Variations on a Theme: Goose Burgers with a Molten Foie Gras Center

$400,000 18^th Century Chinese Export Goose Tureen 

In music, a variation is “a formal technique where material is repeated in an altered form”. My theme is goose (Variations on Goose? –– what would Bach say?).  This is the 3^rd and final part of my goose trilogy.

Variations can be visual, like these obscenely expensive and rare Chinese Export porcelain geese from the 18^th century you see decorating this post, whose creators took the humble goose and delicately individualized each porcelain bird with a sophisticated rainbow of glazes in what was to be the last gush of Chinese imports before western pottery makers took over the market (what a pity, these are remarkable creatures).

Variations can happen in cooking as well as art. I think my favorite creative cooking moments come when I latch on to a technique or an ingredient and run with it like those Chinese potters did.  This often happens when I am introduced to a new ingredient or one that I have only used infrequently that finally captures my imagination.  It makes me want to take it out for a test drive and see what it can do.   Yes, it’s true, the goose made me do it.

 

$500,000 Qianlong 18^th c tureens from Christie's

I struck up an email conversation with Jim Shiltz of Shiltz Goose a few months ago and got to play with a variety of goosely products.  I have loved each one –– from smoked goose (see HERE) to the ground goose meatballs I made (see HERE) and now his foie gras.

His foie gras is done without the traditional ‘finition d’engraissement’ (gavage).  Instead, these geese are encouraged to be gluttons and they rise to the task admirably.   As I’ve mentioned before, the whole idea for creating the gavage system was to mimic a natural proclivity of the goose to gorge.  It was discovered that they would overeat prodigiously to fortify them for their fall migrations (a wild goose can nearly double its weight preparing for this flight).  The livers of these geese were enlarged and absolutely delicious. The Shiltz goose liver was probably the most flavorful fowl liver I’ve ever had.

1760 Chinese Export Tureen, V&A

I got 3 grades of liver from Schlitz.  They go from normal size to a few times normal size.  The color changes from red to pale golden pink.  It is this last variety that I worked with for my recipe.  It isn’t like the very fat and pale foie gras that I am used to.  A test with some local foie experts agreed, although not as fat, it is incredibly flavorful (just like Jim’s geese).   I wanted to do a riff (a Jazz form of “variations on a theme”) on the fabulous foie gras burgers that I have read about, made and loved. 

Thing is, once I made this burger, I realized the technique would work with duck of course, but would also make a luxurious turkey or chicken (using ground thigh meat) or even ostrich burger (you could use smoked chicken or duck in the mix–– even ham would work).  I made the foie gras filling using my all-time favorite liver mousse recipe that I’ve used FOREVER.  It makes the burger incredibly moist and flavorful.  Since goose is delicious with port and port is delicious with Stilton I put them into the burger and loved it.  I fed it to Dr. Lostpast (who only tried it because it was my birthday –– his initial reaction to my request was ICK, goose burgers?), and he was shocked.  They were delicious. The mousse and port jelly bathe the interior of the burger with a luxurious flavor that is really out of this world.

1770 Chinese Export Tureen from Christies ($180,000 Goose!)

I tried them with puff pastry shells and also with brioche buns (the classic accompaniment to fancy burgers) and liked them both ways.  The recipe for brioche is from Martha Stewart and is truly the best I’ve found.  The puff pastry is my favorite recipe and rises like a dream (recipe is HERE ).

These little burgers are very rich and are best when made small like a slider in my opinion.

“The Dickens”, Goose and Stilton Burger with Foie Gras Center (makes 8 large to 24 small burgers)

Goose meat mixture

Foie gras mousse

Port jelly or currant jelly

½ pound Stilton Cheese

Sautéed onions (1 or 2 sliced onions)

Brioche Buns or pastry puffs (toasted or warmed)

Make 16 to 48 flat paddies with the goose.  Top half of the patties with a spoon of the liver and a small spoon of the jelly.  Top with the remaining paddies and seal well, but do not handle too roughly (compression makes them tough).  Fry at medium heat or grill until cooked (as for a MW burger).

