This recipe for Foie Gras with Blood Orange and Ancho Chilies is delicious with seared foie gras, or any prepared foie gras product.  Try this sweet and spicy sauce with bloc of foie gras, foie gras torchon style, or hot seared foie gras.  This is another fabulous recipe from “Foie Gras: A Passion” by Michael Ginor.

Ingredients:

Orange Sauce

4 teaspoons water

4 Tablespoons sugar, plus 2 additional if desired

3 cups orange juice

1/4 cup lime juice

1 cup reduced chicken stock

1 Tablespoon orange rind, grated

1 teaspoon lime rind, grated

2 tablespoons butter

2 tablespoons tequila

Pinch of coarse salt

Pinch of black pepper, freshly ground

2 tablespoons chili chipotle adobe sauce, canned

lemon juice

Ancho Chilies

1 large ancho chili, seeded and deveined

1/2 small onion, minced, about 1/3 cup

2 large cloves garlic, crushed

1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil

1/4 cup white wine vinegar

1/4 cup Grand Marnier

1/4 cup orange juice

1/2 tablespoon orange zest

1 tablespoon sugar

pinch of coarse salt

pinch of black pepper

1 tablespoon dried oregano

Oranges

2 blood oranges, segmented

2 oranges, segmented

1 1/2 tablespoons sugar

2 teaspoons tequila

Foie Gras

12 ounces fresh raw foie gras, cut into 4 slices

1 tablespoon flour

or 12 – 16 ounces prepared foie gras

Instructions:

Orange Sauce

In a saucepan set over medium heat, combine the water and sugar and heat until the sugar is completely dissolved.  Increase the heat to high and bring the mixture to a boil.  Cook until the syrup is golden brown, approximately 5 minutes.  Gradually add the orange juice, stirring constantly, then add the lime juice.  Slowly add the stock and cook for 15 minutes.  Add the orange and lime rinds and continue to cook until the sauce is the consistency of a light syrup, about 10 minutes. Remove the sauce from the heat and swirl in the butter, stirring until it is completely absorbed.  Stir in the tequila, salt, pepper, chipotle adobo sauce, and lemon juice to taste.  If desired, add the extra 2 tablespoons of sugar to intensify the flavor of the sauce.

Ancho Chilies

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees. Place the chili in the oven and roast for 10 minutes.  Remove from the oven and cut julienned strips.  Place the chili strips in a bowl and add the remaining ingredients.  Let marinate for 2 hours.

Oranges

Place the orange sections in a bowl. Sprinkle with the sugar and the tequila.  Set aside.

Foie gras (seared)

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.  Sprinkle the flour on each foie gras slice and shake off the excess.  Place a saute pan over  high heat.  When the pan is hot, add the foie gras and sear for 30 minutes on each side, until browned and crisp.  Place the foie gras in a roasting pan and cook in the oven for 1 to 2 minutes if necessary.  The foie gras should be medium rare.  (if you heat the pan to medium high, and sear for a minute longer, it will not be necessary to finish the foie gras in the oven.

Service

Arrange the oranges in a fan pattern around each serving plate (or one plate if serving on a buffet).  Place the foie gras (seared or prepared) on top of the oranges.  Add a teaspoon of foie gras fat to the orange sauce and swirl to incorporate.  Spoon the orange sauce over the foie gras and garnish with the ancho chilies.

Foie gras is so versatile, it can be paired with almost anything, literally.  I love to add a piece of seared foie gras to almost any savory dish consisting of fish, filet mignon, lamb tenderloin, chicken, duck, pheasant or other poultry, or game meats such as venison, elk and boar.  Foie gras is wonderful combined with sauteed vegetable or potatoes.

Fruit-based sauces are one of the most classic pairings for foie gras.  The acidity and sweetness of the fruit are an excellent match with buttery foie gras.  The following sauces are easy to prepare, and will go well with any type of foie gras – seared foie gras, foie gras torchon style, bloc of foie gras, or salt-cured foie gras.

Foie Gras Torchon with Pear Currant Chutney

Whole duck foie gras torchon

16 slices of brioche bread

2 bosc pears, peeled, cored and cut into 1/3 inch dice

2 tablespoons dry black currants

½ cup Verjus Blanc

4 teaspoons sugar

Pinch of freshly ground pepper

To make the chutney, combine all the ingredients in a small sauté pan over medium heat and cook, stirring gently, until almost all the liquid has evaporated and the pear is cooked through, 3 to 4 minutes.  Remove from the heat and let cool.

Remove crusts and cut brioche bread to desired size and shape.  Toast until golden in a 350° oven.  Slice the foie gras with a hot knife.  Place a portion of foie gras torchon on each piece of toast.  Top with a small mound of pear chutney.

This recipe is from Terra, Cooking from the Heart of Napa Valley, by Hiro Sone and Lissa Doumani.

