Salmon terrine with anchovies butter

We have funny friends, did you know that? Friends who come up with these crazy ideas…. And it seems that our new kitchen is sort of bringing it out in all of them. It could have something to do with the fact that everyone all of a sudden wants us to cook dinner, and hey, it’s even more fun if there is a challenge attached to it. So P. and M., friends we have known for a little over 20 years had decided that Tom and I should do a pressure test.

Checking the recipe again!

If you’ve watched masterchef Australia (2nd season) this recipe might be familiair to you. it’s the salmon terrine that was used in one of the pressure tests. For those not in the know, a pressure test, is where the cooks that were the least successful in that round need to recreate an existing dish within a certain timeframe. usually the dishes are not simple, but require some sort of skill one way or the other. Obviously, we are no masterchef’s, so we bend the rules a little bit to suit our needs. The rule was that the recipes as well as the ingredients would be given to us by friday. So we had the saturday to get extra stuff if needed. I had to work on saturday, so the cooking was on sunday.

Turning the terrine out; le moment supreme

We had three recipes to make; one the salmon terrine with hazelnut salad, two; the drunken chicken recipe from Alvin, three; the roasted pear cake from Neil Perry. The terrine was really not difficult to be honest, it just requires a certain amount of time to cool and set. But once that is done, it is really very straightforward. We were disappointed in the drunken chicken recipe as that was just not to our taste. The dessert however was totally delicious so two out of tree ain’t bad!

Plating up

In the recipe I list the avocado mousse which you do not see on the plate. I did make it, but then I forgot to plate it up… Duh.. The terrine was a big success. Lovely taste of the anchovies butter combined with the salmon. As you can see by looking at the photos I forgot to make the butter layers really thin in the beginning so those are a bit too thick. Paired with some crusty bread this is a real winner and one that will go on our list of party recipes!

I don’t have a good photo of the roasted pear cake but I will def be making that one again so that will come up later!

Smoked salmon terrine

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Prep time	1 hour, 20 minutes
Meal type	Appetizer
Misc	Pre-preparable, Serve Cold
Website	Masterchef Australia

Ingredients

• 700g sliced (smoked salmon)
• 400g unsalted butter (at roomtemperature)
• 1 lemon (rind finely grated)
• 200g white anchovies (drained and pat dried with paper towel)
• 2 slices (pane di casa bread)

Hazelnut salad

• 60 ml olive oil
• 1/4 cup hazelnuts
• 30ml hazelnut oil
• 1 teaspoon chestnut honey
• 1/2 teaspoon Dijon mustard
• 15ml sherry vinegar
• 1/4 cup baby endive hearts (We used little gem)
• 2 tablespoons chervil leaves (picked)
• 2 tablespoons baby basil (snipped)
• 2 tablespoons baby parsley (snipped)
• 1 tablespoon red kale (snipped)

Avocado cream

• 1 avocado
• 15ml lemon juice
• 2 tablespoons olive oil

Directions

. Preheat oven to 180˚C. Trim brown fat from each slice of smoked salmon. Square off long edge of each piece. 2. Process butter in food processor until pale and thick, add rind, anchovies, season to taste and process to combine. 3. Grease the inside of a 1 litre capacity terrine mould with oil, line with plastic wrap, with at least 6cm overhang on all sides. Cut a piece of foam to fit inside the terrine mould. Cover it with aluminum foil and set aside. 4. Cover the base of the terrine with one layer of smoked salmon. Using a crank spatula and a straight edged wooden spoon spread a thin even layer of butter. Continue the layers, alternating salmon and butter mixture until you have reached just over half way of the mould. Cover the terrine with plastic wrap and gently press down, place the foil-covered foam into the terrine and weight down with a few food cans. Freeze for 30 minutes, transfer to the fridge for a further 30 minutes. 5. To make the avocado cream, blend together avocado, lemon juice and oil using a stick blender, until smooth. 6. To make the hazelnut salad, Place hazelnuts on an oven tray and roast until browned. Transfer to a clean towel and rub to remove skins. Heat 15ml olive oil in a frying pan over high heat. Add hazelnuts, cook until golden. Place remaining olive oil, hazelnut oil, honey, mustard and vinegar in a bowl, whisk to combine. Add the hazelnuts to the vinaigrette mixture. Toss salad leaves through the dressing to lightly coat. 7. Heat grill pan over high heat, drizzle bread with olive oil and cook on each side until golden. 8. To serve, invert terrine mould onto a chopping board and slice. Serve with a spoon of avocado mousse, hazelnut salad and grilled bread.

