Arm Chair Dining, Le Bristol and Artichoke Foie Gras Stuffed Pasta with Parmesan and Truffle Sauce.

Hotel Le Bristol, 1925  

I don’t know about you, but I am not a jetsetter.  I don’t fly off to foreign lands to eat at 5 star restaurants every week, few of us do.  But through the wonders of the blogosphere, you can tag along with others when they splurge on great meals and share what they have eaten… often with photos.

For years, I have read descriptions of dishes and tried to capture them without the benefit of a recipe.  My results, as you can imagine, have been inconsistent.  Some are real dogs but, surprisingly, some are gems. 

I have often tried to remake dishes I have eaten, haven’t you?  It’s easier to do when you taste it yourself and can guess at the hidden secret bits or charm the waiter into telling you (“What is that divine flavor???”).  Doing it blind is more difficult but the result is so satisfying when it works. Makes you feel like an alchemist and psychic all at once.

For me, the description of ingredients is what gets me going, even more than photos do.  I imagine the flavors and then set about to recreate them.

I found the blog Luxeat  last winter when I was researching a famous restaurant in Kyoto.  The woman that runs this blog eats all over the world all the time and shares her discoveries ... she must live in an airplane!  Recently, she wrote about Le Bristol in Paris and described a dish that I just had to try.  The result was one of the best things I’ve ever made.

Hotel Bristol today

Hotel le Bristol  is a great Parisian hotel with a long history. Wikipedia tells me that it all began in 1758 with the opening of the Place de Concorde in Paris.  A hotel was built at #12 Rue du Faubourg-Saint-Honoré  in the 18^th century that became the Vogüé Hotel in 1829.

Frederick Augustus Hervey

In 1925, the hotel became the Hotel le Bristol, named after Frederick Augustus Hervey, the 4th Earl of Bristol   (1730-1803) –– a Brit known as “Earl Bishop” who George III called “that wicked prelate”.  He was a great art collector, filthy rich and possessed of strong opinions that nearly got him arrested.  He actually believed religious factions should try to get along, imagine that?  When he died, members of many faiths kicked in to buy a monument, an extraordinary gesture.  To avoid trouble, he left his houses in Derry, Northern Ireland and the family estate of Ickworth in Suffolk and went to Europe to travel and collect art.  He was a collector with a fine nuanced eye and a boldly individual dresser as well as a great traveler.

Today it is a beautiful grand dame of a hotel.

 Hotel le Bristol Restaurant

Within Hotel le Bristol’s walls is a restaurant, a really spectacular restaurant.

Eric Frechon 

These days, Le Bristol Restaurant is helmed by Eric Frechon . The restaurant was awarded 3 stars in 2008 and is one of Nicolas Sarkozy’s favorite spots (Freshon also got a Legion d’Honneur in 2008).  One look at the menu  and you can see why.  There are a million things that I want to try when I read it.  Frechon is a superlative chef. His new book Eric Freshon looks wonderful. Here’s hoping they release it in English soon.

Poularde de Bresse Cuite en Vessie, although a whole chicken is cooked within, they only serve the boneless,

 skinless breast cut from the bird at tableside with the truffled juices.

What I made was one of Frechon’s signature dishes (another one is his 240 € for 2 Poularde de Bresse Cuite en Vessie –– chicken in pig’s bladder with truffles – loved by Marco Pierre White and invented by the papa of modern French food, La Pyramide’s Ferdinand Point). 

I chose to re-interprete his 85€ appetizer –– Macaronis farcis truffe noire, artichaut et foie gras de canard, gratinés au vieux parmesan –– a pasta stuffed with foie gras, artichoke and truffles with 2 sauces.  WOW~

 Macaronis farcis truffe noire, artichaut et foie gras de canard, gratinés au vieux parmesan  Le Bristol photo

After I made it, I found the French blog  La Table des Chefs that had the recipe for the dish from Frechon’s cookbook. As you can imagine, there were some differences. The topping for the pasta was a Mornay sauce instead of the cream/butter glaze with the cheese that I used. Also, I made the pasta and made larger rolls since I wanted a thinner, more luxurious egg dough for this dish.  I didn’t have truffles on hand (it being August and all) so used truffle butter and creamy truffle scented foie gras from D’Artagnan that I had in the freezer to give me the truffle flavor I craved.

I would be remiss if I didn’t pause to relate a little back-story about foie gras for you –– it’s a compelling one.

Carving on temple wall 

Quick overview: It is believed the whole process began in Egypt over 4000 years ago when the observant Egyptians noticed that geese captured just before they left on their migration had big fat delicious livers from gorging themselves. The ruling class (surprise!) decided they wanted to enjoy them all year round so their farmers began to overfeed their domestic geese.  Some feel Jews were responsible for the gavage force-feeding technique and then spread it throughout Europe as they migrated.  Dan Barber posited this occurred since they wanted an alternative to schmaltz as they couldn’t eat pork fat.  I read elsewhere that big fat geese were the Jewish alternative to pork.  It was thought the Greeks brought the idea to Rome.  The Romans loved foie gras, and fattened their geese with figs, hence the name Jecur{liver}Ficatum{from fig} that slowly evolved to only ficatum then proceeded to fegato in Italian (fegato d’oca) becoming foye (I had trouble finding foie in la Varenne because it was spelled foye) and finally foie in French.

