Confit de gésiers
Lunch menus in France often feature a salade composée of confit de gésiers. The gizzards are alone or with duck confit and sometimes cured ham. Alternatively this is labeled salade périgord. (I am not clear what defines a salade périgord but it seems to require walnuts and walnut oil.) I have often bought confit de gésiers in a can at the duty-free on the way home, and they are always good. Last week I saw huge bags of gizzards in the market and this started me thinking. After cooking a goose I have a lot of the fat, so this seems like an opportunity to try making confit de gésiers myself.
None of my cookbooks has a specific recipe for gizzard confit. Google hits are almost all for the salads, and list gésiers as an ingredient. I found a very few recipes for making gizzard confit, but these seemed to aim for a dish to be eaten immediately or a short time afterwards. I want something I can put in my fridge for several months. I then thought of using a standard confit recipe, and turned to Paula Wolfert's The Cooking of South-West France, which has authoritative recipes for duck and goose confit. Wolfert simply includes gizzards among a list of duck parts suitable for the confit treatment. Her method is definitely aimed at longer storage.
At the market this morning I asked for duck gizzards, and found out that only chicken ones were available, so bought a pound and a half. They don't look hugely appetizing at this stage, I have to admit. Paula Wolfert calls for a dry marinade of herbs, lots of salt, crushed peppercorns, shallots and herbs. This sits in the fridge until tomorrow, then the action begins.
On a slightly different topic: another dish I never see on US menus is veal sweetbreads. I asked the butcher at the veal stand in the market, and he says they have great difficulty getting them. He had one small one, about three ounces, that he offered to give me. He promised to call around and find out if anyone carries them in any quantity. I don't see why they are common on French menus and practically unobtainable here. I also tried and failed to to find a mail order store advertising veal sweetbreads.
At the market this morning I asked for duck gizzards, and found out that only chicken ones were available, so bought a pound and a half. They don't look hugely appetizing at this stage, I have to admit. Paula Wolfert calls for a dry marinade of herbs, lots of salt, crushed peppercorns, shallots and herbs. This sits in the fridge until tomorrow, then the action begins.On a slightly different topic: another dish I never see on US menus is veal sweetbreads. I asked the butcher at the veal stand in the market, and he says they have great difficulty getting them. He had one small one, about three ounces, that he offered to give me. He promised to call around and find out if anyone carries them in any quantity. I don't see why they are common on French menus and practically unobtainable here. I also tried and failed to to find a mail order store advertising veal sweetbreads.
posted by William @ 6:16 PM
1 Comments:
William,
Were you successful? I recently traveled to the south of France and discovered salad with gesiers. I've always liked gizzards anyway. And now I have a pkg of turkey gizzards looking for a recipe (I thought they were chicken when I bought them).
Post a Comment
Links to this post:
Create a Link
<< Home