Anchovy Mousse

A starter

Granted, that's not the greatest food photo ever taken, but nonetheless it does show how it turned out when I made this delicious starter for a dinner party a while back.


Ingredients: up to 8 people as a light starter, 6 for normally hungry people.

125g tin of anchovies (in olive oil works best)
300ml double cream
3 tablespoons of very finely chopped onion
2 tablespoons chopped fresh dill
1 tablespoon brandy (use the cheap stuff - don't waste decent drinking brandy in a food recipe, as if I need to tell you)
Gelatine to set a half to one pint's worth of liquid.


What to do:

1. Take the anchovy fillets, drain them (reserve whatever liquid they came in) and bash the little beggars like hell in a pestle and mortar until they become a blended mush. Alternatively chop 'em up in a food processor until the same effect is achieved. (I prefer the slightly rougher texture from bashing them, but each to their own).

2. Beat the cream until fairly stiff (but still soft enough to mix ingredients into).

3. Stir anchovy mush into the beaten cream; also add the reserved liquid from their tin, the dill, the brandy and the chopped onion.

4. Heat the gelatine as per packet instructions and add warm gelatine liquid to the mixture. This will re-liquify the beaten cream, don't panic - the gelatine will do the rest for you.

5. Pour mixture into ramekins or jam jars or a bloomin' great bowl or anything else you have to hand. Allow to cool to room temperature and then refrigerate until set (a few hours or a few days, it matters not).

6. As decoration, if you've got some spare anchovy fillets (two fillets per person needed), curl one fillet around a pimento stuffed olive and simply curl another fillet into an attractive spiral; plop the pair atop the mousse just before serving; garnish the lot with some fresh lettuce and cherry tomatoes.

Serve with lightly toasted and thinly cut wholegrain bread and a smidgen of green salad. Sit back and watch as your guests are astounded at your amazing abilities in the kitchen and make lip smacking guzzly noises throughout the first course.

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To drink? Try a nice dry Cava or similar bubbly (real champagne will, of course, do the job as well - if you're feeling very flush. A Dom Perignon is my personal favourite, but only if someone else is paying).

I first published this recipe on www.themillbrooker.blogspot.com on 01st June 2008.