17 June 2008

Fish terrine

The main reason for my trip to France was for my Mom's birthday, I surprised her with my visit and organised a party with 40 of her friends. By all accounts everyone had a great time, I was busy in the kitchen with my good friend SL who came for the week to help and enjoy France in spring.


We started the meal with a fish terrine, here is the recipe and ingredients for 8 people.

Fish Terrine
Ingredients
120 gr crab meat
400 gr salmon (cut as carpaccio, the fishmonger kindly offered to do it for me)
400 gr cod or other white fish
50 gr bread soaked in 10cl of milk (or so)
4 Egg Yolks
Salt, pepper, grated nutmeg to taste
1 TBSP freshly cut chives
20 cl heavy whipping cream
4 egg whites

Method
Soak bread in milk
Place cod in pan of boiling water and turn of the heat, let sit for a few minutes, then remove and dry fish, then break it in small pieces.
In a bowl mix cod + crab meat + bread/milk + 4 egg yolks + salt + pepper + nutmeg + cream + thinly cut chives then gently folled in the 4 whipped egg whites.

In an oven proof pan (I used both a silicone mold which was great for unmolding, and a well butter Savarin mold) place one layer of the thinly sliced salmon, then pour one layer of the mix, then place 1 layer of Salmon and one layer of mix and finish with a layer of salmon.

Bake in a bath of water (bain Marie) for 1h15mn at 110 C-120 C /230 F-248 F

When cooked remove from bath and let cool, then chill preferably overnight and serve with a whipped cream seasoned with lemon, chives, salt and pepper.

16 June 2008

Giverny - Monet Gardens and House

Being a perfect tourists while in France I took the opportunity to go to Giverny to visit Monet gardens and house, it had been on my to do list for a long time and what better time than spring to go there! So off we went, what a wonder, everywhere you look there is one beautiful sight after another, as you can imagine my camera got quite some use on that visit, it was hot at the end of the day!
Here is a very small sample.
Enjoy and I wish you to discover this enchanting and inspiring place some day.

Yours truly :-)



















06 June 2008

The Emerald isle...

6 days into June and no post! What is going on? Well in 4 words: I'm enjoying Europe!
I have been here for a month now and still have a week to go, I wish it was another 2 or 3! But I have to go back to the PNW where home is for now.
So over the past month my adventures took me to Ireland, more specifically to Cork city and West Cork (South West of Ireland). I was blessed with relatively good weather (in Ireland that means no rain, with some sunshine too). I was able to take some (read: lots of) photos and would like to share just a few here.
Enjoy