My Two Heavens

My Two Heavens

By Jo Crabb

Publication  17 April 2014

Random House NZ - RRP: $39.99

This book was featured on the blog yesterday. Now the publishers have kindly allowed me to reproduce the following recipe which is one of the many included in the book.

Salade de Gésiers

This is a classic from south-west France. We often eat this in brasseries for lunch or take it for a picnic.

Chicken gizzards, or gésiers, in French, are not something New Zealanders habitually cook, yet they are popular throughout the world. In France you buy the gésiers confits in a can, ready to heat up, but here we have to make our own. It’s not at all hard to do, but it has to be started early — at least the day before — and the gizzards will benefit from being made a few days before and kept in the fridge, covered in their fat. Some supermarkets stock gizzards, and when you find them they are cheap; you do have to put up with people wondering what on earth you’re going to do with them though. Try it, it’s easy . . .

Serves 2 as a main course, or 4 as an entrée.

Ingredients

300 g chicken gizzards

2 tbsp rock salt

½ tsp black pepper

1 tbsp fresh thyme leaves

1 fresh bay leaf, ripped up

500 g duck fat

¾ cup walnuts

6 little new potatoes

150 g bacon, in fat slices (4 mm x 4 mm x 3 cm), if possible

a few slices of stale French bread

300 g bitter salad leaves, or mesclun

2 ripe tomatoes

vinaigrette dressing

Method

First, make the gésiers confits. Sprinkle the gizzards with the salt, pepper, thyme and bay leaf, and leave in the fridge in a non-reactive container (pyrex or plastic is good) overnight.

The next day, wipe the gizzards dry with paper towels, and put them in a pot. Melt the duck fat and pour it over, making sure the gizzards are covered in fat. Cook very, very slowly for 3–4 hours, either in a remarkably slow oven — try it at 110°C — or on the stovetop if you can control the heat well. They should be at 95°C so that they cook really slowly. Put them into a glass jar and pour the fat over, then store in the fridge.

When the time comes to make the salad, toast the walnuts lightly in the oven.

Boil the potatoes then cut them into quarters. Cut the bacon into fat matchsticks — the French call these lardons — and sizzle in a little of the duck fat until they’re browned.

Cut the stale bread into 1.5 cm cubes, and brown in the
oven until crisp.

Fish the gésiers out of their fat, and warm them up in a pan.

Assemble the salad just before you serve it — some of the
things are warm. Salad leaves (or mesclun) and tomatoes on the bottom with some vinaigrette, then the potatoes, crouˆtons, walnuts and lardons. Last of all, pile the gésiers on top
— they’re the star ingredient.


Photographs from the book:

 Montjaux village seen from below

The author's French home

My Two Heavens

By Jo Crabb

Publication  17 April 2014

Random House NZ - RRP: $39.99