FrogPrincesse

I made the Shrimp and Salmon Terrine with Spinach and Mushrooms from Charcuterie last week, for a potluck. The recipe first involves making a shrimp mousseline. Mushrooms are sautéed until soft; the spinach is trimmed (probably the most timed-consuming part for me; I used baby spinach which, at least, was pre-washed) and cut into a chiffonade. Mushroom and spinach are mixed with the shrimp mousseline. For the final assembly, the terrine is filled with 2/3 of the shrimp mixture, then a fresh salmon fillet is added in the middle, and lastly the top is covered with the remaining shrimp mixture. Cooking took about 2 hours in a bain marie in a low-temperature oven. The terrine looks great thanks to the contrast between the salmon and the spinach & mushroom. It is a little difficult to cut because it has a tendency to fall apart. I made the mousseline in two batches and I believe that the egg white did not get distributed throughout, so some areas were easier to cut cleanly than others. The salmon tasted wonderful (I used wild king salmon), but for me the mushrooms really made the dish. It's amazing how little button mushrooms can develop so much flavor. The terrine is a little more "rustic" than the crab and scallop terrine, but I think that I preferred both its texture and taste. I guess that I like simple things! My husband, on the other hand, liked both terrines but preferred the crab & scallop version.

That sounds great! Thanks for a great blog, I really enjoyed it.

Mauviel = moh-veeyell Bourgeat = boorjah Laguiole = lah-yole

Actually, in French, honey is MIEL (no 'e' at the end)

Everything looks great. Was this lunch today (in which case a nap would be in order after this and the chicken & waffle breakfast!), or dinner last night?

After my success with pâté de campagne, I decided to move on to seafood terrines. The first recipe that got my interest was the Crab, Scallop, and Saffron Terrine from Charcuterie. The recipe calls for “8 leeks, green tops only”. Interestingly, my local Whole Foods only had trimmed leeks so I had to ask them to check in the back for untrimmed leeks. Who would have thought that the leeks would be the hard-to-find ingredient in this recipe! I bought 8 leeks and then blanched only half of them as they would not all fit into my largest pot. In the end I only used 1 or 2 leeks. The terrine mold is lined with the blanched leeks. Then it is filled with a mousseline made with the scallops and saffron-infused cream to which lump crab meat is added. Since this was my first time making mousseline, I decide to substitute shrimp for the scallops as a cost-saving measure (but it was still an expensive terrine – I think I spent close to $50 in ingredients). No real difficulties with this recipe other than the fact that I was using a baby-sized food processor which was not the best tool for the job (a Cuisinart “mini-prep” processor). As a result, I had to prepare the mousseline in two batches. I probably should have cut the shrimp a little beforehand as the food processor overheated somewhat and a couple of shrimp pieces got stuck around the blade. I was not really careful when filling the terrine so I ended up with a few air pockets as shown in the first picture. But the terrine still looked beautiful, with specks of color from the saffron and chives. It took about 2 hours to cook in a water bath and was easy to slice the next day. A week later, I was invited to a party and decided to make this terrine again. This time I used scallops as specified in the recipe. I did not bother trimming the leeks into rectangles (I just used them "head to tail" instead) and used exactly 8 leaves to line the mold. I served the terrine with an herb (chives, parsley) mayonnaise. It was even better than the first time and our friends raved about it. As most terrines, it’s a good recipe for a buffet as it can be prepared in advance. Active prep time for me is about 45 minutes so it’s also relatively quick.

for a more unctuous pâté campagne, consider adding 10% cold cream to the mix (by weight of the forcemeat). That sounds great. Unctuousity is a good quality and should improve spreading properties. Thanks for the expert advice!