Related Posts:

• Artichoke and feta tarts – DHSP challenge #7
• Griddled courgette carpaccio with chickpea salsa
• How not to cook risotto – cooking club!
• Carrot cake
• Cauliflower fennel gratin

My version

While I think some of the last couple of challenges where… well quite challenging… I think I may have picked a very easy one this time..:) So I would almost say that there is no reason not to participate this month!

For the new Donna Hay styling and photography challenge, number 7 already, I picked a recipe from the most recent Donna Hay magazine nr. 61. Photography is by William Meppem and Styling by Steve Pearce. For the past couple of months I have gone for dark and moody shots (to fit the season), rather then the signature Donna Hay style which is light and airy. I was in the mood for spring however and when I saw this gorgeous shot I could not resist.

The original by Wiliam Meppem ; the colors should be more like mine though. Blame it on the scan!

Smaller but better version of the original by William Meppem

So this is a fairly simple challenge, certainly compared to the ones we had previously but maybe it’s good to throw in an easy one for a change, to give you all some room to breath. It does not use a lot of props other then baking paper and a baking tray so in terms of prop shopping it’s easy too. I’ll show you a shot of my setup as well, so you have an idea on how I lighted the scene. Basically I had daylight coming from behind the subject and from the left with fill in with a large silver reflector from the right.

Setup for the shot

The light on this particular day was soft and cloudy so perfect really for a shadowless (more or less) photo. You could even go as far and place all the peas on the same spot but that was maybe a bit stretching it, so I left it the way I liked it. I also did have yellow tomatoes but for me that is not a huge difference so use whatever tomatoes you have.

Left mine, right the original

Now on to more pressing matters; we have a fantastic judging panel in place for the new challenge! I’m proudly presenting the following three awesome foodbloggers and awesome photographers/foodstylists.

Kay from the famous Kayotic Kitchen and a fellow Dutchie is a great photographer and has the amazing ability to do step by step shots for each and every single dish she makes. Hats of from me there!

Meeta from the equally famous What’s for Lunch Honey needs no further introduction if you come here more often. She’s not only a dear friend but also a very talented food photographer and foodstylist.

Then last but not least we have Jenn from Jenncuisine. Jenn has been participating regularly already from the first challenge and has won three times! So to avoid her winning anything else I thought I’d ask her to be on the judging panel..lol.. . She’s a great photographer and stylist as well.

So with that our judging panel is complete. The judges themselves are allowed to take part in the challenge as well, but they cannot win obviously. But it’s still fun to participate so didn’t want to take that away from anyone. Enter your links via the below Linky Tool!

Hungry yet?

You can find all the rules for the challenge on the special DHSPC page. As for the logo; I previously used the official Donna Hay logo but I was kindly notified that that is not allowed, so I changed it a bit. If you have the old logo, please use the new one from now on..

The Donna Hay team has kindly offered to share some wonderful prizes with us so the winner of the new challenge will receive a beautiful Donna Hay cookbook. it’s one of the two latest ones. I haven’t received them yet but will share that later as well.

Once the winner is decided upon  by the judges I will ask the winner for his or her homeaddress to ship the book to.

So now all that leaves me is to share the recipe with you here and it’s a delicious recipe for sure, so if all else fails you still have these delicious tarts!

As usual; dietary changes are allowed!

