How was the Salmon.....

Last night was one of the few nights where I just simply came home and didn’t have to do anything (apart from the usual chores). Anyway, I had time to sit down and watch telly for a bit and what a good timing. Guerilla Gourmet was on RTE1 and Kevin Dundon created a restaurant in a boxing club. They put up his kitchen in the middle of the ring so that he was seen from the tables around him. 40 guests paid € 25 to get in and eat a 4 course meal. This is a repeat and has been shown last year or so….(you see, I am not a telly person to begin with as i missed it completely then).

Next week, my food hero, Dennis Cotter, will set up a restaurant in a cattle shed… will make a note in the diary not to miss that one.

But now to the detailed report about the final stage of the Great British Menu. I test-cooked the last dish of the GBM last Sunday and it turned out quite well, apart from the fact that I forgot to buy the cockles for the cockle popcorn and that I didn’t even attempt to try the potato crisps filled with salmon and crab meat. Even Stephen Terry had difficulties with that….and life is too short…

So, I got some lovely salmon belly from the English Market (not Kay O’Connels but the lovely old man opposite – keep forgetting his name). He cut me some nice slices of the salmon belly. The smoked salmon I got from the Midleton Market, Frank Hefferman being still the number one when it comes to smoked salmon.

I cut the trimmings off the smoked and unsmoked salmon, mixed the trimmings with crabmeat and processed it with a bit of cream to a mousse. Line a terrine tine with clingfilm and spooned the mixture into it. Covered it with more clingfilm and baked it in a bain marie for about 15 minutes. Left it to chill. Since

I wasn’t going to do anything else from the recipe (having no cockles etc), I started on my pommes dauphenoise for which I sliced potatoes very thinly and cooked them in a milk-cream mixture which I seasoned with herbed salt and nutmeg. After a couple of minutes, I spooned the lot into a baking dish, sprinkled some lovely mature cheddar over it and baked it in the oven for 45 minutes. Just before serving time, I heated some oil in a pot and made a tempura mixture of flour, egg yolk and cold water

Dipped the samphire into the mixture and deep fried them until crunchy. Heated some olive oil in two frying pan and pan-fried the smoked salmon in one and the unsmoked salmon and the terrine slices in another pan for a few minutes on each side. Arranged the lot on a plate (it would have looked a lot nicer on a oblong plate), a slice of the potatoes and some samphire….the presentation lacked a bit finesse but the flavour of the salmon made well up for it. At least Wendy ate it all – and I love the samphire….

For the grand finale I will only cook the terrine slices as the dish is very very rich (even without the baked potatoes) and it might be just simply too much as a second course. I feel a bit more confident now to be able to cook the lot in one day (might need a full vacation afterwards) and have to set a date now for the big day.