being recycled in the kitchen.

Alain Dutournier was there to demonstrate a smoked magret salad with foie gras.  The raw duck breast is smoked and then salted and hung to dry much like in doing country style hams and is delicious sliced very thin.

I learned a long time ago that rendered duck and goose fat is by far the best fat to saute potatoes, so I always keep a jar of stored fat from my magrets,in the refrigerator for that purpose.

Indispensable also in making  your own  Alsatian choucroute garni( garnished fresh sauerkraut).

Towards the end, I stopped by to try some Tursan wines from the region, which is south of Bordeaux and north of the Basque country.  I purchased a glass of cold white made up of Gros Manseng and Baroque grapes that are peculiar to that area.

It was well perfumed with good structure for a white wine and I enjoyed sipping it as I walked around the center fountain and pool, admiring the statues in the gardens and tall flowering plants.

I resisted buying a plate of foie gras  and taking home another cookbook, that I have little place for, instead just wanted to stroll around the gardens.

There were a few resident ducks in the pond, sunning themselves as well as the humans sitting around.

A few brown leaves made crispy sounds as I walked the dusty  paths under the thick green canopied  alleyways.  I stopped to admire the foie gras ducks who were all huddled together, as I sadly contemplated their fate.

Wishing I could be vegetarian, who feels guilty eating meat, I remain a  conscientious carnivore, who  eats meat only twice a week, that I consume with  much appreciation  for their lives sacrificed.

If we still eat meat, we should all work to change farm animal welfare laws that at least would guarantee they lead healthy lives in open courtyards and pastures.

Foie gras, which is a mainstay of French holiday tables is a controversial subject of whether or not it is  a humane procedure to produce.  On small farms, artisanal producers claim their ducks like being gavaged,  as all is overseen by hand, which is not the case in making industrial foie gras.

If you drive around the southwest countryside of France, you will see many small foie gras duck farms with free running ducks or geese in the fields. Most routinely invite the public to observe the gavage.

My own witnessing a gavage did not seem to bother the ducks.  Regardless their short lives, however raised in liberty, it is a sad reality to face and guilt for me, who enjoys the flavour of duck, especially pan sautéed till the skin is caramelised crusty brown, with little fat left and served rare to rosé.

Sauces made from the sucs of the pan and some port wine cooked with seasonal fruit is generally how I accompany it.  Right now figs, or plums are superlative flavourings for the sauce.

I eat foie gras occasionally, mostly around Christmas and New Years, where I prefer it raw pan seared rather than mi cuit served room temperature.   Served with caramelised apples or a homemade fruit chutney without sugar and sauced, it is a divine first course that is simple to do.

I will have to write about the rest of my weekend gourmet festivities another time.  I will though leave a photo of my plum tarte made with my own puff pastry that graced my dinner table yesterday.  Tart red plums glazed with their own little sweetened  syrup on top, nestled on top of crisp buttery puff pastry, looking like bright red garnets,  were just magnificent!