Artichoke and feta tarts with tomato salad

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Serves	4
Prep time	10 minutes
Cook time	15 minutes
Total time	25 minutes
Meal type	Appetizer, Lunch, Side Dish
From magazine	Donna Hay magazine

Ingredients

• 1 sheet store bought puff pastry (thawed)
• 250g feta (crumbled)
• 4 artichoke hearts (marinated and halved)
• 1 egg (lightly beaten)
• 100g mixed cherry tomatoes (halved)
• 120g frozen peas (thawed)
• 1/4 cup mint leaves
• olive oil (for drizzling)
• white balsamic vinegar (for drizzling)

Directions

Preheat oven to 200 C. Cut the pastry into 4 squares and score a 1 cm border around each square. Place the square on a baking tray lined with non stick baking paper and top with feta and artichoke. Brush the pastry borers with the egg and bake for 12-14 minutes or until golden

Place the tomato, peas and mint in a medium bowl, drizzle with olive oil and white balsamic and toss to combine. Top the tarts with the tomatoe salad to serve. Serves 4

Note

This is  really simple and delicious recipes that - at least it does for me - gives me a spring feeling!

Related Posts:

• Donna Hay styling and photography challenge #1
• Lemon Sour Bundt Cake – DHSPC #2
• Rumpsteak or potatoes; Donna Hay challenge nr. 8
• Sage and prosciutto corn cakes – Donna Hay Styling and photo Challenge #4
• Greek salad

Sesame pumpkin skewers

I guess for most part it is my own fault that people expect food if they visit us. And I do not mean the regular bowl of peanuts or olives, noooo, they expect me to have made something new and something exciting! My dad is one of the worst as I have told you before but now Tom’s friends are equally spoiled. Or maybe not even his friends but more Tom… Twice a month he is having a bunch of friends over to play D&D (Dungeons and Dragons). Once on a sunday afternoon and once on a Saturday evening. The Sunday starts lazy, with breakfast in bed and coffee and then some more coffee.

Yummy bites

So this morning – while reading my new cookbook from Bea La Tartine Gourmand – Tom looks at me, looks at the cookbook; ‘So what are you gonna be baking today?” I give him a quizzical look. “Baking? Well, nothing really..”

“O but we’re having D&D this afternoon so maybe you should bake something for the guys?” I look at the clock, thinking; well, that’s all nice and all but by the time the baking is done and photographed it will be beer time, so that doesn’t really make sense. “I can maybe make some savory bites?” I suggest, knowing he’s gonna go and jump right in. Which he does…So then I have to think of what to make for a couple of hungry guys that is not too fancy (needs to be finger food after all) and will still be easy to eat while playing a board-game at a table.

Mini pizza's

In case you do not know what D&D is, let me enlighten you a little bit. While there are many versions out there, including once where people do a real life enactment of some sort (thank god, that is NOT what Tom does!) in essence it is a role playing game. Tom, as the Dungeon Master, comes up with a story and his friends are basically the characters that decide on the course of action at every point in the time. For instance, they walk into a cave and they encounter a dragon (yes, that is all very normal..) Each character has certain abilities, either healing or magic or whatever and based on the points they have gained they can get stronger or weaker (or die). Now if they encounter the dragon they can decide to fight in which case dice are thrown to decide how it’s going.Obviously that is the game from my perspective and I’m sure there are people out there who know much more about it then me.. so forgive me if I’ve got it wrong!

Tom has been playing the game ever since he was 14 years old, so for all the twenty years that we’ve been together the guys (the groups have changed a bit over the years!) have come over twice a month. A quick calculation tells us that they have been here for roughly 480 times playing D&D. Lol… I’ve never played it, except the one time when we hadn’t been together that long and Tom felt he needed to explain what on earth he was doing up in the attic. I just think it’s an entirely silly game but hey, he likes it, so all fine by me!

So D&D finger-food it is then… I searched and found a couple of really delicious recipes which I will share with you below. My favorite was the naan-goatcheese combo with the lime and chili jam. You could use fig jam or maybe ginger-jam would be nice too, but I LOVED the chili jam. Gave it a real kick!

