I’m bringing fancy back this Christmas. It’s easy with two insanely picky eaters to get stuck on boring kid meals (called survival) but this year it’s time to train my toddlers to appreciate the finer things in life – la cusine française! I’m returning to my French roots and some of the food combinations I learned and loved during my tenure chez Guy Savoy. My first course is Truffled Celeriac Soup with Dungeness Crab and my second is Foie Gras Torchon, Port Lacquered Beets and Chicories truffled with black truffle vinaigrette.
Just the idea of truffles and beets together sends my pulse sky rocketing. And not because the combo is super sexy (which it is) but because there is a certain off-menu salad at Guy Savoy that is insanely difficult to construct.
Monsieur Savoy’s Truffled Mâche and Beet Salad is a well-loved and simple (though expensive) French combination of ingredients: truffled vinaigrette, caramelized deep ruby red beets, bouncy mâche and the blackest truffle slices you’ve ever seen.
However, The putting-it-together part is pretty much like Jenga — if you’ve ever played that impossible stacking game before, you’ll understand exactly what I mean. The mâche and beets are carefully layered into a mile high tower and then completely covered in a delicate dome of black truffle concentric circles, each truffle slice placed over the one before until the entire salad is wrapped in beautiful blackness. Sounds easy. IT’S NOT! It’s quite often the leaning tower of truffled Pisa.
But, it is delicious. There’s no denying that the creamy truffle vinaigrette is drinkable just on it’s own and paired with the sweet & earthy beets and the minerality of mâche – it is one hundred percent satisfying. It goes nicely with a coupe de Champagne for a light lunch too (just sayin’!)
Monsieur Savoy pairs his famous truffled vinaigrette with a few other cold appetizers as well. My personal favorite is his signature dish: ballontine of chicken breast, artichoke heart and foie gras terrine sliced thick and served with truffled vinaigrette and a little mâche. If you happen to pop into Guy Savoy for lunch and want something different than the 4-hour tasting menu (just a quick bite peut être?) I highly recommend this dish, it is delicious. I loved making it and I loved eating the smaller slices of the ballottine that weren’t big enough for a proper serving.
I’ve put together my favorite truffled vinaigrette combos from Monsieur Savoy’s menu in a simple starter. But I’ve added my own touches too. My focus these days is on relocating to Portugal so of course the beets are lacquered with the sweet wine. And although Monsieur Savoy would most certainly use Poilaîne crostini, I have opted for rye, my personal fav.
The ingredients can be put together as a finger appetizer on a crostini or plated as a starter or enlarged to make a platter for a crowd. Foie gras is exceptionally difficult to get ahold of in California these days and companies like D’Artagnan (in NYC) will ship it along with high quality truffles (and lots of other insanely delicious ingredients). But for the sake of making this dish accessible for all, there are some excellent packaged foie de canard mousse in the markets these days too and you can use that here as well.
If you’re up for making foie gras torchon, making it at home is not hard just time consuming. I open up the lobes and devein, sometimes using my fingers or the back of a spoon to find the web like strands. (buy premium foie gras and it will be easier to devein). Then I sprinkle with a little rose salt and kosher salt, roll back up and create a cylinder with several layers of saran wrap tying each end tight and cook sous-vide. Curing salt needs to be measured and if you are having trouble finding it, ask your butcher, you don’t need a lot! I personally do not add other spices to my torchon but some people do.
I think Serious Eats has an excellent post on making foie gras torchon with clear instructions and since I made mine last year and froze it and I don’t have pictures, this is a great resource. By the way, if you do freeze yours for later use, make sure to take the cheesecloth off, rewrap and cryovac.
Nice fresh black truffles are also difficult to find right now as is mâche for some odd reason but I was able to find some canned truffles – not my preference but will do in a pinch – and some beautiful frisée too!
Bon Appétit!
Ingredients
- Black Truffle Vinaigrette:
- 1 Tablespoon scant smooth Dijon mustard
- 1/2 egg yolk
- 4T sherry vinegar
- 1/2 teaspoon sugar
- 1 cup grapeseed oil or flavorless oil
- 1 small black truffle, brunoise
- 2 4T black truffle juice (add at the end or will not emulsify, use to thin out)
- 1 T white or black truffle oil
- Salt to taste
- Port Lacquered Beets
- 2 bunches of baby beets or 4 big beets cleaned, tops trimmed
- 1 cup White Porto (you can also use ruby if you want)
- 4 teaspoons granulated sugar
- Greens:
- Mache or Frisée
Foie Gras Torchon: See Serious Eats recipe and instructions. I make this by memory and feel but they do a far better job in this case at explaining the process https://www.seriouseats.com/foie-gras-torchon-recipe and I think it's important to understand the measurements...
Truffled Vinaigrette: In a small mixing bowl, whisk egg yolk and mustard together plus 1T of vinegar. Add oil in a slow stream whisking all the time and mixture should begin to thicken, add the rest of vinegar and whisk to emulsify, add black truffle jus little by little whisking so vinaigrette doesn’t break. Add truffle oil if using and chopped truffles too! Season with salt.
Port Lacquered Beets: Preheat oven to 425˚F and wash all beets thoroughly. Trim stems. Place beets in a pan toss beets lightly with olive oil. Cover tightly with aluminum foil. Depending on the size roast until beets are easy pierced by a fork (check after 15 minutes). Then they are cooked (and cool enough to handle) rub the skins off and quarter. I often steam baby beets on the stove top, especially Chiogga because they loose all their color in the oven, but the big red ones I love to do in the oven because their sugars caramilize and they get extra sweet.
For the Port Glaze: In a small sauté pan, add the port and sugar. Heat on high until the Port has reduced to a syrup consistency. Remove from heat. Toss in the beets and shake the pan around. If the glaze is becoming hard put back on the stovetop over medium to reheat and soften. Season with salt and pepper.
Plating: This can made into a crostini, a starter, or a party platter. I use rye bread crostini to accompany but any crostini could be used. For the starter version: toss the greens with a tablespoon of vinaigrette and a pinch of salt. Place a slice of torchon in the middle of the plate with a big pinch of sea salt on top, place lacquered beets and truffled greens all around decoratively with crostini on the side. Devour!
