I’ve been going to bed really late this week.
Late Sunday night I got a call from Dave, he was calling to tell me he had purchase a 25lbs Alaskan King Salmon and a 15lbs Steelhead Trout from the Pike Place Fish Market in Seattle WA. He also wanted to see if I was up to filleting the fish that night and packing it for storage in “MY” freezer. Dave, I can’t guarantee some won’t go missing! 
These fish were amazing, the King Salmon was HUGE! It still smelt like the ocean it was fished from. The only other time I’ve seen anything that compared to it is when Anneke and I went salmon fishing in Sooke BC. That’s a whole other story. The guys at the fish market had packed the fish in a fish box large Styrofoam cooler with several ice packs. Dave said according to the gurus’ these fish were supposed to keep 48hrs in the box!
I filleted both fish; I then proceeded to spoon the meat attached to the spine and ribs. It’s amazing how much meat you can scavenge with this technique. I separated the belly from the rest of the fillet. I told Dave to save this cut for special uses such as sashimi, ceviche, tartare or even carpaccio due to the high fat content within it. We portioned the rest of the fillets into 8oz pieces and vacuum packed them for the freezer.
With all the spooned meat my culinary gears started grinding. What to do with this loose meat?
I came up with the idea of making a terrine. I’ve never made one myself but I’ve seen them done on a number of occasions. The best execution I’ve seen is when John Morris prepared his rabbit terrine for the hot food served cold competition in Toronto. If I remember correctly John took 1st in his group. I also asked John for his input on his preferred preparation of this dish. Many recipes’ I’ve seen called for gelatin or eggs, John preferred using the natural protein in the fish to bind the whole mixture. He also suggested putting the food processor bowl and blade in the freezer; otherwise the heat could cause the mixture to split.
We made two different iteration of the dish, since we had two different types of meat.
We lined the King salmon terrine dish with preserved Meyer lemons and dill weed.
For the Steelhead we blended lemon zest and dill to the mix forcemeat then rolled mixture into a nori wrap with a roasted red pepper in the center.
We poached the terrines in the oven @ 250 until the internal temperature reached 135. You have refrigerate these at least 24hrs in order for them to set. Patience is a virtue when doing charcuterie. I can’t wait to pop these bad boys out of their molds. I’ll post a picture tonight!