Recipe: Woodcock and foie gras terrine

1 Bone your woodcocks, keeping both heads. Season the doubled fillets with salt and pepper, and set the leg meat aside separately.

2 In a mortar or bowl, pound the carcasses and the insides of the woodcocks. Then in a saucepan, sear them (5 minutes) in your tablespoon of duck fat. Add your shallots, thyme, bay leaf, dried porcini and your white wine. Season with salt and pepper and let simmer gently for 20 minutes. This is how you prepare the essence, an essential element of your terrine.

3 In a bowl, pass your boned woodcock legs through a food mill and mix them into your sausage meat. Add your 2 beaten eggs and the chopped truffle trimmings (use only the trimmings, as we'll keep the heart for the terrine). Season with salt and pepper and refrigerate for one hour.

4 Pass your essence through a sieve, crushing it as much as possible, and pour it into a small bowl. Let it cool.

5 Preheat your oven to 170°C.

6 Line the bottom of your terrine (earthenware or porcelain) with strips of lard, then 1/3 of your forcemeat. Add 2 sliced woodcock fillets and half the foie gras sliced into 1 cm thick slices, then half the truffle cut into sticks. Press down gently and repeat this operation: forcemeat, foie gras and woodcock slices and truffle. Finish with the remaining 3rd of forcemeat. At this point, pour your essence and a splash of plum brandy over everything, press the 2 heads in at an angle and top with 2 to 3 strips of lard and a bay leaf.

7 Place your lid on top. Mix your pastry seal and stick it around the rim of your terrine. Set it in a baking pan with water halfway up the sides and cook in the middle of the oven for 1 hour 30 minutes. Let it cool to room temperature, then refrigerate. You can enjoy it at least two days later. But if you want to keep it longer (three weeks to a month), once it's cold, remove the lid and pour a little lard fat on top to protect it, then cover with a piece of parchment paper cut to the same size so it adheres to the lard.