Top with Stilton just before removing from the heat to melt it a little (using lid of pan) and place on bun with onions and serve.

Goose Burger Mix

1 ½ lb ground goose made from Schiltz goose meat (I ground it myself) or ground duck, turkey, chicken or ostrich

½ lb ground pork

¾ c finely minced smoked goose from Shiltz Goose

1 t mace

3 cloves garlic, minced

2 t salt

2 t pepper

1 t ground coriander

3 T Port

1 T chopped fresh marjoram

Combine all and reserve.

Mousse de Foie d'Oie, Canard, Volaille (goose, duck or chicken)

1 c goose liver from Shiltz Goose, chopped ( I think you could use any of the goose liver varieties with this recipe or chicken or duck liver)

1 T goose fat or butter

1 shallot, sliced

½ t thyme

1t mustard

2 T Cognac

¼ c Port

1/3 c stock

1 t Worcestershire sauce

½ c cream
salt and pepper to taste

Saute the goose liver and shallot with the goosefat or butter.  When the liver is just about done, add the thyme and mustard and the liquors and stock and reduce a little.  Put in the blender with the cream and Worcestershire and blend, adding more cream  or stock if it is needed.  Chill till hardened.

Port jelly

¼ c port

¼ c demiglace

1 T currant jelly

Reduce port, add the demiglace and currant jelly and warm.  Remove from the heat.

Sautéed Onions with Port

1 or 2 sliced onions

1 – 2 T goose fat

salt and pepper to taste

1 -2  T port

Sauté the onions in the goose fat slowly until browned and softened.  Add salt and pepper to taste then the port to glaze.  Reserve

Brioche Buns, recipe from Martha Stewart, for 8 large rolls to 24 small rolls  

    1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons whole milk

    3 T sugar

    1 1/4 teaspoons active dry yeast (from one 1/4-ounce envelope)

    1 1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons unbleached bread flour

    1 1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour, plus more for surface

    1 teaspoon salt

    5 large eggs, plus 1 large egg, lightly beaten, for egg wash

    8 ounces (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened, plus more for pan

    Vegetable oil cooking spray, for bowl

Combine milk, sugar, yeast, and 1/2 cup bread flour in the bowl of a mixer. Mix until just combined. Sprinkle with remaining 3/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons bread flour, the all-purpose flour, and salt to cover; do not mix. Let stand for 45 minutes.

Using the dough-hook attachment, mix dough to combine. Add 4 eggs, and continue to mix until dough is smooth and does not stick to sides of bowl, about 5 minutes. Mix in remaining egg. Add butter, 1 tablespoon at a time, mixing until incorporated. Continue mixing until dough is smooth and comes together in a ball around the dough hook, about 5 minutes more.

Coat a large bowl with cooking spray. Transfer dough to bowl, and cover with plastic. Let stand in a warm place until doubled in volume, about 1 1/2 hours.

Punch down dough, and re-cover. Refrigerate for 1 1/2 hours. Punch down dough again, re-cover, and refrigerate overnight.

Preheat oven to 425º degrees. Turn out dough onto a lightly floured surface, and punch down. Working in batches (refrigerate remaining dough as you work), evenly divide dough into thirty-two 1-ounce pieces. Punch down each piece using the palm of your hand, and press each into a tight ball using the heel of your hand.

Butter small Turk's-head or similar shaped cast-iron pans. Place 3 dough balls each inside molds (dough should fill three-quarters of each mold section). Or, make simple buns on pieces of parchment on sheet pans. Loosely cover pans with plastic; let stand in a warm place until dough balls are soft and springy to the touch, about 30 minutes.

Lightly brush tops with egg wash. Bake for 10 minutes. Reduce heat to 350 degrees, and continue to bake until tops are dark gold (time will vary depending on size of pans or the bun size). Remove from oven, and immediately remove brioche rolls from pans and transfer to a wire rack. Let cool completely.

Thanks to Gollum for hosting Foodie Friday

Thanks to eHow for including my gooseburger on their Burger Emporium slideshow.

