This Sunday Les Gastronomes Du Dimanche had their first reunion. It is a hands-on convivial class I teach through the Alliance Française de San Francisco.

For our first class I had picked a very traditional but very simple French bistro menu.

As the class will go, more complicated the menu will get. For now I am choosing recipes that I know anyone can reproduce in their own kitchen. It is important to me to teach that it’s not hard to be a good cook!

The Salade Lyonnaise is a frisée salad with a dijon based vinaigrette and warm lardons topped with a poached egg.

This is one of my favorite salad, almost like comfort food.

The vinaigrette is made by dissolving a teaspoon of Dijon mustard in 2 tablespoons of vinegar, I prefer red wine vinegar. Add salt and pepper, then whisk in about 4 tablespoons of olive oil. Add a little minced shallot and some fresh chopped parsley.

In a pan render the lardons. You can find bacon by the slab at Bi-rite in San Francisco. I do not like my bacon to be pre-sliced, I always like to do it myself and for this recipe, you really want some nice thick chunks. When your bacon is rendered set aside and use 1 or 2 tablespoon of the fat in your vinaigrette. Yes, that will give it an extra kick!

In a pot, bring water to a boil and then lower the heat to a simmer, you should see little bubbles forming on the side and bottom of the pot. Add about 1 tablespoon of vinegar. I am never sure how long to poach my eggs for, it always depends on how hot the water is and how big or fresh the eggs are. Usually I just dropped them individually, by breaking them is a small ramequin and gently let them slide into the water. After a couple minute I pull one out and gently rub it with my finger, I want to make sure the white is set but not the yolk, the yolk should feel really soft under the finger.

For the second dish, I had those beautiful Magret de canard from Hudson Valley Foie Gras. Nice and thick, I removed the silver skin left on the flesh and then nicely seasoned them and set them aside until I was ready to cook them. It’s important to bring your magret at room temperature. Score the fat, by running a blade gently thru the fat, you don’t want to cut all the way to the meat. I usually run my blade to the bias and then turn my magret 90° and do it again creating a diamond type of pattern.

In a cold pan, I placed my magret, fat down, and brought the temperature to a low heat. It is important that you do this to render the fat. You can pour out the fat and use it later, nothing better than duck fat!!!

After rending your fat for about 10 minutes, turn the heat to a high and cook your meat for another 5-8 minutes depending on the thickness of your duck breast. Then turn you magret to the meat side and cook for 6-10 minutes. The temperature inside your meat should be of a 125 for a medium rare. I usually pull my meat out around 118 and let it carry over to 125 while resting the meat. It’s important to let the meat rest for at least 10 minutes.

On the side, blanche some potatoes thickly diced and add them to a hot pan lubricated with the duck fat. Pommes Sarladaises (named after the beautiful city of Sarlat in Dordogne, known for it’s Foie Gras) are my favorites! Sauté the potatoes until fork tender and then at the last minute add the chopped garlic and parsley. Season with salt and pepper. So simple but so good!

To add a little green on the plate I made a very quick chiffonade of brussels sprouts by shaving the sprouts thru a mandolin and then by sautéing them in a pan with a bit of butter for a couple minutes.

For the mousse au chocolat, you can find the recipe here.

It was a lot of fun to get to know everyone and have dinner all together. I hope to see you all on May 31st.

To your kitchen Gastronomes!