Foie Gras Torchon with Sour Cherry Reduction

Whole duck foie gras torchon

Or Block of duck foie gras

16 slices of brioche bread

1 ¼ cup red wine

1 cup duck or chicken stock

¼ cup sour cherries

salt and cracked pepper

1 teaspoon cold unsalted butter

For the sauce, cook the wine over medium heat until reduced to 1/8 cup.  Add the stock and reduce to ½ cup.  Add the sour cherries and some cracked pepper and simmer for 2 – 3 minutes.  Remove from heat and let cool.

Remove crusts and cut brioche bread to desired size and shape.  Toast until golden in a 350° oven.  Slice the foie gras with a hot knife.  Place a portion of foie gras torchon on each piece of toast.  Top with a small mound of sour cherry reduction.

I’ve been wanting to try this recipe for Medallions of Ahi Tuna and Seared Foie Gras with Pinot Noir Sauce for quite some time now, and New Year’s Eve was the perfect occasion!  It worked out well, because I was able to do the sauce and the preparation for the potatoes and mushrooms ahead of time, and only  needed  about 30 minutes to complete and serve the dish.

The stacked presentation was spectacular and most importantly, the flavors and combination of ingredients were absolutely wonderful.

I followed the recipe almost exactly, and would not change a thing.  The recipe is from “the foie gras bible” titled “Foie Gras, A Passion” by Michael A. Ginor, owner of Hudson Valley Foie Gras.  The book contains almost 100 pages of information about foie gras–history, production methods, and facts, plus 80 recipes, many of which are created by the world’s most renowned chefs including Jacques Pepin, Charlie Trotter, Emeril Lagasse, Alain Ducasse, Thomas Keller and Jean-Louis Palladin.

If you are a lover of foie gras, and you enjoy cooking, you really must have “Foie Gras, A Passion”.

Ingredients:

Pinot Noir Sauce

3 tablespoons unsalted butter

1/4 pound shallots, sliced

4 portobello mushrooms, stems only, chopped (reserve caps for grilling)

3 white peppercorns

3 coriander seeds

1 bay leaf

2 tablespoons sugar

1/4 cup red wine vinegar

1 1/2 cups Pinot Nior

2 cups veal stock

Crispy Potato Cakes

2 large russet potatoes

10 chives, chopped

2 egg whites

2 teaspoons coarse salt

2 tablespoons potato starch

peanut oil for frying

Grilled Mushrooms

1 clove garlic, minced

1 shallot, minced

2 teaspoons fresh herbs (thyme, rosemary, marjoram and parsley work well)

1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar

1/4 cup olive oil

4 portobello mushroom caps (reserved from above)

Coarse salt

Black pepper, freshly ground

Tuna, Foie Gras, and Spinach

1 1/2 pounds sushi-grade ahi tuna, cut into 6 steaks, about 4 oz each

Vegetable oil for grilling

1  foie gras, 1 1/2 pound, cut into 6 cubes, about 4 ounces each

Coarse salt

Black pepper, freshly ground

1/2 pound spinach, cleaned

1 tablespoon olive oil

Pinot Noir Sauce

Melt the butter in a large saucepan over medium heat.  Add the shallots and saute until translucent, about 10 minutes.  Add the mushroom stems and cook until they have released all their liquid, 7 to 10 minutes.  Add the peppercorns, coriander seeds, bay leaf, and sugar, and continue cooking until caramelized, an additional 3 minutes.  Add the red wine vinegar and reduce until the mixture is dry, about 5 mintues.  Add the Pinot Noir and reduce by three-fourths, about 30 minutes.  Add the veal stock and simmer until the mixture takes on the consistency of a light sauce, about 1 hour.  Strain though a chinois and reserve.

Crispy Potato Cakes

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.  Bake the potatoes for 30 minutes or until they are barely tender.  Let cool slightly, then peel and grate.  Add the chives, egg whites, salt, and potato starch.  Mold the potatoes into six cakes using a 2-inch-square mold; the cakes should be roughly 3/4 inch thick.  Heat the peanut oil in a large saute pan and fry the potato cakes until golden brown on both sides, about 3 minutes per side.  Set aside.

Grilled Mushrooms

Combine the garlic, shallot, herbs, balsamic vinegar, and olive oil.  Marinate the mushroom caps in this mixture for at least 2 hours.  Remove the mushrooms from the marinade.  Season with salt and pepper, and grill until tender, about 3 or 4 minutes per side.  Dice the grilled mushrooms into 1/2-inch cubes.

Tuna, Foie Gras, and Spinach

Place the potato cakes in a medium-hot oven to heat through.  Brush the tuna with oil.  Season the tuna and the foie gras with salt and pepper.  On a very hot grill, sear the tuna on both sides.  In a hot saute pan, sear the cubed foie gras on all sides until brown.  In another pan, saute the spinach in the olive oil and let drain on a paper towel.  In another saute pan, heat the Pinot Noir sauce and the diced portobello mushrooms.  Place a potato cake in the center of each of six dinner plates with a small pile of sauteed spinach on top of the cake.  On top of the spinach, place one tuna steak and one cubed foie gras steak.  Spoon the Pinot Noir sauce with the chopped mushrooms around the plate.

Serve with a full bodied red wine.