A Scottish Grouse meets an 1850 Madeira and a dream is realized

Ruffled Grouse 1824 Audubon

“The Red Grouse is never far from heather and its Gaelic name is Coileach-fraoich (Cock of the Heather). No one really knows where the name Grouse originated from – it could come from two old French words: groucier - to murmur, grumble or greoche – speckled”, reports the delightful Sue Stephen’s at Ladies with Bottle

Grouse are Galliformes like chickens and range in size from 11 oz to 14 lbs! Stephens says they are mostly vegetarians “living on heather shoots, seeds and insects”. This diet gives them their distinctive flavor. Their feathers (especially those of the black grouse) were popular as ornaments for hats during the Victorian age (and are still used on hunting hats) although grouse are most prized today as a game bird. Hunters refer to the opening of Grouse season in the UK as “The Glorious 12th” (of August) and the date has been the start of grouse season since the Game Act was passed in 1831.
Galliformes go waaaay back, 56 million years and more (don’t you love this fossil?)

Palaeortyx skeleton, Muséum national d'histoire naturelle, Paris

I think most of us think of grouse as the prey of the leisure-hunting class in so many British novels and Hollywood films.

Lord Saville by Spy 1908

The hunt begins with dozens of ‘grouse beaters’ crashing about the brush to frighten the poor birds into taking flight so they can be shot by sportsman in tweedy Plus-fours (at least that’s what they wear in 40’s Hollywood B&W hunting parties). Dining on pheasant and quail and grouse served from giant silver domed dishes from sideboards the size of airplane runways has come to represent a certain lifestyle of upper-class British society that is fast disappearing. I just had to try some.


Red Grouse

What started all this grousing??? Madeira! 

Mannie Berk by C. M. Glover for The New York Times

Those of you who have read my blog for a while know that Mannie Berk at The Rare Wine Company has been my Madeira Genie, granting my wish to cook with antique wines (as was done in centuries past when they were an indispensable ingredient for legendary chefs like Carême). In an exchange of emails I told him I dreamed to try a pre-Civil War Madeira. He told me he had an 1850 (that had been in cask for 100 years before it was bottled in the 1960’s or 70’s). I fell on the floor when a small sample arrived in the post. When I tasted it, I heard supernal music (think Caruso and Ancona as their voices join and rise heavenward in the Pearl Fisher Duet (LISTEN HERE) — close your eyes as you listen to the century old recording, the pellucid voices rising through a mist of sound — time stops for a moment— are you with me?? YES, THAT GOOD). To make a dish with this celestial elixir I had to find something that could complement the wine’s great age and ethereal beauty.

I once had a pheasant in England that had been hung until it dropped from its hook. The flavor was dark and mysterious as if legend and ancient moors and forests had come together to cast a spell over its succulent flesh.


Heather Fields by Gordon McBryde

I thought that grouse, redolent of heather, might have some of that quality and would be a perfect foil to the Madeira. A foie gras sauce with that Madeira would be the alpha and omega.

My Grouse comes from Scotland via the lovely people at D’Artagnan. I have come to rely on them for game birds and they are my Jersey neighbors.

Ariane Daugin

D'Artagnan was founded by Ariane Daugin, the daughter of Andre Daugin who ran Gascony’s famous Hotel de France in Auch. They provided the grouse and the ducks for the stock as well as the foie gras for the sauce. We could say this meal is a D’Artagnan production!

Since it was game, I wrote to the Game Guru Hank at Honest Food (2010 James Beard Best Blog Finalist btw, KUDOS!!!!!) He recommended brining. He also reminded me these are lean mean little flying machines that need help in the fat department so they don’t dry out in the cooking process. The wonderful cookbook author and teacher Madeline Kamman had a genius idea about frozen nut oil under the skin that her great-Grandmother had used with guinea hens that I decided to use on my grouse. I went to soooo many UK game sites to check with the masters of the moors for their suggestions about preparing my little treasures. In the end the great chefs Pierre Koffman and Eric Chavot had great ideas for the cooking grouse. What I ended up with was my distillation of many wonderful recipes with some ideas of my own that I hope you will enjoy. Although it sounds daunting, it is really quite simple and could be used on cornish hen if you can’t manage a grouse (although you should!) with an increase in cooking time.



