Still in a Provençal state of mind after this year’s holiday in Cannes, I planned a blow out Bastille Day menu this year.
Starter
We had half a lobe of goose foie gras, cut into thick slices and sautéed quickly over high heat.
Keep the thawed or fresh foie gras in the refrigerator until you are ready to cook it. That way, it retains its firmness and shape in the pan.
Experts, such as Urban Merchants in the UK, recommend using duck foie gras for sautéeing instead, because goose has a higher iron content. They are correct in saying that goose foie gras does less well under this cooking method, nonetheless, it was unctuous! We had the other half of the lobe today.
As foie gras of any sort requires fruit or chutney on the side, I borrowed an idea from a restaurant in Cannes, Aux P’tits Anges (To the Little Angels).
Instead of using chutney, fig or sauteed peach, they served their seared duck foie gras with a tablespoon or two of finely diced strawberries instead. It is a perfect — and inexpensive — seasonal complement.
I prepared my strawberry garnish for two in a small bowl, mixed together as follows:
9 medium sized strawberries, hulled and finely diced
1 scant tsp balsamic vinegar
2 to 3 pinches of freshly ground pepper
Today’s foie gras is produced humanely. As I have written before, these ducks and geese are naturally conditioned to want food frequently. They are like overweight humans who, over time, turn off their bodies’ natural appetite suppressant in the brain.
Foie gras is healthful, as the French — particularly those in the southwest of the country, the main foie gras producing region — know only too well. There are a lot of healthy elderly people in France who are well into their 80s and 90s.
This 1991 article from the New York Times discusses the health benefits of foie gras and focuses on people in the southwest, many of whom eat it every weekend.
One thing I did notice in France was that most of the restaurant dishes are largely keto. Remember that bread is served on the side, so how much the diner carbs up is up to him! Too many carbs combined with too much fat will cause a health problem, which is what a lot of people do not realise.
Wine
Serve a sweet wine with foie gras, such as Coteaux du Layon or Sauternes. We had Sauternes this year.
Main
We had gambas — large prawns — for our main course. Ours were the largest, which come 8 to 10 to the kilo.
Earlier in the day, I deveined them and made a delicious stock from the shells and heads, which I used for a sauce (see below).
I put the prawns in an olive oil based fresh herb, crushed garlic and seasoning mixture to marinate for a few hours, then, refrigerated. Once I brought them out of the fridge to room temperature for 30-60 minutes (depending on outdoor weather), I sautéed them for a few minutes each side over medium high heat.
Prawn sauce recipe:
2 tbsp corn flour
2/3 cup prawn stock
3 to 4 cloves crushed garlic
Seasonings — salt, pepper, cayenne, Old Bay
2 tbsp Noilly Prat or other white vermouth
2 tbsp heavy cream
1 tsp butter
1/ Make a slurry with the corn flour and prawn stock and place in a saucepan over medium heat.
2/ When the sauce thickens after a couple of minutes, add the crushed garlic and add seasonings according to taste.
3/ Add the vermouth and stir.
4/ Add the cream and stir.
5/ When finished, add the butter and stir for a glossy appearance.
6/ Take off the heat. Reheat once ready to serve.
Some people can handle starch and protein better than others. Those people get a hefty portion of chips. Others can have a timbale of seasoned rice on the side.
Serve with a green vegetable of choice.
Wine
As it was Bastille Day, we opted for champagne!
Other accompaniments
We watched the Tour de France — what else on July 14?
17 comments
July 15, 2019 at 9:25 pm
redlegleader68
Reblogged this on RedLegLeader Blog and commented:
Let’s eat 😎
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July 15, 2019 at 11:42 pm
churchmouse
Thank you very much, redlegleader68, for the reblog.
I greatly appreciate the mention (and have commented similarly on your own site).
May you have a blessed week ahead.
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July 15, 2019 at 11:59 pm
redlegleader68
Thanks, CM. My daughter is French & Italian fluent and has spend much time in France. Her mother is as well. 😉
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July 16, 2019 at 12:04 am
churchmouse
How marvellous!