I can't believe that I have the audacity to post to this thread after the incredible Pâtés en Croûte and Galantine by Le Baron himself, but here we go... I have been making a lot of terrines recently. My first attempt was about a year ago. At the time I made Pâté de Campagne with the recipe from Les Halles. The recipe is pretty standard in its use of pork shoulder, pork liver, and pork fat (2:1:1 ratio). The pâté is seasoned with allspice, parsley, garlic, shallots, white wine, and Cognac, and bound with an egg. It is wrapped in caul fat and cooked in a terrine (even though, in the book, the pate is shown wrapped in what looks like barding fat, which confused me to no end as I was trying to figure out what caul fat was supposed to look like). Anyway, I managed to find all the ingredients at my local butcher shop. The execution was simple but time-consuming. As I did not own a grinder at the time, I had to finely dice the 2 pounds of mixture with a knife, which was no small task for me. In the process, it was difficult (read: impossible) to keep the meat cold. But I did what the recipe said to do when grinding was not an option: "cut the pork into small dice, and hope for the best". In the end, it seems that pâté is quite forgiving so the result was fine. I thought that the pig liver flavor was a little too pronounced for my taste, so I decided to try another recipe in the future. I had an occasion to make pâté de campagne again recently for the Charcutepalooza September challenge. This time, I followed the recipe from Anne Willan's Country Cooking of France. It's somewhat similar to the one from Les Halles. The meat to fat ratio is about the same (1.7:1 if I am doing the math correctly), but she uses escalopes in addition to the pork shoulder. Chicken livers are used instead of pig livers, and only a small amount (that would be 0.33 compared to the amount of fat needed in the recipe). I liked that change because chicken livers are much easier to find for me, and also because I did not want to taste of liver to overwhelm the pâté. Unlike the previous year, I had appropriate equipment available, and I used my new Kitchenaid grinder with a coarse die. I used the technique from Charcuterie and lined my mold with plastic wrap so I would not have to hunt for caul fat again (I like caul fat but very few places seem to have it available and when it’s available, it’s always frozen). Everything worked well and I was pleased with the end result. I would make that recipe again and maybe add some pistachios next time for texture and “visual interest”. We all liked the taste and my cat went completely nuts for it, which is odd because usually he is not into “people food”. (to be continued)

I've had scallop crudo in France with the roe attached, and it's delicious. They were just sliced very thinly, and seasonned with a little bit of lime juice. They were very fresh of course - in France we buy them in the shell.

My local Bristol Farms has them too, and so does Whole Foods (the fresh ones).

Heidi, The scallops were scored. They were quite thick so I thought that would be a good way to ensure that they would cook fast. Otherwise they tend to be overdone and can become tough. They were seared for 2-3 minutes on each side. They caramelized fast but inside they were still very tender.

Beautiful mushrooms. Do you wash them or just wipe them to get them clean? I know there are different schools of thoughts on that topic. I usually start by wiping them, but give up after 5 minutes and just rinse them instead... It's great to see the prep that goes into the wonderful dishes that you've been sharing with us! I can't wait to read the rest of your blog.

Here is a picture of a meal we had a few days ago. These are scallops with a lime-ginger beurre blanc, sprinkled with sesame seeds. The scallops were really outstanding. I bought at Bay Park Fish which is a small fish shop and restaurant.

Katie, I assume that you are referring to a cherimoya/custard apple, not a papaya, right? You could make Audrey Saunders' Soursop Sour! It's delicious.

Regarding the Cruzan line, I am just finishing up a bottle of Cruzan aged rum that someone gave me. While it's not something I would normally buy, it was a decent rum that was suitable for mixed drinks.

In Costa Mesa, I recommend Marche Moderne. It's a French bistro strangely located inside the South Coast Plaza shopping center (but that has its own patio so you quickly forget that you are in a mall). The chef Florent is French and his wife Amelia is the pastry chef. Their food is very creative, a combination of classic dishes with interesting twists. I remember having an impeccable foie gras au torchon there, and also a delicious tajine with local vegetables. Honkman posted a detailed review of the restaurant here.

