"A one enchanted evening filled with sweethearts" (Tommy) a warm and fuzzy fall Halloween weekend dinner. To make it happen, make a Coulibiac, and invite over beautiful friends. It can't hurt to have a surplus of masks, (wild and domestic animals are fun), a bottle of great champagne, some Cambozola and pears and walnuts, several bottles of Chardonnay, a bloody gothic Beet and Red Cabbage soup, a kindly friend who brings a large bottle of Calvados (to accompany the apple mousse Bavarian cake and which might incite a dance party, see above)....so a turntable and great records are good, too.
Parts: brioche, mousseline, salmon, spinach.....champagne beurre blanc
Brioche- dissolve 1 1/2 t yeast in 1/4 c warm water, set aside.
warm 1 1/2 c milk with 6 T butter, 2 T sugar, 1t kosher salt, when room temp whisk in 3 yolks.
Add to yeast. In lg bowl or food processor, add slush, and mix in 4 1/2 c flour. knead until smooth, rub outside of dough w butter or olive oil and set aside, covered, to rise until doubled. when doubled, punch down and rise again. After second rise you can freeze dough til needed, or begin to assemble Coulibiac.
Mousse: food processor, add 3 oz salmon filet, 6 oz large scallop, 4 oz peeled and deveined shrimp.
(acutally can use any seafoods or combo you'd like) process til smooth, add 1 egg, about 8 churns of fresh ground pepper, kosher salt, chopped chives, 1 T lemon juice, process again. Add 1/2 - 1 cup heavy cream (to your liking) and whip for a minute. stir in about 2 more oz. of shrimp, cut into chunks. Spread into container and chill at least 6 hrs.
Get about 1 1/2 pound salmon filets, skinned. And about a bag of baby spinach.
put an egg and some milk in a cup and whisk for the egg wash, grab some extra butter......and you can begin to assemble your beast!
Roll out brioche into 2 rectangles that are quite thin. layer first the mousse, then a layer of spinach (raw) then the salmon filet or filets down the center, more spinach to cover, more mousse. Spread egg wash around creation and top w other piece of brioche. Pinch all around to seal, then poke holes all along the top, and press the shape together to expel all inside air. Brush the outside with egg wash. You can cut out tiny shapes to decorate with the extra dough. (At this point you can put in fridge for about 6-7 hours, but let sit at room temp for 1 hour before baking.) Or, just bake in a preheated 400 oven for 20 mins, turn down to 350 and bake 10 mins more. Cool for at least 30 mins at room temp. Slice into slices of beautiful beautifulness.......serve with sauce.
Any version of classic Beurre Blanc (butter, shallots, wine or stock) is delicious, we used a champagne base.
Instead of putting rice in the Coulibiac, we a wild brown rice mushroom onion pilaf, made with a bit of fish stock. It really tied the room together, and the oven roasted zucchini, yellow squash and carrots made the plate gloriously colorful.
