- 12
Ingredients
- 1 pound pike filets, skinned and cut into 1-inch pieces
- 4 tablespoons lightly beaten egg white (about 2 egg whites)
- 2 teaspoons salt
- 1/2 teaspoon white pepper
- 1/2 teaspoon cayenne
- 1 3/4 cups heavy cream
- five 6-ounce perch filets, skinned
- salt
- pepper
- 2 tablespoons butter
- 9 tablespoons snipped chives
- beurre blanc
- 1 tablespoon sweet Hungarian paprika
Preparation
Step 1
In a food processor fitted with the steel blade purée 1 pound pike filets, skinned and cut into 1-inch pieces, with 4 tablespoons lightly beaten egg white (about 2 egg whites). Or in a blender purée the pike, ½ cup at a time, adding some of the egg white with each batch of pike. Force the purée through a fine sieve into a metal bowl, discarding any fish that cannot be forced through the sieve, add 2 teaspoons salt, ½ teaspoon white pepper, and ½ teaspoon cayenne, and chill the purée, covered, for 1 hour.
In a bowl whip 1 3/4 cups heavy cream until it holds soft peaks. Set the bowl of purée in a larger bowl filled with cracked ice and beat in the cream, about ½ cup at a time, until it is incorporated and the mousse is fluffy.
Sprinkle five 6-ounce perch filets, skinned, with salt and pepper and in a skillet cook them in 2 batches in 2 tablespoons butter for each batch over high heat for 1 minute. Transfer the perch to a dish and reserve it, covered.
Line the bottom and sides of a 2-quart buttered rectangular ceramic or glass terrine with 1/4 of the mousse and arrange 1/3 of the perch lengthwise in rows on the mousse. Sprinkle the perch with 3 tablespoons snipped chives and fill the terrine with 3 more layers of the mousse and 2 more layers of the perch, sprinkling each perch layer with 3 tablespoons snipped chives.
Put the terrine in a baking pan and add enough hot water to the pan to reach 2/3 of the way up the sides of the terrine. Bake the terrine, covered with a buttered sheet of wax paper and the lid or with a double layer of foil, in a preheated very slow oven (250°F) for 1 hour and 30 minutes. Remove the terrine from the baking pan and remove the lid and paper or the foil. Run a thin knife around the inside of the terrine, invert a heated platter over the terrine, and invert the terrine with a sharp rap onto the platter.
Serve the terrine, sliced, with beurre blanc, seasoned with 1 tablespoon sweet Hungarian paprika.