Roasts and stews of duck and goose are among the great festive dishes from L’Empordà to La Cerdanya, where they are also known as tiró. Traditionally, the duck is cooked with pears or turnips, and its offal is prepared with two picades (sauces), along with a sofregit with the wings, head, neck, legs, crest, gizzard and liver of other species of birds. The dish, formerly known as platillo de la batalla d’Almansa, is one of the most iconic and complex dishes in Catalan cuisine.
Indeed, many households fattened a duck, or less often a goose, for the town festival and the long Christmas feasts; during the year they fed them with snails and windfall figs. This familiarity with waterfowl explains why the breeding of mulard ducks, a hybrid resulting from the cross betweeb a Peking female with a male Muscovy or Barbarian duck from the Andes, was so popular, and was intended to be used to produce foie gras.
For a very long period of time, French cuisine was an international benchmark and restaurants all over the world wanted to emulate it. As a result, all the top restaurants had foie gras dishes, one of the icons of historical Occitan cuisine.
The first attempt o dedicate a duck farm to the production of foie gras in the Girona region was made in 1976, but it was not until 1982 that this sector became established. Just like the pigs, all of the duck is used: confit duck legs, marinated breast, preserved gizzards, stuffed necks, mousses, pâtés with various pairings, pork rind, botifarra sausages and cured meats. Classic recipes are respected and new formulation are being innovated.
Foie gras with the 2020-2021 Girona Excel·lent seal
Foie Gras Extra
The Parc Natural dels Aiguamolls de l’Empordà, where Collverd has its facilities along with most of the farms that supply them, is the ideal environment for raising ducks on cereals, especially maize. Its naturally fatty liver, fresh and whole, uniformly coloured, with a silky and compact texture, is ideal for grilling and for preserving in tubs.
Company: Collverd Productes de l’Ànec, SA
Foie Gras Mi-Cuit
Whole cooked foie gras, prepared in a bain-marie with salt, pepper and a liqueur or distillate, generally Armanyac, is one of the most widespread ways of consuming fatty duck or goose liver. On its own or with toast, roast potatoes or truffles, to top rice and pasta dishes, as a stuffing, or with jams like fig or citrus, mi-cuit is delicious.
Company: Collverd Productes de l’Ànec, SA
Celler Foie Gras
Cellar foie gras, cooked without heat, using only salt, is the signature product of this company, founded in 1980, one of the oldest and most pioneering in Spain in the production of duck products. It is the closest way to eating natural foie gras, be that simply with gusto, as shavings, or in carpaccio.
Company: Collverd Productes de l’Ànec, SA
El jurat del
tast de foie-gras.
André Bonnaure
Cuiner expert en foie-gras i ànec
Pere Arpa
Cuiner del restaurant Ca l’Arpa, de Banyoles
Isaac Gelabert
Promotor gastronòmic i director de la fira Lactium
Isabel Juncà
Cuinera de Ca l’Enric, de la Vall de Bianya