Thank you for your recommendations, EatNopales. I did not realize that you had lived in Kailua! It's really too bad that there aren't more "real" farmers at the farmers' markets on Oahu. Since we arrive on a Thursday, we will go to the Kailua market and buy whatever local produce we can find, and eat there as well. Then the following day we will most likely go to one of the local farms that you mentioned in your post (Nalo or Waimanalo Country), or to the big Saturday farmers' market at KCC, if we are in that area. Thank you for the information about the road side stands too. I am excited about the salicornias. I have not had them since I lived in France, and they were pickled I believe. Anyway, it's something I would love to experience again. How do you use them when they are fresh? Young jicamas sound good too; they would be great in a salad. I am familiar with the tomatoes from Kamuela, we had them on the Big Island. I will look for Manoa lettuce (I assume that this is the name of the variety?). Tamashiro's Fish Market sounds wonderful. And we will make sure to go to Ahi & Vegetable for lunch if we are in the area. Regarding restaurants, we were planning to avoid Kailua. Since we are renting a house, our plan was to dine in most of the time anyway. I will look into Mavro, however the prices seem quite high ($100 per person without wine, according to Zagat, so I would expect close to $200 per person...). It's too bad to hear that Alan Wong has gone downhill. I had many memorable meals there.

I vote for the guanciale! I think I have the same fridge magnets - from Alton Brown's I am Just Here for the Food, I believe? It looks like you have been REALLY busy this week. Your blog is a lot of fun to follow! I hope you don't die from exhaustion when the week ends.

I will be in Oahu for 5 days at the end of October, staying at a rental house near Kailua. I plan on bringing my cooking kit with me (including a couple of good knives and cookbooks by Jean-Marie Josselin and Alan Wong for inspiration) and cooking with the beautiful local ingredients. I've done this a couple of years ago on the Big Island and absolutely loved it (I still remember the local abalone, making ahi poke, etc) The Saturday KCC market is already on my list. If there are specific vendors that you recommend please let me know! I arrive on a Thursday so I will probably go to the Kailua market that first evening. Anything that I should not miss?

EatNopales, I am enjoying reading your blog. What do amaranth seeds taste like? And can you please describe their texture? I've never had them. Thanks!

Here is Trader Vic's Mai Tai recipe, for references purposes, also from Beachbum Berry's website. Note the combination of rums: a Jamaican dark rum with an aged rhum agricole. This drink is all about the rum, so using high quality is really important. I've experimented with various rums and so far my favorite combo is Appleton (I use the "extra"/12 yr) + La Favorite "coeur de rhum".

Katie, I appreciate the thought. Now you know you will have to watch for the Mai Tai police every time you get close to your bottle of grenadine! I did not want to hijack the thread, so I posted my thoughts about grenadine in the Mai Tai topic here.

The question of grenadine in Mai Tais came up recently in the Orgeat thread, and I could not help but comment. I must confess that, not so long ago, I used to add grenadine in my Mai Tais. But at the time I did not know much about cocktails so my concoctions were highly questionable. I even once served an emerald green Mai Tai to guests at a party years ago!!! (yes, I used blue curacao). Anyway, since then I've learned a thing or two about cocktails, mostly thanks to eGullet and extensive hands-on "research". I learned about the history of the Mai Tai thanks to Beachbum Berry's books. Here is what he writes about the Mai Tai on his website. Martin Cate also talks about the Mai Tai and how it has been bastardized by the addition of various things which include pineapple juice, or ... grenadine. He illustrates his point quite clearly in his How to Make a Mai Tai video. I am sure I must sound completely pedantic by now so I will stop. The conclusion is that you would probably offend the tiki gods if you add grenadine in a Mai Tai, so do at your own risk only. More seriously, adding a little grenadine isn't probably going to ruin your Mai Tai, but I am not convinced it's really needed either.

Grenadine in a Mai Tai? You are breaking my heart, Katie Why would you want to cover the taste of rum and beautiful homemade orgeat?

Hi tony h, Thanks for posting your impressions on Relae. When did you go? I had a memorable meal there with my husband a couple of months ago. I took pictures and notes but have not had time to post my review yet. But I can tell you that the wine pairings were one of the highlights of the meal, so we did not mind the extra costs. Also I enjoyed the food a lot (but the black pepper ice cream was not on the menu that day!). I can't compare Relae to NOMA because I did not get a chance to eat there. But overall I was extremely impressed. Too bad you did not have the same experience.