Home Cooking

IF you can find fresh foie gras in London after the vegan zealots tried to get it banned, then this is a semi-legendary dish that rarely makes an appearance these days. It emanates from Pierre Koffman and was for a while one of the concepts on which Marco Pierre White made his reputation, later abandoning it on the grounds that it was too expensive. Cheap it is not, but at home it is more affordable and surprisingly easy and quick to put together.

More than ever though the maxim is that you need good quality ingredients – good quality sweet dessert wine, like a Sauternes or maybe a Balls Brothers muscat. Good bread, preferably – if you can find it – brioche lightly toasted. Fresh foie gras. Top notch scallops. If you have more than a couple of people, then you may have to sacrifice a slice of foie gras for its juices to fry the bread in. The combo is sublime.

METHOD
Warm a large wide frying pan. Slice crossways two steaks of foie gras, about one centimetre thick per person.

Quick fry the steaks on one side until the juices start to run. Flip the steaks and add a thin slice of bread/brioche to fry alongside – they will take less time than the liver.

Lift out the bread/brioche and add two scallops per person to the pan, sliced in half if too fat.

Lay up the bread/brioche with the foie gras and then the scallops.

De-glaze the pan with the sweet dessert wine and pour over the mix.

Serve immediately.