Salade Landaise

Found this salad recipe in the book Let’s Eat France! and needed no other reason to buy that very rarely eaten foie gras pâté. Made with so many duck parts, this salad, as said in the book, is not something you serve to a vegan or a vegetarian. You need not include all of the parts I have here, as you can use just the fillet or two things or maybe three, but, for me, this is something so special that when I make it, it has all of these ingredients in it — foie gras, smoked and fried duck and, yes, even some liver.

1 tbsp mild olive oil, for frying the duck
1 duck fillet
4 small duck livers
140 g lettuce like mâche, purslane, a mixture of small lettuce leaves, and some crispy lettuce
100 g apple slices
30 g walnuts, crushed
12 slices of smoked duck fillet
4 small slices of foie gras pâté (optional)

croutons:
100 g bread
15 ml mild extra virgin olive oil
3 medium garlic cloves, grated
sea salt to taste
1/3 tsp chopped rosemary

sauce:
25 ml mild extra virgin olive oil
1 tsp white or red wine vinegar
sea salt to taste
freshly ground pepper to taste

Heat the oven 190 degrees hot. While heating, mix all of the crouton ingredients and place on the pan in one layer. Bake in the oven for 6–8 minutes, until crispy. Take out and off the pan. Leave to cool.

Score duck skin not getting to the meat, just skin. Heat the pan and add duck breast skin side down and fry for 2-3 minutes until golden. Turn around and fry for one more minute and then sprinkle with salt and place the pan in the oven for 15-17 minutes.

In the meantime, mix all of the sauce ingredients and, when ready, mix with lettuce. Arrange on four plates and top with apples, walnuts, smoked duck, and pâté. Sprinkle with croutons.

Take out the duck and transfer to a plate or board and let it stand, while using the same pan, fry duck livers for 3-4 minutes. Remember, the handle of the pan is hot. When the livers are almost ready, cut the fillet, transfer the pieces to the plates, add fried livers, and serve right away.