Smoked Salmon Mousse

The one dish from the Christmas Buffet we produced that took any "cooking", as opposed to simply assembly, was the Smoked Salmon Mousse.

However, it was so simple to make that I hesitate to call it "cooking".  More a case of understanding balance of flavours, plus the ability to operate a food processor!

I dithered (for an astonishing length of time) over whether to include cream cheese as well as the double cream - and then wound up using them both, but in smaller quantities.  I figured that they both had a part to play in the texture and flavour of the mousse - and I was right.

As for the horseradish, even if you are not a horseradish fan, do include it.  It isn't obvious - and adds that little bit of tang that it is apparent isn't lemon juice, but you can't quite work out what it is.

Between the fish itself, the horseradish, the lemon juice and the dill, this is a mousse of extraordinary dimensions - so take care as to what you serve it on.  It can cope with being served on something like the rye bread we used, as the bread has a flavour that is very different to that of the mousse.  However, served on something like a Blini, I can't help but think that the overpowering flavour would become cream.

I know that the supermarkets are selling small packs of smoked salmon offcuts - Asda do one for 90p - which would be just perfect for this mousse.  After all, there's no need to chop up a perfectly lovely piece of smoked salmon!

The recipe below makes double the amount seen in the ramekin above.  I only made half because I was just using it for canapés and didn't want any left over, but it just goes to show how easy it is to make the amount that you are going to require - which is incredibly useful if you've spent a lot on a little!

Thank you to Knorr for supplying us with the majority of the ingredients for this dish.

SMOKED SALMON MOUSSE

Ingredients :


120g smoked salmon
2-3 tbsp double cream
1½ tbsp cream cheese
½ a tsp of creamed horseradish 
½ a lemon, juiced
fresh Dill, to taste.

Method :

1.  In a mini food processor, or a bowl suitable for using a hand blender, place the smoked salmon and whizz to chop into small pieces.

2.  Add the cream, cream cheese and horseradish, then slightly less than the stated amounts of lemon juice and dill.  Whizz to combine, and taste.  Add more cream, lemon juice or dill as required and whizz & taste until it suits your palate and the desired consistency is reached.

3.  Decant into a bowl, ready for use.

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Taking a chance on Peppered Mackerel Fish Cakes

If there's one thing in this life that I really enjoy, it's a fishcake - and preferably not one of those mealy pap type that you get from the freezer section of the supermarket, but a real, honest-to-goodness, coarse as you like, home made fishcake.

Gorgeous!

When we used to live in Kent, I ventured into fishcake making.  After all, I had a young son and knowing fish is extremely good for young growing brains was keen to get as much into him as was humanly possible.  Fish, that is, not brains.  Haven't broached the subject of brawn yet.  ~delicate shudder~  

I began by making tuna fishcakes, purely because tuna was about the only type of fish that was even remotely affordable.  In those days, I was a bit of a scaredy-cat about frying (in fact, these fishcakes were my first "real" foray into shallow frying for aeons) and wouldn't do it.  Hence, my early fishcakes had to be baked in the oven - which is never a good look on a fishcake.  I then began to get a bit random with the ingredients, resulting in a potato cake that had a little bit of fish in it - which was never going to go down well with my potato-hating hubby.

As a consequence, fishcakes have been off the menu roster for a very many years.

Which makes it all the more surprising that one day last week, we had "Peppered Mackerel Fish Cakes" - which weren't greeted with dancing in the aisles, but were eaten and professed to be "your best fishcake yet".  Which I take to mean "blinking gorgeous fishcakes" in any other language.  Well, I thought they were "blinking gorgeous fishcakes", anyway.  In fact, if some were to float past me now, I'd probably cause more tremors to be felt across in Japan in getting to them - and we don't want that - so it's probably better that they aren't likely to.

The worst part of this recipe was the pin-boning of the fillets of fish before flaking them into the potato.  It's incredibly hard to find those leetle bones when they're covered in a coarse covering of pepper!  Oh, but it was worth it.  So very, very, worth it.

PEPPERED MACKEREL FISH CAKES  (makes 6)

Ingredients :

300g cold mashed potatoes

6 spring onions, thinly sliced

1 tbsp horseradish sauce

300g peppered mackerel fillets, skinned, de-boned and flaked

salt & pepper

2 tbsp plain flour

1 egg, beaten

85g dried breadcrumbs

sunflower oil, for frying

salad and lemon wedges, to serve

Method :

1.  In a large bowl, mix together the potato, spring onions, horseradish and mackerel and season to taste.

2.  Shape into 8 even-sized cakes, compressing the mixture together as much as possible.

3.  Roll the fish cakes in the flour, then dip into the egg, then into the breadcrumbs.

4.  Cover and chill until ready to cook.

5.  Gently grill or shallow-fry the fish cakes for 5-6 mins on each side until crunchy, golden brown and hot all the way through.  Place them onto a warm plate under a warm grill, to keep hot until you are ready to serve.

6.  Serve with salad and lemon wedges.

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