I got a great gift this year - a gift certificate to a big fancy, expensive kitchen store! What did I get with my gift certificate:
What is it you ask? Well - it's a terrine mold! Wait, what is a terrine you ask? Well a terrine is basically layered meat, usually pork or some kind of game meat in either a pastry crust or a bacon crust or a...wait, yes meat wrapped in bacon.
New Year's Eve is my chance to cook a multi course dinner for my friends. One of the courses is always Charcuteire (see blog dated October 30, 2011). I decided to make a Rabbit terrine. <gasp> you say, well suck it up buttercup! Rabbit is tastier than chicken, lower in fat than chicken and better for the environment than chicken! Alas, it's about 5x the price though...sigh.
I chose my flavour profile, in this case, blood orange and cranberry. I deboned my bunny, keeping the tenderloins intact and marinated them in blood orange and Limoncello. I then took the rest of the rabbit and processed in my food processor with fennel, caraway, salt and pepper, 1 egg and a splash of cream.
I then seared the rabbit tenderloin in a hot cast iron pan and the marinade followed the tenderloin into the pan to create an orange limoncello syrup.
The terrine mold was lined with bacon and layered with the processed rabbit, sliced tenderloin, cranberries, blood orange slices, the limoncello orange syrup and then more processed bunny.
The bacon was then folded over and a pretty little sprig of fresh thyme garnished the top:
Finally the terrine press and lid were on and the terrine was placed in a water bath and baked in a 300 F oven for 2 hours:
The finished product was served cold with olives, sweet gherkins, cheese galore and lots of wine. Of course it was totally yummy and the left overs were eaten in a sandwich New Year's Day for a quick dinner!
Happy New Year's everyone and happy eating!
