Salmon Mousse

This is a retro recipe which deserves to be revived for summer lunches. My best friend Hilary adapted it from one in the Australian Women's Weekly quite a few years ago. She gave me a copy of the original recipe, but alongside she had made notes about how she had changed it. She had doubled the  salmon, and exchanged the cream for milk. So more protein rich and less calories.

I changed it as well and substituted 1/2 large red onion (chopped finely) for the shallots which were in the original recipe. I prefer the milder flavour.

I  also added some sweet chilli sauce, but you could make your own variations by leaving this out and adding some dijon mustard/ and or capers/ chopped celery. It's one of those flexible recipes that allows you to be creative.

I boiled the water, and dissolved the gelatine in this by stirring it vigorously with a teaspoon until it was no longer grainy. And I then I used my food processor to create this recipe as I don't have a blender. This worked well.

It says it will make 4. Were we heftier eaters in those days? I served the mousse in tiny espresso cups and it made 8.  And I served the mousse in the cups rather than turning it out. This also meant I didn't need to grease them before filling them with the mousse.

Little toast triangles have gone out of fashion but they are perfect for this. You spread a spoonful of the salmon mousse on each and nibble on some fresh lettuce alongside.


Hilary's Salmon Mousse

1/2 cup of hot water
1 chicken stock cube
1 tablespoon of gelatine
440 gm of tinned salmon
1/2 cup of red onion ( finely chopped)
1/4 cup of mayonaise
1/2 cup of milk
2 teaspoons of lemon juice
1 tablespoon of sweet chilli sauce ( optional)
salt and pepper
lettuce leaves

Put hot water. geleatine and crumbled stock cube in ablender and blend on high speed for 1 minute
Add undrained salmon, roughly chopped shallots, mayonaise, lemon juice, salt and pepper
Blend for a further 1 minute
Add milk/cream
Blend for 30 seconds
Pour salmon mixture into 4 individual slightly oiled dishes ( or 8 tiny espresso cups)
Refrigerate until set
Turn onto a lettuce leaf or serve it  straight out of the cups.
Serve with toast triangles