Foie de poulet sur son lit de pommes de terre (Chicken Liver on a Bed of Potatoes)

This is one dish I am mighty proud of.

I set myself a goal today: Come up with fine dining entree you would put in your restaurant.

This is a perfectly cooked (boiled) chicken liver, seasoned with salt pepper and a little ginger, sitting on top of honey-sesame crusted cornichons and sliced chilli. This is sitting upon a layer or finely sliced potatoes that have been marinated in lemon, dill, salt, pepper, and truffle oil and pan fried til golden and crispy.

To garnish the dish I’ve fried garlic chips, organic thyme and sage (that I’ve grown) also fried in garlic butter. Around the liver are the globe ends of organic red seedless grapes sitting on frozen, snappy grape skins that have had a little chilli, thyme and salt rubbed onto them.

This dish works.

The sour sweet cornichons and toasted sesame flavour cut through the buttery richness of the liver, The zingy potatoes and the herbs just fit so perfectly together. And there is something I just cannot explain about grapes and meaty flavours like liver or pork. It’s a happy marriage.

I wanted the grape skins to be crisp, crunchy and a really phenomenal experience of texture. Freezing them didn’t work as well. I thought it’d be an interesting play on temperature in the mouth too but it wasn’t as good as I anticipated. I suppose freeze drying or some how tempura-ing these little ribbons would be more appropriate.

Anyway this is one creation I am damn proud to share with you all.