Grouse with a Foie Gras and Madeira Sauce & Blackberry Compote for 2

Grouse ( I can see this recipe with Cornish hen or pheasant too!)

2 Scottish grouse from D'Artagnan (Buy them HERE)
Brine*
1 T hazelnut oil
1 anchovy, mashed
1 t grated shallot
½ t fresh thyme
1 T foie gras
¼ t pepper
3 t. heather honey
1 T vegetable oil
**Madeira sauce
***Blackberry compote

Take 1 T hazelnut oil and grated shallot, anchovy, thyme, pepper and 1 T foie gras and 1 t heather honey and blend. Put in the freezer for 30 minutes or until firm.

Remove the grouse from the brine and pat dry. Let stand 15 minutes while heating the oven to 400º as you insert the semi-solid oil under the breast and leg (the leg is tough to do—they are little birds) of the grouse. Put the remainder in the cavity with 2 t of heather honey. Add salt and pepper over all.

Heat the oil in a large ovenproof frying pan over a medium-high heat. Add the grouse and fry for 3-4 minutes, turning regularly, until the birds are browned on all sides. If you lose any of the oil from the bird as you do this… spoon it back in before you put it into the oven.

Arrange each grouse so that it is resting on one breast.

Transfer to the oven for 3-4 minutes, then turn the birds onto their other breast and roast for a further 3 minutes. Turn the grouse onto their backs and roast for 4 more minutes. 

Remove the pan from the oven. Remove the grouse from the pan, place on a warm plate and cover loosely with foil. Set aside to rest in a warm place for 10 minutes.

Serve with the Madeira sauce poured over the bird and the compote separately or on the plate.

*Brine for the grouse from Honest food

1/4 cup salt
4 cups water
2 bay leaves
1 tablespoon crushed juniper berries
1 rosemary sprig

Boil and cool and brine the birds for 12 hours. Enough for 2 small birds

**Madeira Sauce (this can be enough for 2 but it is so good you may want to double it)

2 T Butter
sprig of thyme
2 shallots, minced
1/3 c demi-glace (duck or chicken)
1 T foie gras (D'Artagnan brilliantly sells frozen pieces that can be broken off and used for sooo many things!!!)
2 t. Boston Bual Madeira (I used that 1850 Verdelho)

Add 2 T butter to the skillet in which the grouse cooked and add the shallots and thyme. Cover and cook for 2 minutes. Add duck Demi-glace. Add the Foie Gras one teaspoon at a time, whisking each addition thoroughly into the demi glace to achieve a silky smooth consistency, strain. Add 2 T Madeira just before serving.

Plate the grouse, nap with pan sauce and blackberries.



 ***Blackberry compote* based on Hotel Cipriani recipe

1 cup blackberries
3-4 T heather honey
6 juniper berries, crushed
1 “ piece cinnamon
2 cloves
Zest of ½ a lime

Combine and cook until berries are soft. Serve warm or at room temperature

*You may remember this Sherwood Forest combination… I just had to use it again!

This can be served with:

Tom Kitchin Celeriac Puree From Great British Menu

1 celeriac, peeled, finely chopped
milk, double cream to cover celeriac

2 t fresh horseradish


Place the celeriac into a small pan, cover with equal amounts of milk and cream and cook until soft. Once soft, drain, discarding the milk and cream. Purée using a hand-blender until smooth. Season with salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste. Add horseradish.

Also great with this is steamed sugar snaps and baked beets tossed with 1 T verjus or sherry vinegar and 1 T hazelnut oil

This re

Grouse with Foie Gras and Madeira and a Blackberry Sauce

Ancient Roman Asparagus and Grouse Tart

Scottish Pigeon with Gooseberry Sauce

Scottish Partridge with Port Wine Sauce