Salmon terrine

Every few months a group of fellow food obsessive friends and I get together to share a meal, some wine and a lot of laughs. Each meal has a theme. The first was ice-cream, the second was curry and the latest was terrine. Everyone has bring a dish according to the theme. Amazingly, despite not really planning it out, no one has ever brought the same! 

I, not surprisingly, was a bit short on time last week [aka I left it to the last minute], so decided to make a salmon terrine. Easy.

For those of you who are not sure what a terrine is, it’s a loaf of [usually] meat, that is cooked, then served cold. You can also make them with veggies, fish, or as a dessert, but these are not completely traditional. They are typically made in a terrine dish – these look a bit like a loaf pan but they have a lid.

Don’t confuse a terrine with a tureen. They are larger, rounder and for serving soups or stews.

This might look less than pretty, but let me assure you, it tastes AMAZING. If you can’t be bothered with all the faff of the terrine bizzo, then just make the filling. It’s incredible as a dip.

What you need:

• 200g fresh salmon fillet
• 300g smoked salmon
• 1tbs chopped dill
• 1 tsp capers
• zest of half a lemon
• 3-4 sun dried tomatoes
• 200g crème fraiche
• 250g full fat cream cheese

What you do:

• poach the salmon fillet, cool and flake it apart
• line your terrine dish (I used a small loaf tin) with two layers of plastic wrap, then line with the smoked salmon
• to make the filling, place the dill, capers, lemon zest and sun dried tomatoes into a food processor and blitz until fine (in Thermomix speed 8, 12 seconds), scrape down the bowl
• add the crème fraiche, cream cheese and poached salmon to the food processor and mix until smooth (in Thermomix speed 7, 5 seconds, scrape down bowl, repeat 1-2 times until smooth)
• taste and add salt if needed (I used quite salty capers so didn’t need to add extra salt)
• carefully spoon the filling into the terrine dish on top of the smoked salmon
• put smoked salmon on top of the cream cheese if you have any left (I didn’t, possibly because I ate some…). Fold over plastic wrap so it’s quite tight and put in the fridge
• leave in the fridge to set for at least 3-4 hours or overnight – longer will help the flavours develop more
• carefully remove the plastic wrapped terrine from the terrine dish and carefully invert it onto a place, removing all the plastic
• cut into 1cm slices and serve with your favourite bread and a squeeze of lemon.

Have you eaten a terrine before? What’s your favourite? Have you ever made one?