Salmon Mousse

This can be a high fat dish, but you can lighten it considerably, as I note in the ingredient list. For parties or get togethers, some people prepare it in molds of various shapes, often of salmon (I can't imagine where they got that idea).

Serve with toast, sliced baguettes, sliced bread rolls, pumpernickel or rye bread, sliced cucumber, sliced radishes, crackers.

Ingredients:

 

1 pound salmon, skin and bones removed, or you can use canned salmon

8 ounces cream cheese (low fat is fine)

2 to 4 tablespoons cream (you can omit this, or use just a little 2% milk to help thin the mixture)

1/3 cup mayonnaise (low fat is fine)

1/4 cup onion, chopped

2 tablespoons lemon juice

1 tablespoon chopped dill

1/2 to 1 teaspoon cayenne pepper or hot sauce 

1 teaspoon ground white pepper 

 

If using fresh salmon, you can bake it until tender (this is what I do), then let it cool. Use a food processor and add the cream cheese, process for a few seconds to begin to smooth it out, then add cream, mayonnaise, onion, salmon, lemon juice, cayenne pepper and white pepper. Process the mixture until smooth, then stir in the chopped dill (this way the mousse will have some flecks of dill visible). Refrigerate for a minimum of 2 hours (if you're molding the mousse, you'll likely need several hours of refrigeration for the mousse to really set).  

 

 

 

WORD HISTORY: 

Fine-English has more than one word of this spelling, all connected, but this is the noun meaning, "a monetary penalty, a payment implemented as punishment," also the verb, meaning, "to issue a penalty requiring payment of a specific amount (as in, "There is a fine of $25 for littering"), sometimes issued along with other forms of punishment (as in, "Your punishment is a fine of $250 and you must also serve 10 days in jail for dumping trash on your neighbor's property"), or as a penalty to avoid further punishment (as in, "You can pay a fine of $100 or serve 48 hours in jail." "Fine" is related to "finish," but the origin of these words is more than a little uncertain. Latin "figere" and "findere" have been suggested, with "figere" meaning "to fasten, to fix (in place)," with the idea being of "fixing a boundary or limit," tying the words to the meaning "end;" thus, "finish." "Findere" means "to split, to divide, to separate," with this then tied into "separating into boundaries;" that is, "limits" (ends); thus also, "finish." Latin "figere" is from Indo European "dheigw," which meant, "to pierce, to stick (in or through), with the beginning rendered in Latin as "f." If "fine" is from this source, it is related to "fix," a Latin-derived word borrowed by English via French, and it is distantly related to "ditch," a word from the Germanic roots of English. "Findere" is from Indo European "bheid," which meant, "to split," with the beginning rendered in Latin as "f." If "findere" is the source of "fine," then it is related to "bite," a word from the Germanic roots of English. ANYWAY... Latin had "finis," meaning "end, boundary (also, "death")."  This was taken by Latin-based Old French as "fin," meaning, "end, boundary," and later also, "fee or tax paid at the end of a settlement," thus signifying "the end of proceedings," a meaning also found in Latin, so did French get this meaning from Latin or did Latin get it from French? English borrowed the word from French, circa 1200, as "fine/fyn(e)," seemingly at first meaning, "end," but also, "death, the end of life," but by the mid 1300s, the legal meaning of "amount paid as a penalty or a punishment" had been taken on. Both Latin and French were used in the English legal system that developed after the Normans began ruling England; so, at least for me, it's not always easy to say from which language a particular word or meaning came, and it's likely there was reinforcement of such words and terms from both Latin and French.