My Smoked Trout Mousse ©

 

 

 

 

 

I really enjoy cooking and I would like to encourage all you new cooks, to make a start. Yes it will seem like it takes for ever the first time you try a recipe and obviously I recommend you to start with something easy, but once you make it a second and a third time, you will wonder what you were worrying about. It is best to stick to four easy recipes at the beginning and when you can do them with your eyes shut then try a new one. It is very rewarding and just how I started, right up until I find it fun to try something a little more challenging like the recipe below. As long as you enjoy cooking and eating, it is never too late to start, there is nothing like the warmth of the kitchen and the smell of home cooked food. It brings people together and friends always appreciate home cooked food.

This is a very nice recipe for a special occasion, which can be made ahead of time and is particularly useful when you have a lot of cooking to do on the day, because i make it two days before, decorate it the day before and drizzle it with a little dressing just before serving.

It may seem complicated, but it really isn’t, however it is a good thing, like all recipes to try it out on your family first, before you make it for others. The tricky part, is not in the adding of the gelatin, but in the actual turning out. If you wish to avoid this, or do not have a nice “Fish Mould,” you can serve it in any nice dish and people can serve them selves with a spoon. The nice thing with the “Fish Mould is that you turn it out and then cut your self a slice!

 

 

Medium-Easy- advanced.

 

 

8-10 Persons

 

 

Ingredients

2-3 Smoked Trout, ready cleaned in packets

150 ml  Home made Mayonnaise. ( 1 egg yolk, 1 tsp dijon, salt , 1/2 lemon juice, 15o ml corn oil. )

1 clove garlic crushed finely  ( You  don’t taste this at all, but it adds to the general flavor.)

3 leaves gelatin  ( 7 cm x 12 cm )

3 tbs water

1/2 lemon juice

salt black pepper

A dash of Worcestershire Sauce, Tabasco, and Ketchup for color

2 egg whites, beaten to meringue

150 ml cream lightly whipped

 

Garnish

1 cucumber peeled and finely cubed

1 tsp wine vinegar for cucumber

1 cucumber thinly sliced

1 red pepper cut into diamonds

Parsley and lemon slices

 

Thousand Islands Mayonnaise

1 egg yolk

150 ml Corn Oil

1/2 lemon juice

1 tsp Dijon mustard

1/2 tsp salt

A dash of Worcestershire Sauce, Tabasco and Ketchup for color

 

Method

1. Choose suitable bowl or “Fish shaped Mould,” for your Mousse. Grease with oil, using a square of kitchen paper to spread it well around all the interior of your  mould.

2. Unwrap trout, making sure no cellophane is left within the fillets and place in blender.

3. Add crushed garlic, which you have crushed in a squeezer, along with lemon juice and seasoning.

4. Make up home made mayonnaise, by placing egg yolk in mixing bowl, add mustard and salt and beat with a whisk adding corn oil very gradually. Once it has thickened, add lemon juice and then the rest of  the oil can be added more quickly. Taste for lemon and salt. This takes five minutes. Worst case scenario, use ready made!

5. Add a dash of  Worcestershire Sauce, Tabasco and Ketchup to blender. The Ketchup adds color, so add enough to give a definite Salmon pink Color.

6. Add 3 tbs of water to small saucepan and slide in gelatin leaves one by one. Leave to soften for 3 minutes and then heat , stirring all the time, but not allowing it to boil.  If it boils, the effect is lost…….If necessary remove from heat and stir until all the gelatin is  dissolved. Add to blender  passing it through a sieve and always add last so gelatin doesn’t begin to gel too quickly.

7.Blend  in blender until just blended, 1 minute at the most. Don’t over blend or gelatin will begin to set!

8. Beat egg whites until stiff peaks with a pinch of salt.

9. Beat cream until just holding.

10. Place contents of blender into large bowl. Fold in egg whites, followed by lightly whipped cream ( using the usual cutting across the mixture method, turning your large spoon and lifting up and over ‘lightly,’ until the ingredients are just blended.) Fill greased mould with Trout Mousse. Flatten out on top. lightly with a spatula. Cover with cling film and leave at least 3 hours in refrigerator to set.

11. When ready to dress, boil full kettle of water and pour into washing up basin. Immediately submerge your mousse into the boiling water, just up to the rim and count to ten. Have serving dish ready, place serving dish on top of mould  and as centrally as possible and turn out by flipping over. If it does not turn out, turn back over and return mould to boiling water and count again to ten! Then try again, give the mould a sharp tap to help  the mousse drop out, you will heat it plop!

12. Now decorate with finely chopped cucumber, cucumber slices which you have scored with a Channel Cutter and using a red pepper , cut in half remove seeds and cut into thin strips. Cut  strips diagonally into diamond shapes and garnish. Garnish also with parsley and lemon slices. See photos. Cover with cling film until ready to serve.

13. Just before serving drizzle cucumber with a little vinegar. If any liquid from the cucumber has gathered on the serving dish while reserved in refrigerator, remove by dabbing dish with kitchen paper.

14. To make “Thousand Island Mayonnaise,” just repeat the above mayonnaise making process, adding Worcestershire Sauce, Tabasco and Ketchup.

N.B. Always remember when using “Gelatin,” that from the moment you add it you want to continue your cooking with out a pause, incase it gels before you finish.

 

 

My Smoked Trout Mousse.

 

Gather ingredients together.

Grease fish mould with olive oil. This is important because it makes turning out your mousse much easier.

Unwrap trout from plastic wrapping and remove any cellophane that might be in between the fillets.

Place in blender along with other ingredients, crushed garlic, lemon, salt and pepper, Worcestershire Sauce

Tabasco and Ketchup.

Make up first  amount of mayonnaise. 1 egg yolk, 1 tsp Dijon mustard, 1/2 tsp salt.

Add oil gradually, once thick add lemon juice and then rest of Corn oil.

Now add mayonnaise to blender along with trout and other ingredients.

Soak gelatin in small saucepan with 3 tbs water. When soft melt over gentile heat until dissolved. Do not

boil! Add to blender.

Blend for just one minute.

Whip egg whites in one bowl and cream in the other.

Fold in first egg whites and before they are completely blended fold in whipped cream.

Fill greased mould or bowl, if you don’t have a suitable mould, cover with cling film and place in refrigerator

to set for at least 3 hours. In the mean time make you “Thousand Island Mayonnaise.”

Place carefully in basin of boiling water and count to ten!

Place plate on top of Mould and turn out. Try to centralise it!

Having tapped firmly on top of mould, mousse will turn out.

To make  my “Thousand Island Mayonnaise,” Place egg yolk, Dijon mustard and salt into bowl.

Add Corn oil drop by drop until it thickens, beating all the time.

Make sure oil is well amalgamated before you add more……

Once it is thick as in the above photograph, add lemon juice. Once the lemon is added, you can add the

rest of your oil more quickly.

Add the rest of your ingredients, Worcestershire Sauce, Tabasco the Ketchup, which gives your mayonnaise

a nice pink color. Add ketchup until you get the color you want.

Peel and cut cucumber into slices longways.

Cut slices into strips.

Cut strips across into mini cubes.

Use these cubes to garnish mousse, once it is turned out onto serving plate.

Using a Channel Knife score your cucumber with three or four equally spaced scores and slice thinly.

Use decorative  slices to decorate dish.

Do the same with the lemon

If you prefer individual Trout Mousses, you can grease and fill small ramekins.

Final result ! Perfect for a buffet!

Light and delicious!