I recently tried my hand at a smoked salmon terrine. This is a dish taken off the recently aired Masterchef Australia.
http://www.masterchef.com.au/smoked-salmon-terrine-with-hazelnut-herb-salad-and-avocado.htm
After seeing the technique involved, and the final result, I just knew that I had to prove, to myself and the rest of the wannabe master chefs out there, that this dish could be successfully prepared to take the center stage at our next dinner party.
Question one my might ask when considering this dish?
There are alot of ingredients, very few of which I would have in my fridge/cupboard, so is it expensive to make?
I would say that as a single dish it is quite costly but as a part of a well thought out menu it all becomes relative. (Please see below for continued reasoning)
I would consider this dish to be the piece de resistance of my meal. The less commonly used phrase is 'le morceau de resistance' which translates as the most important part of the whole. This would be the dish that your guests will be talking about for weeks following your meal and as a result I would consider it perfectly acceptable to make your main and dessert cheaply to offset the cost. Cheaper cuts of meat, slow cooked in bottles of red wine should do the trick!
Are the ingredients easy to find?
1. Hazlenut oil is difficult to find and very expensive. I could only seem to find it on health food websites, so I replaced it with walnut oil and then just thought it logical to replace the hazlenuts with walnuts too.
2. Sherry vinegar is also pricey (£4.99), can be found in the speciality section at Waitrose, but well worth it. It smells like a combination between balsamic and red wine vinegar but don't be tempted to recreate it using these store cupboard staples as it doesn't have the same result. It has a lovely sweetness which I felt complimented the saltiness of the salmon really well.
3. The baby greens would have been fantastic to finish the dish off but I was unable to find them in a supermarket or even borough market. To substitute I used some lovely sweet, delicate lambs lettuce.
Other tips and hints
1. Make sure you weigh it down well as this helps the layers stick together nicely otherwise it will just fall apart when you try and serve.
2. Don't be put off by the amount of butter the recipe uses. It really doesn't taste greasy and, instead, is smooth and creamy.
3. I couldn't find a terrine dish anywhere so I used a loaf tin and for the 'lid' I covered some polystyrene in foil but you could also use a block of flower foam.
3. If you are the cook do me a favour and try some the next day, provided there are left overs, as anything you cook never tastes as good to you as it does to your guests and this can sometimes make the result not seem worth the effort but I promise it is!