Sesame pumpkin skewers

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Serves	6
Prep time	10 minutes
Cook time	25 minutes
Total time	35 minutes
Meal type	Snack
Misc	Child Friendly, Pre-preparable
Website	BBC Good Food

Ingredients

• 1 tablespoon soy sauce
• 1 tablespoon honey
• 1 tablespoon sesame oil
• 1 piece butternut squash
• 2 tablespoons sesame seeds

Directions

Preheat the oven to 200 C. Clean the butternut squash (take of skin, remove insides) and cut them in cubes of about 2 x 3 cm. Prepare the sauce by putting the soy sauce, honey and sesame oil in a bowl. Put all the butternut squash in the same bowl and cover them with the soy mixture.

Line a baking tray with baking paper and arrange the butternut squash on the paper. Sprinkle with the sesame seeds and put in the oven for about 25-30 minutes or until the squash is to your liking. It should be edible but not too soft. You can put them on a skewer if you want or serve as is.

Naan bites with goatcheese and chili jam

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Serves	12
Prep time	10 minutes
Cook time	5 minutes
Total time	15 minutes
Meal type	Snack
Misc	Pre-preparable, Serve Cold
Website	BBC Good Food

Ingredients

• 100g soft goatcheese
• 2 tablespoons chives
• 2 tablespoons lime and chili jam
• 2 pieces naan bread (either home made or storebought)

Directions

In a small bowl combine the goatcheese with some of the finely chopped chives and mash them together. Taste and add seasoning if needed, but goatcheese generally doesn't need anything extra.

Bake or prepare your naan according to instructions. Cut out small rounds with a cutter. Make them max 5 cm in diameter. these are supposed to be one bite snacks, so too big is not gonna be good. Add a teaspoon of goatcheese on each naanround and top with a small dollop of jam. Sprinkle some chives on top

Very fast minipizza’s

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Serves	24
Prep time	10 minutes
Cook time	10 minutes
Total time	20 minutes
Meal type	Snack
Misc	Child Friendly, Serve Hot

Ingredients

• 1 packet tortilla's or other flat bread
• 5 tablespoons tomato sauce
• 100g grated cheese
• 100g chorizo

Optional

• 1 bunch spring onion (to decorate)

Directions

Preheat the oven to 200C. Cut out little rounds with a cutter from your tortilla or flatbread and lay them in a baking tray on baking paper. Build up your mini pizza by putting the sauce on the bottom, add little chorizo chunks and grated cheese. Pop them in the oven for about 10 minutes or until the cheese is melted and serve immediately.

Related Posts:

• Creamy goatcheese with pomegranate
• Turkey adventures
• Greek salad
• Cauliflower fennel gratin
• Apple sauce

My version...

Let’s just do another easy one, I thought to myself when going through one of Donna Hay’s cookbooks. It should be a simple recipe but enough of a challenge in getting it right. Well… if only I had thought about that a little better.. I failed, I failed miserably in recreating the original that you will see below. It seemed fairly straightforward but the trick in this particular image is not so much the recipe as that is real simple, but the angle of the photo.. You’ll see what I mean soon! In the meantime we are already on the 6th version of the Donna Hay Styling and Photography Challenge and I loved all the entries from last month! I would say spread the word..

Photo; Con Poulos

Above you can find the challenge recipe photograph by Con Poulos. it’s from the cookbook Seasons and let’s face it; it doesn’t scare you just by looking at it, does it?  But wait until you analyze this a little further. First of all there is the issue of the size of the props. If you compare the size of the bottle with the size of the bruschetta then it can’t be very big and they appear fairly close together. The tricky part for me however is that the bread in the foreground is big. There is a lot of focus on that plate of food so it is prominently featured in the frame. However I tried to place it and however I changed my lenses I could not – for the life of me – get it right. I’ve tried a wide angle and going in really close but that didn’t give me any blurred background. I tried placing the plate in front and the bottle in the back and using a telelens (which makes objects appear closer together) but then I only got a small piece of the bottle in the frame. I tried so many things I forgot to pay attention to the actual position of the bruschetta but ok…

Plate is too small in the frame here

My plate is probably bigger too or maybe the bread in the original is bigger. It’s shot on a round table and I didn’t have a round table obviously but still I just failed completely in getting it right. I know you are all eagerly awaiting the next challenge so postponing it until I got it right was not an option so you’ll have to do with my failed attempt. Can’t wait to see what you come up with! And please, please let me know how you did it.

