We are incredibly proud of our discovery of Alain Passard’s series of video-recipes for Le Point. His philosophy suits our idea of delivering great flavour with the minimum effort. Through unexpected pairings Passard achieves elegance. His endive ‘rose’ tart is yet another example. The layers of this vegetable can indeed open beautifully like a flower, kept together wrapped by pastry. The crisp texture, soft interior and lightly caramelised surface make this a perfect side for poultry or fish. Be careful though, it might outshine the meat!
In this case, we decided to serve it as a complement to duck breast and seared foie gras. Foie gras can be used alongside tender cuts of meat or poultry to boost their flavours with its richness and savoury notes. Moreover, it also holds the advantage of being one of the easiest ingredients to cook, only requiring a hot pan, salt and one minute of your time.
The juiciest duck breast, foie and endive tart
Course: MainCuisine: French, ModernDifficulty: Easy2
servings25
minutes40
minutesIngredients
- Endive tart
Puff pastry (preferably all butter)
1 endive (about 15cm long)
2tsp salted butter, soften
icing sugar
- The juiciest duck breast (In order to achieve the best possible results, we recommend using a sous vide machine or water circulator).
2 duck breasts
bouquet garni
salt and pepper
- Foie gras
Raw foie gras (the quantity depends on your appetite)
Sea salt
Directions
- Endive tart
- Preheat the oven to 240C.
- Peel the two outer leaves of the endive.
- Cut two 2.5 to 3cm transversal slices of the endive.
- Prepare a medium pan with a short rim.
- The pan should be large enough to fit two tarts.
- Sprinkle the bottom of the pan with some icing sugar.
- Place two dollops of butter making sure that they are separated from each other (about 10cm) and they are away from the edge of the pan (about 4cm).
- Position both slices of the endive on the top of each dollop of the butter.
- Cut out two circles of puff pastry with a diameter of 7cm.
- Place both circles on the top of each slice and press them gently to wrap them around the sides of the endive.
- Make sure that the perimeter of the pastry is in direct contact with the pan.
- Bake for 15 to 20min until golden brown.
- Remove from the oven and let it cool down slightly for 5-10min (otherwise the tart will slide and may break).
- Carefully lift the tart with a wide spatula turning it up-side-down.
- Grate some lemon zest on the top.
- Duck breast
- Put the seasoned duck breasts and the bouquet garni in vacuum bags.
- Seal and place in the water bath at 54C for 45min.
- Take out of the bags, pat dry and reserve. Just before the service, sear the duck breasts at high heat for about 1min on each side.
- Foie gras
- Cut 2cm slices of the foie gras using a preheated knife (pour some hot water on your knife for several seconds), otherwise it’s very likely that your foie will break and crack into pieces.
- Sear the foie at high heat for about 30s on each side, until nicely browned. Season with flakes of sea salt.
