Time for a long-overdue feature on our trip to Quebec's Eastern Townships, where we visited an abbey that makes cheeses and ciders (St. Benoît), and toured several of the region's wineries (more on those later). The photo above shows some of the wines we bought during our visit. We stayed at À La Maison Campbell, a B&B run by Jean and Danielle Goyer, who make delicious, delightful breakfasts. We also ate at several nice restaurants, our favourite meal being mussels and fries at La Table Alain Roger. It's a place that specializes in, well, mussels and fries! I have never tasted mussels like this before. So much flavour and such a high quality. The fries were great too, and came with several different kinds of mustard and mayonnaise for dipping.
Wednesday, August 10, 2011
Wine tour of Quebec's Eastern Townships
Monday, July 5, 2010
Duck rillette with foie gras
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I had the day off today and made a charcuterie lunch for S and myself. We ate a duck rillette with foie gras that we bought on the weekend from a great little sausage shop in Hull-Gatineau.
It was delicious on baguette. It was made by Aux trois p'tits cochons verts, a charcuterie-maker just north of Montreal.
I think I like rillettes better than pâtés. They have a coarser texture and you can see that the meat has been finely shredded as opposed to pureed into a paste. Rillette meats are slow-cooked until tender, shredded with two forks in the manner of pulled pork, and then mixed with warm fats until spreadable. They are meant to be served at room temperature with breads.
Foie gras was added to this one, which made it sinfully rich. To assuage my feelings of guilt about having a full-out fat fest, I also laid out some cherries, cherry tomatoes and hummus on the table. But who's kidding who, the rillette stole the show ;)
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