This makes a nice change to the usual salmon mousse. Here we have used naturally smoked haddock, I really don't like to use the bright yellow stuff. We have flavoured the mousse with some horseradish and some wild garlic.
We started with the haddock. This was gently poached in milk. Also in the milk was a bay leaf , a few slices of onion and three or four cloves. This just adds a little depth to the flavour of the fish. Once this was cooked we removed the fish from the milk and allowed to drain and cool. We removed the skin as soon as we could being careful not to scald ourselves. Once the fish was cold we kept a little aside to use as a garnish later. The rest was put into a food processor. It was pureed for a while but not until smooth. Into this we added a spoonful of creamed horseradish, some chopped wild garlic and some freshly ground black pepper. You can add a little salt at this point but you need to careful not to over season it as the haddock will be quite salty already. This was all then mixed together in the food processor. We then needed to add some cream. I use double cream but you could use a little whipping cream if you prefer. You need to know what volume of cream you add as you will need that measurement later. What you should end up with is quite a smooth paste.
At this point I put the mousse mix into the fridge. This cools the mix and gives you a bit of time to line the moulds that you will use. We used small metal rings, but any container will be just as good. You could use a small loaf tin and then serve as a slice. We lined the mould with some cling film, then carefully put a fresh wild garlic leaf around the inside. The mould is now ready to be filled.
We removed the haddock mix from the fridge. We now needed to add some gelatin. The amount needed depends on how much cream was added to the fish mix. I go by the rule that for every pint of cream used, you will need to have six sheets of gelatin. The sheets need to be soaked in some cold water until they are soft and floppy. Then they are removed from the cold water and put into a small saucepan with a couple of tablespoons of the milk used earlier to poach the fish. This is then gently heated on the stove until the gelatin has completely dissolved into the milk. Now this mix needs to be added and well stirred into the mousse mix. N.B. From the moment the gelatin is added, the mousse will start to set. You need to work quickly to make sure it is all evenly mixed together and then put into the moulds as soon as possible. Once the fish is in the moulds it can be placed into a fridge to set. During the setting time we can add a little garnish. We reserved a little of the poached haddock earlier. This can now be carefully flaked and pieces placed on the top of each mouse.
If you wanted to make this dish a little more luxurious, you could add either a poached or boiled quails egg into the middle of the mousse. This is done after the gelatin has been mixed in. Put half the mousse into the moulds, then push into the middle a quail's egg, a little very finely chopped wild garlic or chives, then the rest of the mousse. This is not essential but does add a little something that people might not expect.
The garnishes are next to be prepared. We actually have three different sorts of garnish on our dish but of course you do not need to have all of them. The first is cucumber spaghetti. This is just very carefully cut cucumber. If you have a mandolin this is very easy to produce. If not you need to cut a cucumber in half. Then very carefully slice it very thinly along its length. Then laying the slices flat on a board, cut again along the length to produce very long thin strips. The second garnish is the lobster jelly. This looks very good but was actually very easy to make. We made some lobster bisque. You can use the soup from a tin if you prefer. We measured the volume and then heated it up. Into this we added a little black fish roe. This is now easily found in all good supermarkets or fishmongers. Again we softened some gelatin in some cold water. Again we worked on using six leaves of gelatin per one pint of liquid. The gelatin was added to the warm soup and stirred until dissolved. The soup was then carefully poured onto a cling film lined tray and allowed to cool. As it cools it will set. Once it is cold and set you can cut out any shapes you want and use them as a garnish. The final garnish was the leaf and bud stalks of wild garlic. It makes a striking garnish and can all be eaten. It can be found all over the place, is inexpensive and seems to be very trendy at the moment.
I do hope that you try this dish, and of course enjoy it.
Paul Vincent, Head Chef.