You are a great husband for choosing your wife so well and an equally great father for encouraging your daughter in her mother’s cultural direction in addition to her American orientation.
May the good Lord continue to bless all of you abundantly. His grace is surely upon you.
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July 15, 2019 at 9:36 pm
formerdem
gorgeous, Churchmouse! I am going to remember about the strawberries. We are in Cuenca, where there is an Amazonian chef who trained in France and returned here. He presented a “France Outre-Mer” menu for Bastille day – frog legs Vietnam style, etouffee Louisiana style, chicken mole vol au vents in memory of Maximilian in Mexico, all the way out to mouhalabieh for the French in Morocco. very fun.
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July 15, 2019 at 11:39 pm
churchmouse
‘I am going to remember about the strawberries.’ Excellent. If you buy jumbo sized strawberries, use 4 (max).
But enough about me, what about you?
Wow, what a tasting menu, formerdem!
Wish we had been there to share it with you.
This is what I like about properly done fusion menus. The most important part is getting a classically French trained apprentice who becomes a chef THEN applies — with precision — other countries’ cuisine.
I’m with your Cuencan chef and his appliance of cuisine science all the way.
You and yours must have had a GREAT feast. I am savouring every dish in my mind’s eye (and tongue).
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July 15, 2019 at 10:56 pm
MA_kswiss
This menu sounds delicious! Hope you enjoyed every last bit of it!!
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July 15, 2019 at 11:28 pm
churchmouse
You bet we did! 🙂
Thanks for the comment. Good to hear from you!
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July 16, 2019 at 9:26 am
MA_kswiss
Had you just visited Cannes, or are you there now? I just went there for the first time, happenstance for the Cannes Film Festival….what an experience! I love hearing about your french food experiences, as that is always my main reason to travel, the joy of food (and the French have it down to a science!) I am hoping to make it to Bordeaux really soon (I am in Switzerland, so that isn’t as much of a feat as it was when I lived stateside.) Can’t wait to hear more from you! 🙂
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July 16, 2019 at 9:48 am
churchmouse
Thank you very much! 🙂
I visited a few weeks ago, after the film festival.
Wow, what luck to be there for the film festival. Can’t imagine how far in advance you had to make hotel/rental reservations for that time-frame.
*** What was it like? How many famous people did you see? Were there huge queues outside every restaurant? I would enjoy reading more about your trip, if you have time to comment here. ***
When in Bordeaux are you planning to go to Philippe Etchebest’s Le Quatrieme Mur, which is in an annex to the Opera House?
You can book in the brasserie or the more formal dining room:
https://www.quatrieme-mur.com/fr/
https://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/Restaurant_Review-g187079-d8612874-Reviews-Le_Quatrieme_Mur-Bordeaux_Gironde_Nouvelle_Aquitaine.html
I have seen all the episodes of his Cauchemar en Cuisine (M6) — Kitchen Nightmares — as well as those for his Objectif Top Chef (M6).
He is a MOF — Meilleur Ouvrier de France — and utterly fascinating. He is also quite the athlete: rugby and boxing.
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July 16, 2019 at 10:02 am
MA_kswiss
you are an absolute treasure trove of helpful questions and information!
Because we decided last minute to go, a friend was flying in from California and this was a last minute reroute…..we scrambled to attend films with out the coveted BADGES.
There were so many people there, and it was a limited access kind of experience….which to me is intriguing, due to the buzz of energy in the air, but then I don’t really play that way, and love whatever we end up doing ….. plus our friend lives in LA in the Hollywood Hills and was pretty much reminded of ‘home’. So I didn’t see anyone famous that I knew….and it was challenging to get into the more scenic places for a beverage or bite. Also we stayed in Antibes, which was STELLAR. And funny, we tried to go grab a drink at the Hotel du Cap, not thinking about the festival…..but we were turned away at the parking lot…..I DIDN’T EVEN KNOW that they had just hosted the Vanity Fair after party the evening prior and the entire place was closed to the public…… haha, I suppose we have a gift for liking nice places too….tee hee.
