French,  Savoury

Mini salmon terrines and getaway strategies

salmonpate
ย 

It’s starting to be tricky to escape in the car alone; Motoring is Hugo’s absolute favourite. He prefers the front seat and I have, in the past, resorted to belting him in rather than take on the chore of coaxing him out of the car. Naturally, he takes it very badly if I kick him out. If, on the other hand, I leave him in the car and need to stop off somewhere, he presses on the horn with his chest if he feels I’ve ‘abandoned’ him for too long. He also dribbles on the seat. So it’s a toss-up between his being put-out and potentially depressed at being ditched, and my being mortally embarrassed by a high-maintenance, disruptive dog and wet front seat. I’m spoilt for choice.

This salmon terrine is an attempt to recreate a dish we had in our hotel in the Pyrenees this winter, as requested by Lรฉo. It is, according to him, ‘quite edible’; Praise indeed. ๐Ÿ™‚

Ingredients (makes 6 mini terrines)

2 salmon filets (250g)

juice of half a lemon

25g butter

150ml cream

1 clove garlic, crushed

1 shallot, chopped

ยฝ teaspoon ginger, freshly grated

1 bay leaf

1 tablespoon Pastis

sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

1 teaspoon paprika

4 tablespoons of diced cucumber

4 leaves of fresh mint

2g Agar-Agar powder

Place the salmon filets steeped in lemon juice in a frying pan and add the butter and cream. Bring to a gentle simmer and add all the other ingredients with the exception of the Agar-Agar, cucumber and mint leaves. Simmer for about 10 minutes, until the salmon is cooked through and the liquid partly evaporated. Once cooked, add the mint leaves, blend briefly in a food processor and set aside. Dissolve the Agar-Agar in a small amount of water and bring to the boil (according to the instructions on the packet). Once boiled, mix into the salmon with the diced cucumber and distribute the mixture into moulds (I used silicon muffin moulds). Compact the mixture well. Refrigerate for at least a couple of hours and serve chilled.

30 Comments

Leave a Reply