Foie gras, the fattened livers of a duck or goose, is not everyday fare. It is rich, about 90 percent fat. It is expensive, about $36 a pound. It is packed with flavor. Last week, when foie gras showed up in every course of a gourmet dinner, I was there, sipping and biting.
The occasion was "Seduction by Foie Gras" a $150 per person dinner put on by the Baltimore Chapter of the American Institute of Wine & Food at the Harbor Court Hotel.
Michael Ginor, owner of Hudson Valley Foie Gras, presided over the dinner, bringing with him a large supply of duck livers from his New York state farm, and an unbounded enthusiasm for foie gras. Ginor described the culinary history of foie gras and added a surprise course to the evening: a "cappuccino" made with melted foie gras and heavy cream. The dish was a showstopper, and, because it was so rich, it was almost an appetite stopper.
Before spooning down every drop of the cappuccino, I had become acquainted with many duck dishes during the hors d'oeuvres. There was duck on a stick, or duck tenderloin satay with spicy peanut and pineapple sauce; duck and pickles, also called duck and cornichons rillettes, foie gras mousse, duck breasts cured with brown sugar, and my favorite, foie gras and shiitake pot stickers.
These were dumplings stuffed with duck liver and mushrooms that were first seared in oil, then steamed. "Once they get nice and brown, you add a cup of water, so they are both deep-fried and steamed," said Jerry Pellegrino of Corks restaurant in South Baltimore. He was one of almost a dozen local chefs who teamed up with Harbor Court's executive chef Galen Sampson to prepare the dinner.
Jerry Edwards of Chef's Expressions in Timonium worked on the next course, a delectable terrine of duck liver topped with a marvelous marmalade of onions and sauterne. It was served with a dynamite wine, a 1988 Peter Lehmann Botrytis Semillon Sauterne. The grapes of this wine are afflicted with "noble rot," a condition I was beginning to identify with.
Next was foie gras stew, technically foie gras pot-au-feu. Barry Fleischmann of Innovative Gourmet catering in Owings Mills said that he and fellow chef Robert Taylor of Caves Valley Golf Club decided to lighten the duck liver load in this dish. "With foie gras, you have to have a deft hand; it has a lot of flavor." They chose wisely.
