Lesson 106: Mousselines, Pan-Smoking, Ceviche

I was feeling like a million bucks today after a good night's sleep and finally recovering from the crazy night on Tuesday :)

Instead of each group preparing different recipes, every group prepared the same 5 recipes. Before we all got working on our mis en place, Chef demonstrated how to fillet a salmon and red snapper. We've seen how to filet these fish many times throughout our culinary education, but a refresher is always helpful. I tried to take a video of the demo, but my memory card couldn't hold a long video. Here's part of Chef Chris's demo on how to fillet a salmon:



This is a picture of Chef Chris demo'ing the red snapper:

I worked on the Pan-Smoked Trout with Honey-Poppy Seed Citrus Dressing. I began by preparing the brine, which included a lot of salt, brown sugar, garlic powder, onion powder, pickling spices, and honey. I dissolved these spices in boiling water and then cooled the mixture down by adding more ice water. I added the pan-dressed trout to the brine and let it marinate in the refrigerator for about 2 hours. In the meantime, I made the dressing and helped my team members out with the other recipes. At 3:30 I put my trout in the smoker and left it in there for about 35-40 minutes.

I also worked on breaking down the fois gras. After separating the lobes, I removed all of the veins and seasoned it with the brine we made yesterday, along with some brandy and port. Doesn't it look yummy?

We are making the fois gras terrine tomorrow after it marinates overnight.

The other recipes today included:

Japanese Pickled Vegetables (or as our book said: "Javanese")


Thai Shrimp and Scallop Ceviche:


Tea and Spice Smoked Salmon:


Seafood Mousseline:


Remember the brioche dough I made yesterday? We wrapped our terrines with the dough and baked it today. It was delicious!

I can't believe tomorrow is our last lesson! Very bittersweet....