- Tempting terrines

L.4.01Lit"1—)PALJOLAL.0 WE HAVE HAD St Patrick and dear St Joseph, who I always think is the best saint to help out — such good connections. Now we are in purple Passion week, heading for Palm Sunday through Holy Week in readi- ness for Easter, which happens to be my birthday this year. It only happens every 28 years, so it is rather a nice treat instead of being on Good Friday, which in some strange way seems to happen far more often. This Friday is the last great feast day for this Lent and I see the powers that be have changed it from the Annunciation of the B.V. Mary to the Annunciation of the Lord, which for once seems to make sense.

I have a very joyous first course for you, suitably festive for Easter Sunday, pretty and pink to precede your paschal lamb or bunny. I first had this served to me in Northumberland by Jane Torday and thought it a dream. I have finally found out that it comes from the splendid Richard Stein of Padstow, Cornwall. Enjoy.

Terrine of lemon sole, prawns and fresh herbs with a prawn sauce Enough for 8 portions of terrine:

8 oz prawns in their shells 8 oz skinned lemon sole fillet 1 egg (size 2)

1/4 oz onion

juice of a quarter of a lemmt 11/2 teaspoons salt 8 fluid oz double cream 1 teaspoon chopped fresh chives or parsley or both

For the sauce:

shells and heads from the prawns 1 teaspoon tomato purée 1 oz chopped onion 1 small stick celery, chopped 5 fluid oz double cream juice of a quarter of a lemon pinch cayenne pepper

Start with the sauce. Peel the prawns and reserve them. Keep the heads and shells and put them in a saucepan with the toma- to purée, onion and celery. Cover with water, bring to the boil, turn down the heat and simmer for 25 minutes. Liquidise and pass through a sieve. For the terrine make sure all the ingredients are cold before starting. When chilled, place fish, egg, 'Carry your Oscars, Mr Spielberg?' onion, lemon juice and salt in a food pro- cessor. Reduce to a smooth, thick purée. With the motor running, pour in the cream over a period of 15 seconds and add the herbs at the same time. Chill this mousse- line. Set the oven to Gas 4, 350F, 180C. Butter a 1112-pint terrine or mould. Fold the peeled prawns into the mousseline and fill the mould; cover loosely with buttered foil. Place the dish in a baking tin. Half fill the tin with hot water, bring to the boil, then transfer to the oven and bake for about 40 minutes. Check that the terrine is cooked by pushing a thin knife or trussing needle into the centre and testing the tem- perature on your top lip; if it feels warm and the instrument has come away cleanly from the centre of the terrine, it is done. When cooked, remove the terrine from the oven and leave it to stand for about 10 min- utes before turning it out very carefully on to a warm dish of pleasant aspect.

Back to the sauce. Add the cream to the sieved prawn stock and reduce the volume by rapidly boiling until you have a sauce that will coat the back of a spoon. Season with the lemon juice and cayenne pepper. (I find a dash of cognac doesn't go amiss.) Serve the terrine in slices with what some restaurants rather coarsely describe as 'a puddle of sauce'. Note: the amount of egg- white that goes into a fish terrine is critical: too much and the terrine becomes rubbery, too little and it won't hold its shape. This one hovers on the edge of being difficult, but it melts in the mouth.

In case you are still feeling peckish after your Easter feast, here is a good filler from Diana Mansell via Michael Lambton, always a delicious source.

Frozen chocolate pudding For the base: V2 lb digestive biscuits 2 oz unsalted butter

1 dessert spoon cocoa powder golden syrup

Crush the biscuits and mix with the but- ter and cocoa powder and enough golden syrup to make it all stick together. Place in the bottom of a spring form tin or terrine case large enough to contain the rest of the ingredients. Bake in a low oven, Gas 2, 310F, 154C, for 10 minutes.

For the pudding: 6 egg yolks

8 egg whites 6 oz good plain chocolate 4 oz castor sugar 2 tablespoons coffee powder 6 drops vanilla essence 1/2 pint double cream, whipped

Melt the chocolate and the coffee to geth- er. Remove from the heat and beat in the egg yolks one by one. Add the vanilla. 1 Whip egg whites stiffly, add sugar and fold in the chocolate mixture. Lastly fold in the cream. Pour on to the base, cover with foil and freeze. Serve frozen or slightly thawed as a mousse. Happy Easter to all.