Wrong again

I tried it with a smaller plate above (only had a little christmas plate at hand..lol) but again not good! The light in the original is coming from above right and is mildly strong. I had a beautiful clear day and so much light that it was a bit too much but I gave up and just did my own version, which you see as the first picture. Rather different but still with the same elements mostly.

I will try again but also curious what you come up with! Good luck on the challenge! You’re gonna need it (or maybe it is really simple and it is just me..lol)

Feel free to change the recipe to suit your needs and/or allergies/preferences. If you’re vegetarian you can use maybe some slices of eggplant or courgette and if you’re glutenfree, change the bread etc. All options are allowed! The rules are below the recipe.

Bruschetta with mozarella, prosciutto and rocketpesto

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Serves	4
Meal type	Appetizer, Bread
From book	Seasons

Ingredients

• 8 slices bread
• 1 clove garlic (halved)
• extra virgin olive oil (for sprinkling)
• 3-4 pieces bocconcini (in small slices or you can use regular mozarella)
• 8 slices prosciutto
• black pepper (coarsely ground)

Arugulapesto

• 1 handful basil
• 2 handfuls arugula (rocket)
• 1 handful basil
• 40g pine nuts (roasted)
• 20g grated parmesan
• 1/4 garlic clove
• 60ml extra virgin olive oil

Directions

For making the arugula (rocket) pesto put arugula, basil, pine nuts, parmesan and garlic into a foodprocessor and puree roughly. While the motor is running add the olive oil and mix until it is a thick, rough substance. Don't make it too fine. Chunks are ok to have.

Heat a gridlepan and bake both sides of the bread golden brown and crispy. Rub this with half a clove of garlic and sprinkle with some olive oil.

Put some of the slices of mozarella on the toast and liberally cover with the pesto. Top this with a slice of prosciutto and finish with some salt and pepper.

• Once a month (on the 3rd of the month) I will give you a recipe plus the accompanying photo out of the Donna Hay magazine. I will try to make it seasonal but can’t promise anything.
• You have that same month to produce your post. You can post it any day you like just as long as you finish it before the end of that month at the latest.
• You have to  produce that recipe, alterations to the recipe are allowed to make sure any dietary restrictions are met. But only minor changes!
• You have to cook and STYLE the recipe trying to replicate the photo as best as you can. If you think you can do a better job then the original photo, by all means feel free to make your own changes to the styling.
• Shoot the dish and then write a blog post about it. It would be great to add notes on how you took the photo and how you styled the dish,  so that other people can learn too.
• Link back to this months blog post about the challenge and link back to the Donna Hay Challenge page here
• Leave a message on the post that is up here for that month, saying that you completed the challenge and link to the post on your site so others can find it too.
• If you want to use the original photo in your blog post as well as the recipe be sure to link back to the Donna Hay website plus the photographers website. They will both always be mentioned in the monthly challenge posts.

Each month a winner will be picked who will be featured in the Hall of Fame page. If you like you can add a badge to your site saying that you are taking part in this competition. The badge is featured below and should link back to this page.

Above all this challenge is about having fun styling and photographing a dish by taking Donna Hay as our great example. You can join all months or whenever you feel like joining in. Using an example of the great photographers that Donna works with, I always find that it is a good learning experience to see how did they light the scene, where does the light come from and how did they manage to make it look so beautiful. Try and analyze all of that and then come up with your own version.

While taking food photos is all about finding your own style and certainly not copying anyone else, it does help to analyze how your hero’s do their job. It’s about learning to light and style a scene properly. In no way am I trying to suggest you copy another person style. Find your own unique style! This challenge is just a tool to help you along the way..

