Mostly Mousseline

While we had plenty of projects on our list today (oven poach salmon, clean three more salmon and two Arctic char (they have pink polka-dotted skin!), clean the lobsters and clams we poached yesterday...), most of the day was spent on mousseline. Mousseline is a type of forcemeat, a preparation of ground fish, panada (an egg-bread mixture), and cream, and we made several basic kinds and a number of variations. The first was scallops and sole, and we included some chopped parsley in some and some chunks of prawns in the other. The second was prawn, and we left some plain and added parsley to some. The third was salmon, and we colored some of it with our food dye that we made yesterday from spinach, beets, carrots, and saffron. After a lot of work with the grinder and the robot coupe, we had an ice water bin full of with mousseline-filled pastry bags.

Then the fun began! We piped and piped. On salmon, skin still attached, to make a galantine (a galantine is a roll of forcemeat with skin on the outside). We made roulades, rolling several kinds of mousseline inside of pounded salmon. We made terrines, lined with salmon skin. And we filled giant squid bodies with bi-colored salmon mousseline. All of our rolls, bodies, and terrines will be gently poached off tomorrow.

Silvia's joined our team, hurray.

Next Tuesday is looking to be a crazy day. First, Monday is a holiday for us so we'll have to accomplish our Monday butchery along with our Tuesday tasks. Plus, we'll all switch protein teams so there will be strangeness involved. But most of all, the restaurant will be closed and will be the site of a private lunch event for Barbara Boxer, and we will be providing cold food platters for 150 people.