A farewell duck dinner in Provence
A farewell provence duck dinner with special guests Mel and Larry
A farewell duck dinner in Provence
Over the years, I’ve enjoyed getting to know some good friends of my parents that visit annually from the states. They are such gracious guests! The first time I met Larry, he asked if he could go to the store with me. He wouldn't let me pay for my groceries. Extremely generous!
When they visit, they and my parents take petite vacations. The last few days of their stay here in France they went to the Luberon region, leaving only one day back at Les Silves before heading back to America. I wanted to make them a special Provence dinner for their last night in my provence kitchen.
The menu-local foods from the property and the region
picking mirabelle plums
I focused the menu around mirabelles, because we have so many on the property. The one that was producing during Larry and Mel’s stay was a purple one. I'm not sure what variety, but was a little odd because this tree was coming out of a mulberry tree. And the petite plums were purple, which is not usual for mirabelles. So, maybe this was some sort of hybrid of the dark mulberries and the petite plums of mirabelles. Regardless, I found Mel and Larry under that tree multiple times picking and eating the fruit with glee. So, two parts of the farewell provence dinner menu included mirabelles.
getting ready to pick the mirabelles coming out of the mulberry tree
The menu
I started with a tomato tart with the local tomatoes and shallots from the market. Larry and Mel brought a perfect white wine to pair in which they brought back from the Luberon. You can find my tomato tart recipe here.
tarte à la tomate, rustic tomato tart in provence
The main course was magret de canard. You all know I love duck! But it was extra special because I served it with a mirabelle sauce in which I used my homemade mirabelle confiture that I made earlier in the season. You can find that recipe here. These mirabelles came from a tree outside of my bedroom window, which is a more traditional early producing tree with yellowish/red fruit. The duck was pan seared and cooked medium rare.
The sides to compliment the duck were traditional and local
I chose braised fennel with garlic and black lentils with tarragon do go with the duck. I found these little black lentils, Lentils Beluga from Chaspuzac at the local biocoop store (organic store) in Sisteron. Chaspuzac isn't far from us, just a little north in the Loire region. These little black lentils are round and tiny. They hold their shape well during cooking which makes them a caviar of the lentil family. Mel and Larry paired the the dish with a lovely sarah, grenache and carignon wine from the Luberon.
getting the sides ready
The Braised Fennel was a take off of Richard Olney's “Fenouil à la Niçoise” from his cookbook, “Provence, the beautiful cookbook”. I braised them in white wine then added cream at the end and coated them.
magret de canard with a mirabelle sauce, black lentils and braised fennel
The sauce was made with shallots, balsamic vinigar, white wine, homemade chicken stock, thyme and mirabelle jelly.
The finally – clafoutis aux mirabelles
clafoutis aux mirabelles
The finally was a mirabelle clafoutis . A clafoutis originated in the Limousin region using mostly black cherries, which are the meatiest, juiciest and sweetest of the variety. These purple mirabelles from the property seemed to also have those qualities. Basically, a clafoutis is a bunch of cherries in a buttered dish and a flan like batter, almost like a thick crepe batter poured on top. So, it is kind of eggy and caky. It turned out very nice. We had whipped cream with it.
Another lovely evening in the south of France...