At the end of the week on Friday on the Finesse we have a last evening gala dinner, this week the starter was a pressed foie gras & raspberry terrine served with fresh raspberries, raspberry purée & pea shoots.

A whole lobe of foie gras is bought to room temperature & then gently deveined, then on a tray is cured with sea salt, sugar, curing salt, coriander, black peppercorns, Madeira & cognac for a couple of hours.

Then a terrine mouldy is lined with a double layer of cling film, half the foie gras is placed in the bottom, then fresh raspberries drizzled with a little basalmic reduction placed on top followed by the remaining foie gras, the excess cling is folded over the top to seal the foie gras & the whole thing is vacuum sealed in a bag, cooked in a preheated water bath at 63 degrees Celsius for 13 minutes, then removed & placed in an ice bath for 10 minutes.

The terrine mould is then removed from the bag & pressed in the refrigerator overnight, the next day gently remove from the terrine mould, unwrap the cling film, wrap tightly in some fresh cling film & place in the fridge until ready to slice & serve.

I prefer cooking foie gras terrines sous vide at this temperature over the method in the oven using a bain marie because I think the more gentle cooking at 63 degrees produces a better textured & tasting terrine, you could also cook it at 50 degrees Celsius for 30 minutes but I am not as keen on the texture this produces, you can a;so bring down the cooking time at 63 degrees to 10 minutes if you like the centre of the terrine to be half cooked ( mi cuit ).