At this point the Bordeaux trip is an idea, and trying to fit it into the schedule….but I’m keen to research what you just wrote…..the MOFs are a huge deal, this I know.
More on Cannes, it was a magical place, and I’m almost certain that away from the Festival time you can discover some fantastic places to eat- the view is amazing for one, and the food is well just FUN!
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July 16, 2019 at 10:14 am
churchmouse
Thank you VERY much for responding so quickly and at length. 🙂
Sounds as if you had a GREAT time. I can sense the buzz just reading your comment!
Antibes is a great place, too. Glad you got to stay there. Five minutes from Cannes by train — a no brainer.
I have yet to make it to the Hotel du Cap! Would love to go. Sorry you got turned away in the car park, but, hey, Vanity Fair. 😉
You are right, the food in Cannes really is ‘just FUN’. We have had fantastic dining experiences there, no question about it. I can think of only one dud in all our 90+ dinners: Le Caveau 30 in 1999.
https://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/Restaurant_Review-g187221-d1034860-Reviews-Le_Caveau_30-Cannes_French_Riviera_Cote_d_Azur_Provence_Alpes_Cote_d_Azur.html
The place is always packed, and I can’t figure out WHY. I am sure I got tinned tuna in my Salade Nicoise (starter). The other courses were really disappointing, including the dessert.
Have you eaten there? Perhaps your experience was different?
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July 16, 2019 at 11:18 am
MA_kswiss
oh dear, canned??? and in a Nicoise salad SO CLOSE to NICE?? No, I have not eaten there, so I don’t have any bad stories, haha…..Since we stayed in a rented AirBnb using the entire home, our friend loved to cook, so we did quite a bit of cooking at home….which is fun but also tragic too, plus we stayed three nights in total…..what my husband and I dub our ‘reconnoissance trip’ when we go somewhere for the first time.
The funny thing about being turned away at the gate, there were a slew of high end black cars gracefully sliding in and out of the lot with the valet manager (in a suit no less) checking off names and waving people on while we get turned away….I wasn’t embarrassed at all….all part of the experience…and our friend said, ‘oh wow, look at all of the fancy cars, of course we wouldn’t be aloud in’ She was remarking on our rental vs their swanky cars…..and I replied…’we BELONG, I mean we DO have a new shiney BLACK CAR TOO! I mean it’s a Renault!’ Mind you, it was our rental, stick shift, little basic Renault, but it was new and shiney…..haha….
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July 16, 2019 at 11:23 am
churchmouse
‘oh dear, canned??? and in a Nicoise salad SO CLOSE to NICE??’ IKR?!?
I hope you and your husband return to Cannes! Book early to avoid disappointment.
Thanks for the anecdote about the Hotel du Cap — what a great read!
‘I wasn’t embarrassed at all….all part of the experience…’ I know exactly what you mean. Like, ‘Who cares?’ It’s not as if you’re going there all the time.
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July 16, 2019 at 10:07 am
MA_kswiss
And, you know, looking at the chef’s website…I HAVE caught some of the episodes of Kitchen Nightmares actually by accident, here on Swisscom channels….it was so intriguing.
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July 16, 2019 at 10:19 am
churchmouse
He does such a great job of assessing the situation and remedying it.
I enjoy his asides, too. In one episode, he’d just walked into a restaurant for the first time. The woman managing front of house said to him, ‘You really p*ss me off’. He said, ‘Wow, that was quite the greeting. I wonder if she says that to all her customers.’ She had overheard and said, ‘No, that was directed at my husband in the kitchen’. He looked at her and said, ‘Yeah, sure …’
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July 18, 2019 at 9:02 pm
Cannes restaurants — return visits: Aux P’tits Anges | Churchmouse Campanologist
[…] highlight of this was the diced strawberries (with a touch of balsamic vinegar, I would guess) that came as the fruity garnish, rather than […]
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