Friday, August 12, 2011

Salmon Terrine... (dare I say sexual salmon)

Salmon terrine with a hazelnut side












Yes
it has been nay upon six days since my last post and I even have lots
of more humorous excuses and charming excerpts to sugar coat my blogging
absenteeism… just not enough time to do so (at least not today that is)
…In a nut shell the story is story is, you’ve guessed it, extremely
busy in the restaurant and s always the good news is I have lots of
banging recipes queuing to join underpressure archives. Until then enjoy
my smoked salmon terrine.




So
the beauty of galantines and terrines for me is the colours, the
contrast in colour and the swirling or twirling design rolled or
compressed to produce amazing flavours… the results can be quite
spectacular. They adorn every restaurant worth its salt for just this
reason. That and the fact they are pre prepared and easy to bang out
during service, a similar philosophy to be applied at home, for a dinner
party or just a spanking pre dinner appetiser… Bang!




To
follow the Monkfish Octopus rolls I wanted to bring you something just
as exquisite, a recipe, up there in the interesting stakes… a recipe
that spanks of bang factor. There is a terrine recipe on the Victoria
menu (the restaurant I am working at) …but it is complicated, with many
ingredients and techniques involved, the end product though stunning and
that is not a biased opinion!




The
good news is I have that recipe in my little black book and it will
make its way to underpressure for those of you that really want to knock
the socks of your diners with something spectacular but like I said the
ingredients are expensive. The technique, complicated and laborious so
for now we shall roll with a somewhat simplified, fishier (of course)
version. You will, however, fall in love with this terrine process,
guaranteed. Just like galantines… Bang… Bang… Banging factor!
















Terrine




700g sliced smoked salmon




400g unsalted butter at room temperature




1 lemon, rind finely grated




200 white anchovies, drained and pat dried with paper towel




2 slices brioche




¼ cup of Olives
















Avocado cream




1 avocado




15ml lemon juice




2 tbsp olive oil




½ cup double cream










Hazelnut salad




60ml olive oil




1/4 cup hazelnuts




30ml hazelnut oil




1 tsp chestnut honey




1/2 tsp Dijon mustard




15ml sherry vinegar




1/2 cup baby endive hearts




2 tbsp chervil leaves




2 tbsp baby basil




 2 tbsp baby parsley




1 tbsp red kale
















How too




Okay…
first and foremost we want to trim our smoked salmon. Neatly trim off
any brown bits of fat and square off each side leaving you with a nice
rectangular slice.Fire p the oven at about 180.




Add anchovies, olives, butter and rind into your blender and whack on full tilt until you have a consistent paste...




Grease
the inside of your mould (worry not if you are not in possession of
expensive terrine moulds, bread moulds, anything long rectangular and
ovenproof is the business, just grease well) …line with cling film
allowing an overhang all round. This is were the magic happens…




Cover
the base of the terrine with one layer of smoked salmon. Take your
time. Make sure the salmon is spread even and covers the base (we will
call this step one) Now we want a layer of our butter mixture, spooned
in delicate and even, think gentle soothing thoughts (we will call this
step two) So repeat process one and two alternating until you are
roughly half way up your mould… fold over overlapping cling film…
Therapeutic!




So
terrine therapy concluded, time to get the bad boy ready to set so we
want something spongy, say, to compress our mould. I usually use a pre
cut bit of foam wrapped in lots of tape, or whatever is knocking about
the kitchen. Once it gently weighs down your terrine. So sponge in
weighed down by a few food cans… Into freezer for roughly half an hour
then into fridge for similar amount of time. Done!










The Mousse




Terrine
down… time to work on our salad… First and foremost clean out your
processor. To make the avocado cream, bang together avocado, cream and
lemon juice until thickened then slowly add your oil thus slightly
emulsifying the cream giving you a mousse like texture... leave in the
fridge to further firm.










The Salad




So
nearly there… Firstly for the salad I wanted to sweeten proceedings. I
thought it would add an extra dimension and it did. So make simple stock
syrup (one part water to one part sugar) and bring to the boil. Bang in
hazelnuts and remove from heat… give around five minutes then remove
nuts to a non-stick surface and allow to cool. Then to candy our wall
nuts deep fry or oven cook (I always prefer to deep fry trust me the
candied affect work better this way)




bang some roasties in there for that different texture and earthiness




For the dressing lace remaining olive oil, honey, mustard and vinegar in a bowl, whisk to combine. Done…  Add
the hazelnuts to the vinaigrette mixture. Toss salad leaves through the
dressing to lightly coat. Season with sugar and sea salt to taste…
Sugar? Yes, sugar you will see/ taste what I mean.




So…
retrieve the terrine (nice alliteration barry!)…from the fridge and
turn upside down. After removing weights etc… A nice sharp bread knife
is your only man here (we do not want taking lumps out of our terrine
with a blunt blade) …cut your terrine into slices and trim if need be.
Now you see what all the trouble is about. The terrine lined pattern of
salmon and the butter mix. Dare I say sexual…




Cut your brioche to a similar size as your terrine and toast…




To
serve if you have a wooden surface it works superb bring out colours
and enhancing that rustic feel of the dish… an upside down chopping
board even… so first on with brioche, terrine slice on top and mousse to
top off. Your hazelnut salad and enjoy… earthy flavours, richness of
the anchovies and olive butter in contrast to the lightness of the
salmon all multiplied by the explosion of flavours in the salad… zingy,
sweet and earthy… Bang factor eleven out of ten!












Subject to the aforementioned




Those
of you lucky enough to own a television set may have noticed a certain
advert doing the rounds promoting a certain cooking programme that will
be broadcasted at a certain time in the very near distant future… very
vague indeed… I am talking about Masterchef… The advertisement looks
great it is nearing time to grab a pillow from which to cringe/ grimace
behind whilst viewing. How unusual it shall be I imagine but more on
that soon… Bang!


Again apolologies for the poor posting punctuality... I shall be back in the coming days with serial blogging and food...

No comments:

Post a Comment