Guillons de canard

What do you get as a bi-product of rendering fat from duck skin? Crispy bits of duck skin. What do you do then? Why you add a bit of duck meat, onion, salt and pepper, put the whole in a terrine mold, bake and eat as you would creton. This invention of my favourite charcutier is smooth textured and has a taste which reminds me of pork rinds though a million times more sophisticated. This is the breakfast of champions and those unafraid of cardiac arrest for sure.

Boudin Blanc

Boudin is french for blood sausage. Boudin blanc would therefore mean white blood sausage. However, whilst talking to my friendly market charcutier, he informed me that there is no blood in white blood sausage. The name, he says, comes from the fact that the same casing is used for blood sausage and white blood sausage.

The sausage is actually made of milk and chicken in a sort of sponge form which I found out fries really quickly. For this meal, I cut the boudin blanc into discs, fried them and incorporated them into what is becoming a staple tomato sauce and homemade ravioli dish.

The taste of the whole thing was pretty good especially when accompanied by a bit of Italian Chianti. However, I have to admit that white fat sausages are sort of weird. But I bought them anyways. Cause I'm just that crazy....

P.S. Sorry for the crappy photo quality. Not much sunlight during supper time up here in the northern winter. And the flash just makes food look disgusting.

Ferme du Diamant Strikes Again

I love my farmer's markets. I love the food, the people and I love the fact that I'm now a regular. I walk up to some stalls and the merchants know right away what I'm going buy. At the Moncton market I buy bubbly apple cider every week. He sees me coming and has it already pulled out for me. You wont see that at the supermarket.

One such merchant who I love is the French gentleman of Ferme du Diamant. His ham is the best. His sausages are the best. And considering that he's the only one at the markets who makes terrines and patés, his terrines and patés are the best. But really, they are. I mean I'd even go so far as to say that his creton is almost better than my grandmother's. And that's saying something.

This week, I bought chicken liver paté with prunes and madeira wine. Just the name sounds amazing...and don't knock it just because it contains offal. The paté had the delicious smooth taste particular to chicken livers which was balanced with the sweetness of the wine and the prunes. On toast, this is absolutely the best way to start the morning. That and a good big cup of coffee.

What you see alongside the paté on toast is the Norwegian whey cheese on toast I'd mentionned last week. Nice, sweet, and soft. Yum.