IMBB9: Halibut Mousseline with Salmon.

This months IMBB edition, picked by Derrick of An obsession with food, was probably the first IMBB that challenged me to try something new. Terrines are not something you see a lot of in Italian cooking, unless you consider oven baked lasagne or melanzane alla parmigiana as such, which in the sense this dishes are. I could have taken this shortcut but instead I decided I wanted to give real terrines a try. As a first time effort Im quite pleased, though theres quite a few things Id have improved. Thanks to Derrick for this educational opportunity. Ill be making terrines more often from now on not hard if the total number of terrines cooked before is nil :-).

I started thinking Id make a rustic rabbit and prune terrine I downloaded from somewhere on the Web or maybe rilliets. But since the whole terrine theme was a sort of challenge why not try something a bit more complicated? So in the end I decided to do a mousseline based terrine using halibut as the mousseline ingredient and salmon as the central decorative inlay. Mousseline has different culinary meanings but in this case it is, according to Larousse Gastronomique: "a term particularly used for moulds made with various pastes (poultry, game, fish, etc) enriched with cream." For a fish mousseline some egg white is usually added to improve the low albumin levels in fish meat. In order to add a touch of colour and taste I added some pureed Hokkaido pumpkin and a dash of curry powder to half of the halibut mousseline and some estragon to the rest. For the salmon I used the dorsal part of the filet, which has a nice square section.

Not everything worked as I hoped, and it would have been a miracle if it did. I added too little egg white, so the terrine remained rather soft even after cooling, and was rather hard to cut in smooth, clean slices. Also not having a real terrine mould I used a rectangular cake tin ,which was too wide for the amounts I made, so the terrine remained pretty low, as you can see. On the other hand it tasted much better than I expected with all the flavours evident but in a subtle way. Also, the salmon cooked perfectly. I wish I could get it this way by stovetop cooking. The recipe below is the one I used, I just added a few possible improvements in brackets.

Halibut Mousseline with Salmon

300 g Halibut filet
About 150 g Salmon filet from the back obtained from 300 g Salmon filet, dorsal and ventral part separated
250 ml cream
1 egg white (Id use at least 1 1/2 next time)
salt and pepper
about 3 tbsp cooked and pureed pumpkin flesh
some curry powder
a large handful of estragon, leaves picked and chopped
1 tbsp brandy

Season the salmon with salt and pepper. Finely process the halibut filets. Add egg, cream, and salt and pepper to taste. Devide the halibut mousseline in two. To one half add enough pumpkin to turn the mousseline a light orange and just enough curry to get a just perceivable curry note when tasting the mousseline. To the remaining half add the chopped estragon and brandy. Take a terrine mould possibly, or a rectangular baking tin, and line it with baking paper or saran wrap. Pour the pumpkin flavoured mousseline first, lay the salmon in the middle and cover with the rest of the mousseline. Cook for about 45 minutes in a 170C hot oven using a bain-marie, till the mousseline firms up. Cover with a fitting lid (make one yourself with foil wrapped cardboard if you dont have one) and place a light weight on top. Let cool to room temperature, than unmold the terrine and serve it in slices or let cool further in the fridge.

Comments

[Jeanne]

Mmmmm, looks lovely! And salmon is always a favourite of mine. Thanks for sharing!

[johanna]

oh, ah! want a slice straight away! any left-overs??? ship them immediately, please!

[christine boisseau]

La recette parait délicieuse,par contrela traduction francaise est terrible. Cela rend presque illisible la recette. Quel dommage.

[Alberto]

Jeanne, johanna: thanks and sorry, no left overs ;-)

christine: I'm not sure I understand your message, my French unfortunately is pretty basic. Which translation are you talking about? A translation made by a translating robot? Or the definition of mousseline from Larousse? If the latter is the case at least it's not my fault, the quote is straight from the UK edition of the book :-).