Related Posts:

• DHSPC #6 – results and exciting news!
• Sourdough bruschetta
• Sage and prosciutto corn cakes – Donna Hay Styling and photo Challenge #4
• Rumpsteak or potatoes; Donna Hay challenge nr. 8
• Donna Hay styling and photography challenge #1

salad ingredients

The indecisiveness is driving me completely insane… While I thought I had made the final decision to get rid of my studio, every time I go there for work or something else, I get sad… really sad.. So now I am starting to question my own decision. Maybe there is another way to make it work and where on earth to I keep all the things I collected over the years that fit fine into a 120 square meter space, but not so fine into a 10 square meter space that will be all that I have left… *Big sigh and pulling my hair out*

What I did do today is go to my landlord and just tell him my problem. That I don’t WANT to leave but that is has become too expensive for the amount of time I am there and well, basically I asked him if he would rent it for a little less.

So healthy!

He didn’t say no right away so that is the good news. He will need to discuss it with his brother and business partner, so the story continues. I don’t even know what I’m doing anymore it feels like. My mind jumps from decision to decision; one minute I think ‘Yeah it makes sense to give it up.” and the other minute I get all desperate and wonder where on earth would I be able to do my job?? Ofcourse there are pro’s and cons that I can think about all rationally but in the end it is my heart that is the biggest problem. I love that space; it is so me. I’ve been there for almost 4 years, we decorated it ourselves and build it up from scratch.

As if it had to be I was contacted today by someone who wants to rent the studio every now and then. That would help although the problem with things like that is that there is no certainty. But if the rent would go down a bit plus this man would rent the studio every now and then, I could maybe, just maybe, keep the studio… We’ll see… time will tell! I have till the end of March to make the final and definitive decision, so I have some more time to drive myself insane.. Yeah!

Still some poppyseed left!

Now on to this lovely salad; I’ve been really good these last few weeks. Tom and I have taken on the habit of going for a walk together every day after work, we’ve been eating very healthy, no snacking in between and no wine other then in the weekends… (a girl’s gotta have some fun!) For a lot of our grocery shopping we now walk to the store instead of taking the car (saves on gas too) so all in all, we’re doing good. The result is that I lost 8 pounds so far (as you can see from the little badge on the right) and while still a long way to go, the beginning is there!

I made this delicious and very quick salad while I was in the studio this morning and I had it for lunch. It’s a bit too light with only 138 kcal so I did have some bread later. No need to starve myself, but this is delicious and adding a bit of bacon maybe would make it a bit more filling too.

This salad is also very fitting for Mona’s Living Leaner as this is literally made from leftovers we had in the fridge and cupboard! So cost for extra was 0 and I prevented wastage!

Lettuce, chicory and apple salad

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Serves	6
Prep time	15 minutes
Dietary	Vegetarian
Meal type	Salad, Side Dish
Misc	Serve Cold
Website	BBC Good Food

Ingredients

• 100g mixed salad leaves
• 1 head white chicory (trimmed and separated into leaves)
• 1 piece apple (cored and sliced)
• 25 g toasted pistachio
• 25g sunflower seeds
• 75g cherry tomatoes (halved)

Dressing

• 2,5 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
• 2,5 tablespoons Honey
• 2,5 tablespoons lemon juice
• 1/2 tablespoon whole grain mustard
• 1 teaspoon poppy seed

Directions

Arrange the salad ingredients on a large plate or big salad bowl. Put all the ingredients for the dressing together in a jar or bowl and shake or stir until well combined. When ready to serve sprinkle some of the dressing over the salad and toss together.

Note

Quantities and ingredients are adapted from the original recipe to what I had on hand. Obviously you can change nuts and other ingredients to your liking

Related Posts:

• Quinoa, feta and walnut salad
• Tarly salad with orange hazelnut dressing – living leaner
• Lamb’s lettuce salad with feta and tomatoes
• Goatcheese salad with walnuts and pear
• Quinoa, herb and pomegranate salad and the digital age