Bull candy, foie gras and prunes

A magnificent entry for Christmas!

If you have a leftover bull keeper and don't know what to do with it, here's a nice way to revisit it. It is an original recipe for the end of the year celebrations, gourmet and generous, a recipe from home: bull candy, foie gras and prunes, otherwise called nem with Provençal flavors !

This recipe was created by Damien Arrizabalaga, Chef at the Auberge de l'Amandin, a good address in the Plaine de Beaucaire.

It is a sheet of brick stuffed with winter vegetables, prunes and foie gras, topped with red wine sauce and served with sweet potato purée. A real treat !

This dish can be served as a starter (you can reduce the proportions to make small candies), or as a main course.
The advantage of this recipe is that you can prepare it in advance (even the day before) and put it in the oven just before serving your guests.

Ingredients for 4 people

For the candies (or nem) :
- 3 carrots
- 1/4 of celery ball
- 3 leek whites
- 12 prunes (for the candy and sauce)
- 160 grams semi-cooked or cooked duck foie gras
- A few pieces of gardianne of bull
- 4 sheets of brick pastry
- 1 egg (for gilding)
- Kitchen string (or toothpick)


For the sauce :
- 1/2 liter of Costières de Nîmes red wine, here Les Galets Rouges, a organic wine from Chateau Mourgues-du-Grès.
- 160 grams of half-cooked or cooked duck foie gras
- 20 grams of cornstarch
- 70 grams of sugar
- A few pinches of Espelette pepper

Accompaniment :
- 2 sweet potatoes

Recipe steps:

Start with the joke:

• Peel and finely julienne the vegetables, season
• Saute them in a hot wok for 10 minutes

Support:

• Wrap your sweet potatoes in aluminum foil and bake them in the oven for 1 hour at 180 degrees

Prepare the sauce:

• Pour 1/2 liter of red wine into a saucepan. On high heat for a few minutes then medium heat.
• When the wine comes to a boil, stop cooking.
• Off the heat, pour in the cornstarch and sugar mixture and stir with a whisk
• Put back on the stove, over low heat to thicken the sauce
• Pour the prunes into the wine, continue cooking for a few minutes and leave to rest

Continue to make the farce:

• Carve the bull keeper (meat only, no juice and no vegetables), finely shred the meat
• Add the shredded meat to the vegetables and set aside
• Cut the foie gras into small cubes and set them aside, remove the prunes from the wine sauce and cut them into pieces

Assemble the candy:

• Beat the egg in a bowl using a whisk
• Spread your brick sheet flat, whole
• Spread a little egg with a brush, go around the brick. This will be used to 'stick' the candy
• Position your vegetable-bull filling like a candy in the center of the brick, along the entire length
• Place 3 foie gras cubes on top of the mixture and cover with a piece of prune
• Roll your candy like on the video, close with a piece of string on one side and the other (or with two toothpicks)
• Again, we will use the brush to brush our candy with egg, so that it browns when cooked.

Repeat the process for each candy (one per person).

Cooking: put in the oven at 190 degrees for 15 minutes

Arrange the dish:

• (Optional) Place the plates in the oven for a few minutes so that they are hot
• Take the sweet potatoes out of the oven. Scrape and keep only the flesh, season it (salt and pepper) and mold it like a purée on the plate.
• Place the candy (remove the string), the red wine sauce, a few pinches of Espelette pepper (for decoration) and a sprig of rosemary

Enjoy immediately!