The 1^st AD Roman, Apicius  had a recipe for foie gras, Le Viandier de Taillevent and Le Menagier de Paris from the 14^th century in France had recipes for the lovely liver.  The Renaissance was all about rediscovering

the glory of the classics in so many ways so 16^th century Italian chef Bartolomeo Scappi  mentions it in his 1570 cookbook,  L’Opera (floured, sliced and sautéed with a sugar and orange sauce…mmmm).

As seen above, La Varenne has quite a few recipes for it in the 17^th century (*I translated them at the end of the post) and Brillat-Savarin , Careme  and his pupil Gouffé  among others, used it with abandon in the 18^th and 19^th centuries.

Foie gras with artichoke hearts and truffle is a classic combination in French cuisine (often used with filet mignon as in Escoffier’s  Tournedos Lili) as are the sauces used… Frechon just turned a classic garnish on its ear and made it into a brilliant filling… both honoring and elevating the original inspiration… what we all hope to do when we play with recipes!

The result was insane.  I was crazy about it.  Honestly, I had just made it for myself because I had the ingredients and then had to share with you.  The flavor, the texture…  well, it should be illegal, it’s that good.

PS:  For some reason I never had thought about before, most of the time when one speaks of foie gras it is no longer foie gras d’oie, but is now–– foie gras de canard –– duck.  When I thought of foie gras up through the 80’s it was always goose, then wham, duck!  I read the change began in the 50’s when it was discovered it was easier and therefore cheaper to use ducks. An article in the NYT  said that geese are harder to feed and their necks are more delicate. To be honest, I can’t remember the last time I had goose liver, but Schlitz Goose Farm in South Dakota has fat goose liver that isn’t force-fed (a very expensive, labor intensive process) for a great price that I am looking forward to trying.

That said –– I use duck liver here.

Macaronis farcis truffe noire, artichaut et foie gras de canard, gratinés au vieux parmesan inspired by Bristol Restaurant (Artichoke, Foie Gras and Truffle Stuffed Pasta) serves 2-4

1/2 to 3/4 roll of D'Artagnan medallion of foie gras with truffle

2 artichokes or frozen artichoke hearts (about 1/2 c chopped)
2 pinches of salt

1 recipe pasta* or 4 lasagna noodles, or 8 cannelloni or manicotti--cooked

3/4 c cream

3/4 c chicken stock

¼ t onion powder

¼ t celery salt

pinch of pepper

1 1/2 c D'Artagnan demi-glace 

2 T madeira ( I used Rare Wine Co. Boston Bual)

4 T D'Artagnan black truffle butter 

¼ c good imported parmesan

herbs for garnish

Make a recipe for pasta.  You will only need 1/3 of it, but have a bit extra for tearing (freeze the rest) or use bought lasagna noodles. Ideally, the noodles are 4-5" wide and 8-9" long. Cook 8 pieces and reserve.

Steam the artichokes until tender.  Scrape the tender flesh from the leaves and remove the hearts.  If this is too big a pain for you, get another artichoke or 2 and just use the heart or use frozen artichoke hearts. If you used frozen, use just the bottoms and saute them in a bit of butter to release some of the water or gently squeeze them.  Do not use canned hearts for this.  Chop all the artichoke pieces fairly small and reserve.

Sauces:

Warm the demi-glace, reducing till slightly thickened, add the Madeira.  Remove from the heat and add 2T truffle butter and reserve.

Cook the cream and chicken stock with the onion powder, celery salt and pepper till thickened slightly and reserve.

To complete dish:

Warm 2 T truffle butter in an ovenproof skillet.

Lay out  the pasta sheets on a counter. If they are cold, warm them for a moment in boiling water. Combine the artichoke and foie gras and 2 pinches of salt (decide the proportions for yourself you may like more foie gras to artichoke or evenly mixed). Roll up about 2 T of artichoke, foie gras mixture like a cigar.   Lay in the buttered skillet, rolling the rolls gently in the truffle butter. If they are cold, warm them through as the broiler will not heat them completely.  Brush with cream and sprinkle with the cheese and broil for a few minutes until browned on top.

Warm the sauces if necessary, pour on each plate and top with the pasta and garnish with herbs.

Pasta Dough 

1 cup all-purpose flour  plus 2 T semolina 

2 large egg yolks

1 large egg

1 teaspoons olive oil

1/2 tablespoon milk

Mix together and knead for 5 minutes till elastic… you may need more flour to do this.   Let rest for 1 hour then put through the pasta machine in 3 parts.  You will only need one for this recipe.  Put that through on the lowest level so it is thin and lovely.

