Foie Gras Frisson

I don’t know about you, but that frisson is a little shudder I get from overindulgence in foie gras.  “Right,” you’re thinking, “like there could ever too much foie gras!” 

But I’m here to tell you that there can be, and that I’ve reached my foie gras limit for the year.  And it has nothing to do with the political brouhaha about how the ducks are fed.  Happily, at this juncture in American history, that discussion is relegated to an upper balcony back row seat in the theater that’s playing the mesmerising  Hillary and Barack Show.  Nope, it’s a simple matter of digestion.

Here in France foie gras is a largely noncontroversial seasonal treat, prepared for the holidays, and then sold at drastically reduced prices afterwards.  We managed to make it through to the new year, mostly reveling in foie gras by products while eating little of the actual foie itself.    But now, when all of the foie gras that’s left in the shops is selling for 50% off its normally exorbitant price, how could I resist?

Of course I couldn’t, and so tonight we sat down to

another shockingly decadent meal, the aforementioned foie gras, accompanied by slices of rare duck breast piled over chestnuts and shallots sautéed with some chestnut liqueur.

After the first few bites we smiled and agreed that it was delicious.  And at the end of the meal we wiped our lips indelicately and promised each other not to repeat the experience any time in the forseeable future.  I’m hoping that my next few meals will consist of crisp cool fennel slices, bitter endive, gazpacho, and possibly some cucumber sorbet. 

And what’s the problem with that?  It’s that, improbably, I still have 180 grams of  foie gras in the fridge and we don’t want to eat it any time soon.  And much as we love Beppo, it’s a bit high end for cat food, even for a cat that loves duck as much as Beppo does.

So what am I to do?  If you had 180 grams of good quality foie gras to use up in the next few days, what would you do?  I’ve thought of melting it into a sauce meurette and putting it in the freezer, and that’s as far as I’ve gotten.  Amazing as it seems, even to me, I don’t want to think about any part of a duck.  If it weren’t dark and raining I’d be thinking about a 10 kilometer walk, followed by a nice glass of lemon juice.  It’s that bad.  I am totally foie gras‘d out.  I’ll duck now while you throw things at me.  I just hope that some of them will be recipes.