Tuesday, January 18, 2011

I dream of terrine-y

I am starting to slightly obsess about terrines. It's not healthy. And I'm starting to wonder how the terrines are going to fit in between all my other gigs right now - working with my family's business, officially looking after Hank (when did you last hear of a golden retriever with an under-active thyroid?), getting my writing projects finished and not panicking at the prospect of going back to uni full-time this year.
In part, I would like to dedicate this post to my sister in London, whose brilliant idea this was (kudos, kid!) and is my other major source of inspiration. She's a much better cook than I am but I'm chuffed she wants me to do this! I am also hoping she can add some recipes of her own to this site - how 'bout it mate?
Did I mention the heat and fuggy weather we've been living with in Sydney? I just simply cannot bring myself to do anything with chicken livers or other innards right now. One of Stephane's recipes is a mint and strawberry terrine, which I attempted this week with mixed success. Don't let the groovy cooking shots fool you - the terrine was great in theory...but a little schlumpy in the end.

The ingredients are sliced strawberries, fresh mint, and a concoction of orange juice, brown sugar, gelatin and some grapefruit juice (for which I subsituted a bit of lime juice). I'm still getting used to this blogging caper, so I apologise for the blurry shot that follows:

Turns out juggling scalding dishes while taking photos ain't easy. This terrine needs 12 hours to set, and I did pop it into the fridge overnight to make it a more solid structure. This was my initial run with gelatin sheets which I can only get more familiar with. Gelatin sheets are a little tricky, and as my mum was away, she wasn't on hand with her wisdom.


Here's the terrine straight out of the terrine. It bound together quite well, but was soon demolished once the spoon went in. We had it with vanilla ice cream - and I'm not an ice cream freak but the result was tangy and delicious with the strawberry/brown sugar and citrus flavours working well. The mint was the icing on the cake!
Later, I found Hank outside with a lone strawberry. I promise you this wasn't a staged shot!
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2 comments:

  1. SiobhanJanuary 18, 2011 at 3:07 PM

    I love it!

    You write so well I find myself drawn to checking this page (too) frequently, waiting for the next piece!

    Thanks for the great read (and menu ideas).

    Seamus xox

    PS. Will we also get Hank health updates here?

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  2. FoodieFiJanuary 20, 2011 at 12:27 PM

    Good choice on the sweet terrine rather than dealing with livers etc in the heat!

    I made a mango parfait for dessert last night, which was a similar experience in that it worked fine - flavour-wise - but you wouldn't really hold it up as a representative parfait, ie texture-wise etc. I quite like cooking that way - experimenting, getting the taste result, but learning about how elements and ingredients work (and don't work) along the way.

    I turned to Aunty Stephie (Alexander) while my custard was not performing, and her only parfait recipe was for duck liver, which was about as suitable as offal on a hot day!

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