Roasted Vegetable Terrine

Terrine:

ter·rine (te rēn′, tə-)

noun,

1.Usually describes a kind of pâté made of pieces of meat or vegetables in a deep dish with straight sides.

2. Can also be used to describe the dish itself; an earthenware dish or casserole in which a pâté or any of various similar meat or vegetable mixtures is cooked and served.

3. The food so prepared.

One of my favorite wedding presents from years and years (and years) ago was a plain white oval terrine. In the beginning I didn't use the darling container for pâté or traditional terrine recipes, but it was perfect for a meatloaf for two (plus leftovers for sandwiches), small casseroles, side dishes, deep dish fruit cobblers, etc.

Over time, I've gathered a modest collection of these most useful molds. The one pictured above is the newest addition to my little family of terrines. I love it ~ a birthday gift from our son. He knows me well. :) I don't know about you, but gone are the jewelery and clothing wish lists for me. I don't miss them a bit. Kitchen and gardening things are my very favorite kinds of gifts.

Like many of us in the 70's when Cuisinart home food processors were introduced I went wild, slicing and processing and making and terrines. I still use it nearly everyday, but for pâtés and terrines .... not so much ~ only for special celebrations.

However, this little terrine inspired me to try a healthier roasted vegetable terrine ~ with goat cheese. (If you don't care for goat cheese you could use herbed Boursin, feta or even flavored cream cheese.)

Had fresh basil been available I would have served it with a Basil-Walnut pesto, but basil from the garden is gone for the year. Instead I made a roasted sweet red pepper puree mixed with a little sour cream to enrich it; (I used lower-fat) it complemented the terrine slices perfectly.

An alternate way of serving the slices would be over baby field greens with a drizzle of vinaigrette ~ a wonderful light lunch, or a starter for a meal in either summer or winter.

The method is easy. First I lined the mold with plastic cling film (to facilitate removal of the finished terrine), then lined it with a single layer of leafy greens which I blanched so they would be tender and pliable; I used the outer leaves of romaine lettuce and "v"-cut the tough stem out, leaving the leaf intact, but you could use any leafy green; spinach, chard, beet greens, or grape leaves, etc. Don't worry if the leaves tear, just overlap slightly it won't matter when you slice to serve.

The remaining sliced vegetables were roasted (in a hot oven) zucchini, yellow squash, sweet red bell peppers (can use jarred) and sliced mushrooms.

Instead of roasting the whole asparagus and the carrot slices, I blanched them until just tender then plunged them into an ice water bath to stop the cooking process.

I had some leftover garlic-sauteed baby spinach so I blended that into the fresh goat cheese and seasoned with salt, pepper and basil.

After the layers are in place, the blanced leaves are folded over the top, then the cling film, next flat ceramic press is placed on top and some sort of weight (canned good, or other heavy item), then the entire dish is refrigerated for 8 to 24 hours before unmolding and slicing to serve.

You could use almost any other vegetables you'd like; the thing to keep in mind is that since this is not a baked terrine you want the vegetables rather tender so they should be cooked to make slicing the terrine easier.

I didn't use a formal recipe for this terrine, I used vegetables I had on hand ~ but I found THIS printable copy from Emeril Legasse on the Food Network website, which is very similar to how I assembled mine. His version makes a much larger terrine, however, you could easily reduce the ingredients by half for a smaller mold.

The cute little Le Creuset terrine is available at amazon.com (see sidebar, to the right.)

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