Photo from La Table de Chef

Recipe from  Eric Frechon’s cookbook via La Table de Chefs

Macaroni 
- 2 large pieces of macaroni 'Candele' 
- 2 liters chicken stock

Stuffing macaroni 
- 4 artichokes 
- 1 lemon 
- 100 g flour 
- 50 grams of black truffles (or mushrooms) 
- 100 g of foie gras 
- Salt and pepper

The Mornay 
- 20 g unsalted butter 
- 20 g flour 
- 200 g milk 
- 10 cl truffle juice (or provide 180 g of frozen mushrooms) 
- 150 g of emmental grated 
- 50 g aged parmesan (to brown) 
- Salt and pepper

Sauce Supreme 
- 25 cl of chicken stock 
- 20 cl whipping cream

Truffled chicken jus 
- 20 cl of jus chicken (demiglas, stock?) 
- 2.5 cl truffle juice 
- 40 g chips truffles (or mushrooms)

Decor 
- 4 arugula leaves 
- 4 leaves of lettuce

Artichokes, foie gras, truffles / mushrooms

Trim the artichokes to the bottom, leaving the choke, and plunge them into a container of water + juice of half a lemon. 
Prepare a large pot with 2 liters of water and mix in the flour, salt. 
Add the juice of the remaining half of the lemon. 
Cook the artichokes for 40 minutes at low heat, then cool in pan juices.

While you cook the artichoke hearts, cut foie gras into small cubes. Keep it cool foie gras to this point it will be easier with a good foie gras rigide. Réserve and cool. 
Finely chop the truffle / porcini. Keep refrigerated. 
When the artichokes have cooled, remove the chokes and cut into small cubes (5mm). 
Blend hearts, truffles / mushrooms, foie gras. 
Season. 
Put in a pastry bag with an open socket closest to the inside diameter of macaroni.

Cooking the macaroni

The Candele are 50 cm long, therefore no question of cooking without cutting. 
In the end we should have sections of 8 cm, one half of Candele is 25 cm, then 3 macaroni, so I cut in two for cooking. 
It should be cooked horizontally in 
2 liters of chicken stock for 5 minutes.

Sauce Mornay

By following the recipe I got a fairly thick sauce, too much for my taste, which inflates in the oven and gives a bumpy appearance which does not match the aesthetics of the recipe prepared by the chef. I suggest you follow this recipe and thin with milk for a smoother sauce.

Melt the butter in a saucepan. 
Add flour and cook gently for 2 minutes. 
Add cold milk, mix well. 
Cook 5 minutes over low heat, stirring. 
Add the truffle juice / ceps. 
Add the grated parmesan cheese. 
Keep in a water bath.

Sauce Supreme

Reduce the chicken stock with cream until thick.

Keep in a water bath.

Truffled chicken jus

Prepare the jus in a saucepan. 
Add chips and truffle / porcini mushrooms and juice. 
Reduce until thickened then 
put in a water bath.

Manufacture of macaroni

Remove Candele sections of 8cm long from liquid, then stuff with the preparation of artichoke. It's long, difficult but doable. 
Place macaroni in groups of three on a lightly oiled pan. 
Pour a thin layer of Mornay over them. 
Sprinkle with grated aged Parmesan. 
Put in a 180º oven to warm the center of the macaroni. 
When the cheese begins to melt, put under the broiler (or turn oven up to 220º).

Dressage

Transfer 3 macaroni to a warm plate. 
Divide into three point triangle  the truffle juice and sauce supreme (see photos below). 
Add three leaves of lettuce and arugula.

*Translation:

foye gras in ragout

choisissez-les plus gras & les plus blonds, nettoyez-les &; jettez dans l'eau chaude pour ôter l'amertume, mais les tirez aussi-tost, étans essuyez passez les par la poële avec beurre ou sain-doux &; faites mitonner avec peur de bouillon, persil, & siboule entiere, étans cuits, ostez la siboule, &; servez la sauce bien liée, vous y pouvez mettre truffes, champignons &; asperges


 Foie Gras Ragout

choose the fattest and the most fair, clean & throw in warm water to remove the bitterness, then sauté with butter or lard, to seal.  go wipe the pan & simmer broth, parsley, & green onion, when cooked remove the green onion, and serve the sauce well connected, you can put truffles, mushrooms &; asparagus

foye gras sur le gril

Mettez sur le gril, &; le poudrez de mie de pain & and de sel, etant rosti, jettez un jus de citron par dessus &; servez

foie gras on the grill

Put on the grill, and sprinkle the bread crumbs and salt &, being browned, take  lemon juice on top &; serve

foie gras cuit dans les cendres

il faut le barder de lard, & le bien assaisonner de sel, poivre, clou batu &; un bouquet fort petit, puis l'enveloppez avec quatre ou cinq feuilles de papier, & le mettre cuire dans les cendres comme un coing.  Etant cuit, prenez garde de perdre la sauce en le remuant, ostez les  feuilles de dessus, & le servez avec celles de dessous si vous voulez, ou sur une assiete.

foie gras cooked in the ashes

Take slices of bacon, and season well with salt, pepper, & a bunch cloves beaten very small, then wrap with four or five sheets of paper, and put cooked in the ashes like a quince. Being cooked, beware of losing the sauce by stirring, remove leaves above, and serve it with those below if you wish, or on a plate.

If any of you can improve the translation, be my guest!!!

Thanks to Gollum for hosting Foodie Friday!