The weekend after Phil's birthday I thought it was about time to make another entree, after devoting so much time to cookies and dessert. Furthermore, since it had been a long time since I did a recipe from outside the United States, I chose to make Marie-Christine's Salmon Terrine (p. 69).
There are multiple Salmon Terrines (or, rather, there are other Terrine de Saumon, which I am guessing is the same thing, I suppose time will tell) from Lyon in the cookbook. I had no idea what a Salmon Terrine was or what it should look like, so I headed to Google Images and discovered Salmon Terrine is basically a loaf of salmon, which varies in fanciness depending on how many hours you put into the preparation or how much money you spend at the restaurant. This Salmon Terrine calls for canned salmon, which Google indicated is a common way to make a "quick" Salmon Terrine.
The first problem I encountered was that I incorrectly assumed that shallots are the same thing as green onions. Apparently I'm not the only one (based on further investigation and interviews) but the internet also assures me that the Salmon Terrine I made with green onions rather than shallots was almost certainly not even remotely close to the intended recipe.
Nonetheless, it was time to start cooking or we would not be eating! The first step was to remove the skin and bones from the canned salmon. Let's not mince words here - this process was revolting and tedious. Luckily, after the half hour of removing tiny bones and gross skin bits from my canned salmon, the remaining steps were quite easy. I poured the mixture into a baking dish and put it in the oven at what I thought was a surprising temperature - 200°. I checked the temperature twice just to be sure.
About a half hour later, I checked the Salmon Terrine. It was still quite liquidy in the center, so I left it in for another 5 minutes... 10 minutes... 15 minutes...
Until finally it hit me - the recipe calls for a temperature of 200°C and my American oven was set at 200°F! I increased the temperature to the required 390°F, and the terrine finished cooking in about ten minutes, whereupon I doused it with lemon juice per the recipe. I served the Salmon Terrine with slices of french bread (I cheated and bought it) and the most delicious brussels sprouts ever (found by googling "French recipe for Brussels Sprouts").
Here is a picture of the Salmon Terrine:
My son and husband were not too enthused by this dish, but then they aren't big seafood eaters and suddenly I was asking them to eat it in loaf form. I thought it was pretty good, but I can't help but wonder... would it have been great had I used shallots?
No comments:
Post a Comment