Dish 1: Smoked Salmon Rillettes

As announced before, for my very first Andy Allen dish I prepared a starter: Smoked Salmon Rillettes (p.97). I know, I know, the book says "Rilettes". But that's wrong, okay?

The dish

It is a good thing I didn't look up what rillettes really stood for beforehand, because I just learned that my only experience with rillettes up until now was the pâté that is a speciality originating from the area of Le Mans, France. When on exchange there for a few weeks 14 years ago, back in 2000 when I was 15 years old, this was what they had put on our bread when handing over our lunch boxes, and although I was never a poor eater, I couldn't stomach it. I can still vividly remember the pink paste with the fatty goo. The only leftover I have of that experience is the thick plastic container that still holds all the necklaces and bracelets that I wore in those years. Ahhhh the memories.

But anyway, this recipe has changed my mind about rillettes. Or at least about salmon rillettes.

The preparation

Naturally I read through the recipe before preparing it, and I was happy to find it was my kind of recipe. You chop some things up, chuck them all in one bowl and mix it. Alright, not quite, but that is basically it. Nothing super intricate. If you have all of the ingredients, a chopping board and a knife, you're pretty much set.

I don't eat salmon in many varieties, and I must admit, this is the first time ever that I poached it. First time ever that I poached anything, really. But it was reassuring to read that after all the sous-vide'ing I had seen on TV, I just needed to put the salmon fillets in a pan and pour boiling water over it. Well, over...? Just a small tip: pour the water in next to the salmon. Putting that stream directly onto the fish will make it burst apart, and unless you want to sift the water afterwards and end up with watery salmon soup, you had better make sure the fillets are fully covered by the water without the stream hitting the soft flesh of those fillets.

Check out my awesome kettle!

You then just have to set it aside for 30 minutes. Note to self: use a timer! I'm a huge fan of the timer when it comes to baking, but when it comes to cooking I tend to wing most of it. So naturally, I forgot. Luckily for me I didn't have any baguettes so I had put its replacement (crusty bread-rolls) in the oven soon after I had put away my poaching salmon. As they had to be in the oven for 10 minutes, I could easily add 20 minutes to that. Phew! Like I said: new to poaching. No clue what happens if you leave salmon poaching too long. I expect most of the fluids and taste will evaporate, but I didn't want to risk it.

As always, my faithful audience

On to the chopping! I'll have you know that unless you are a disaster with a chef's knife, the poaching is about the hardest thing you'll have to do. Unless you're not a native speaker of English or don't live in a country where the language is English. In my case, I had to translate most ingredients and some of the measurements to Dutch. Because what on earth are baby capers? All I know are little capers (Dutch: kappertjes). Were those the baby versions of regular capers? But then, what are regular capers? Oh the joy! So much to learn! 

And then measurements. Maybe it's an Australian thing, but I am not quite sure what "a bunch" means in terms of amounts of herbs (dill, for instance). And I'll have you know that you don't just need "a bunch". No, you will need half a bunch. I looked at the amount of herbs I had in front of me and just grabbed some. I admit, I did check in the back of the book (where Andy thankfully explains that in terms of liquid, a cup means 250ml) to see if a bunch was equivalent to 15g. No such luck. :( 

"Half a bunch" of dill

I'll probably have to learn that while I am the kind of cook who usually follows her gut instinct, when I have a recipe I want and need to follow to a tee this may just turn out to be impossible. Descriptions such as a bunch don't help. Alright. Relax. This is an Australian cookbook. Breathe. I'll just start with the capers. Baby capers. At least those amounts were in tablespoons. Lovely! I have those! 

Bad luck. The jar that held the capers was actually too small for my tablespoon. Instead I grabbed a teaspoon and once again took a wild guess (three big ones!). It didn't really matter because I love (love love love!) capers. The more the merrier.

Let's use a teaspoon instead!

At this point I had reached the "whatever, as long as it tastes good" point of the recipe. Eventually I will always reach this point in a recipe, regardless whether it is supposed to be easy or hard. My inner perfectionist (not at all a domestic goddess) just throws her hands up in the air and lets herself drop down onto a proverbial couch. No assistance from her. Maybe I should be glad, because winging it is just more my style.

Alright, so quite some chopping later, this was the result as I waited for salmon to be done poaching.

I cut the crusted bread-rolls into slices and started grilling them. They smelled so very good. 

I don't know about you, but I always underestimate the time it takes me to follow a recipe, so by this time I was getting quite peckish.

Thirty minutes up, I got the salmon fillets out of the water. They felt sturdy. Now to flake them into a big bowl.

I should have done this sooner, as the flakes were supposed to cool down before adding the rest of the ingredients. I chucked the bowl in the fridge.

Finally I got to my favourite part: mixing everything together and seasoning it with salt and pepper. Lo and behold, the final mixture sort of looked like the one in the cookbook. Huzzah! 

Final result

The recipe I followed states that you will have enough for 6-8 people. When I ended up with the mixture I wasn't so sure. But trust me, it does serve 6-8 people, if not more. With all that protein from the fish and crème fraîche (which I love as well, so thanks, Andy) you will be stuffed after a few slices of toast. 

The best thing about this recipe is that it is so simple that you only need to make it once. By now I know exactly what I need to do in order to make this delicious variation on a salmon pâté.

I definitely recommend using the lemon cheeks (the term alone is adorable) and the cornichons, because they really add the fresh acidic notes to the rillettes.

All in all, this is an amazing recipe, and not just as a starter. Go ahead and prepare this if you are having some friends over. Instead of opening a bag of crisps, just prep some toast and this will make a great snack. Just don't forget the lemon cheeks and cornichons!

Next time

I haven't even reached page 35 of the cookbook and already I have spotted at least four out of the six recipes I would love to prepare for girls' night. Unfortunately, girls' night is at least four weeks away and although I have already decided by now that I am going to prepare Roast Beef with Winter Vegetables (p. 52) for them (after all, it is still winter in the northern hemisphere), this is not helpful. Nor is it helpful that among several recipes I already spot ingredients that I know are going to prove difficult to find here.

So I have decided that next week I will be preparing not just one dish out of The Next Element, but several. First up: The Crispiest Skin Pork Belly (p. 92). I am not much of a pork eater, but I am curious about the dish the entire Australian nation seems to rave about time and time again. Chef Gary Mehigan's Twitter handle is even CrispyCrackling, so there you have it. 

To go with the pork belly I will prepare Honey Carrots (p. 73) and some mashed potato (Pomme Puree, p. 60). Of course I have made my own mashed potato before, but I can't just go around skipping recipes because I have already made something similar. Besides, it has some clear instructions when it comes to measurements, so it can't really go wrong. :)

Stay tuned, and see you at our Next Elemental meal!

(Told you I'd do it.)