aiguillettes de canard

[Patf]

Does anyone know what these are? I saw a recipe using them, said they were best eaten raw.

Looking on Google it seems they could be thin strips of duck breast, but raw? Smoked would be OK.

[JohnFB]

Yes correct strips of meat that are left after the magret is cut out. Personally I use in a stirfry.

JFB

[Hereford]

Lovely cooked on a plancha.

[mint]

I fry them very lightly, add some very thinly sliced onions (sweet onions like Cevennes or Spanish leaving the onions still crispy) and eat them in a hot sandwich using ciabatta or other breads whose outsides can be crisped up in the toaster.

[NormanH]

Filet of duck breast I think.

I cook very lightly in duck fat, deglaze the pan with raspberry vinegar and add a little figue jam to give a sweet coating, though at the moment I have an unusual jam made with piments d'espalette  which adds both sweetness and a touch of ...piment

[mint]

Pat, forgot to say you could buy packets of them at Lidl's and they are nicely prepared, not too thin, not too thick and are delish.

[Patf]

Thanks for the replies - I've got a few in the freezer and sometimes wonder how to use the unsmoked ones. I liked smoked best, in a salad, but it's expensive.

I just wondered about the word aiguillettes - I looked it up and it seems like little needles.

[Judith]

Yes, PatF, they are like little needles, if you think about it ...

[cajal]

[quote user="mint"]Pat, forgot to say you could buy packets of them at Lidl's and they are nicely prepared, not too thin, not too thick and are delish.[/quote]

+1

Especially the 3 packs that find their way to the -30% Prix réduit pour vente rapide.

[mint]

[quote user="Patf"]Thanks for the replies - I've got a few in the freezer and sometimes wonder how to use the unsmoked ones. I liked smoked best, in a salad, but it's expensive.

I just wondered about the word aiguillettes - I looked it up and it seems like little needles.

[/quote]

Actually, I would say little eels.  The Italians have a similar word.  You could get chicken breasts sliced up like that too.  Those, I like to dip in seasoned flour, beaten egg, then breadcrumbs and fry and eat with mayonnaise...........yum.

[nomoss]

Just to be clear about what they are

L'aiguillette est une fine tranche de viande de volaille correspondant au muscle pectoral profond. Chez le canard elle est située sous le magret.

Source:-   [url]https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aiguillette_(viande)[/url]

I don't think they are connected with eels (anguilles)

[mint]

Yes, nomoss, I know what they are.  Pat was asking about the word "aiguillette" and Judith joined in about the shape being like that of "needles".  So all I meant was that, if anything, rather than being shaped like needles, the shape was more like eels[:)]  C'est tout!

[soupagirl]

Oh that reminded me of one of the time some French friends asked what we'd had to eat at a village fête the previous evening. I told them 'aiguilles' and only when they'd finished rolling around laughing like Smash Martians I realised my mistake. It was 'anguilles persillées' on the menu.

[nomoss]

[quote user="mint"]Yes, nomoss, I know what they are.  Pat was asking about the word "aiguillette" and Judith joined in about the shape being like that of "needles".  So all I meant was that, if anything, rather than being shaped like needles, the shape was more like eels[:)]  C'est tout!

[/quote]

Yea, right [:D]

[mint]

Soupagirl, I love that phrase "like Smash Martians"..............that's really taken me back in time as I'd forgotten those Smash adverts[:D]

I could never understand the point of Smash when they tasted so awful compared to the genuine article.

Nomoss, what are eels called in Spain?  I'd eaten them in Italy and I thought there was a word in Italian that made me think of anguilles.  People, not tourists, were coming from miles to this particular resto to eat eels.  They tasted nothing like our jellied eels, BTW[:D]

[woolybanana]

Usually leave them in light soy for a few hours, then, after frying some finely chopped ginger and garlic in the pan, drop the aiguettes in for a few minutes. Eat on a bed of lettuce or other salad accompanied by decent toms and copious glasses of red. Scrummy, cheap eating.

[Patf]

They sound good - I thought maybe they  were like chicken gizzards which I don't like at all. I know lots of people do.

We bought some once thinking they were chicken livers.

[mint]

In these parts, those gizzard thingies are very popular.  If you see a dish called salade périgordine or even salade landaise, give those a miss unless you want to eat gizzards.There is duck round every corner here and I think it's usually duck gizzards that they use.

I have never seen chicken livers anywhere and yes, I do like chicken livers.  For my sins, I watched a bit of Bake Off over the holiday period and a woman made some canapés containing chicken livers and I longed to taste them. 

[Patf]

I wonder what they do with all the chicken and duck livers then?

We have our own hens and when we kill one to eat always keep the liver, put in the freezer until we have a few, then make liver paté.

We haven't been able to buy any more hens lately because of bird flu.

[NormanH]

But a Salade de foies de volailles  is one of the most common...

My local restaurant serves it almost every week.

http://www.ptitchef.com/recettes/salade-de-foies-de-volailles

[mint]

No, have never come across them although I have eaten out a great deal.

Will ask some locals in a day or two when I shall be out again with a crowd of them.  Then, there will be a meal next week with a very large group and could also ask the restaurateur.

[hyacinth bucket]

Mint, chicken livers (foies de volaille) are available at Carrefour and Intermarche, either in plastic tubs (raw) or boxes (confit) and are usually sold on the same rayon as the bird itself.

[mint]

Thank you, Mrs Bucket.  I will look for them or ask next time I am in Inter.  Alas, nowhere near a Carrefour so hardly ever go there.

A couple of days ago, I went with OH to shop at Inter and so there I was filling up the trolley with goodies when OH suddenly told me that he'd not got his wallet on him!

As I wasn't driving and didn't need mes papiers, I had left my handbag in the house.  Just goes to show that my normal procedure (that is NEVER leave home  without your credit cards and, of course, without identification now that we are in France) should be adopted at all times..........

So had to put everything back as we had virtually no money to pay for any of it.  Still, made me reflect on how it must be for people who really had no money to pay for their purchases and how there must be many occasions when they would have loved something but have had to leave it on the shelves.........made me very sad to ponder upon that[:(]

[Loiseau]

Yes, I can imagine that, mint. I have occasionally found myself in a supermarket either with a limited amount of cash, or with a voucher valid if I spent a certain amount, and the brain has to click into totting up every penny on the way around.

It's a lesson.

Angela

[NormanH]

Eat it in the shop....[blink]