Roast­ed and Smoked Salmon Mousse

Roast­ed and Smoked Salmon Mousse

(serves 12)

600g/10.5 ounces fresh salmon fillet

2 tsps olive oil

pinch sea salt and fresh black pepper

200g/7 ounces cream cheese

300g/10.5 ounces creme fraiche

hand­ful chives

hand­ful fresh tar­ragon leaves

hand­ful fresh cilantro/coriander leaves

zest and juice of 1 lemon

sea salt and fresh black pep­per to taste

300g/10.5 ounces smoked salmon

Place the salmon in a foil-lined oven­proof dish and driz­zle with olive oil.  Sea­son and roast at 425F/220C for 25 minutes.

In a food proces­sor, com­bine the roast­ed salmon, the cream cheese, creme fraiche, herbs, lemon zest and juice and sea­son­ings.  Pulse until well com­bined but not a mush.  Taste for sea­son­ings and add salt if needed.

At this point, you may decide if you’d like to serve this dish as a sit-down starter or as a fin­ger food.  If as a starter, choose a plat­ter on which you’d like to serve the ter­rine and place a piece of plas­tic wrap twice as big as the plat­ter in the cen­ter of it.  In as close as you can come to a rec­tan­gle that’s about half the size of a piece of typ­ing paper, place a lay­er of smoked salmon slices on the plas­tic.  Spread a lay­er of the poached salmon mix­ture on top.  Cov­er with anoth­er lay­er of smoked salmon, anoth­er lay­er of mousse, and fin­ish with a top lay­er of smoked salmon.  Cov­er with the extra plas­tic wrap and refrig­er­ate for at least four hours, or overnight. Then unwrap the ter­rine and lay it on a cut­ting board.  Care­ful­ly, with a ser­rat­ed knife, saw the ter­rine into per­fect strips about an inch wide.  This recipe should yield about 8 strips.  Arrange on the serv­ing plat­ter.  Sprin­kle the reserved herbs over and driz­zle with dressing.

If on the oth­er hand you’d like to serve the dish as a fin­ger food, sim­ply spoon a bit of the mousse on a baguette slice, top with a bit of smoked salmon and a sprin­kle of herbs, and driz­zle dress­ing over each portion.