Beautiful colour, flavour and texture

 This recipe originated at a restaurant called Le Grand Ecuyer where I worked for a summer in Cordes-sur-Ciel, France. It's the most work of the three, but it's also the most impressive and delicious. As long as you stick to the same amount of gelatin, feel free to add red currants, candies orange zests or anything else you like to the mix. If you have nice peaches on hand, use them instead of the oranges but be sure to blanch off the skins first. This recipe looks time-consuming, but as it is made in stages over two days, it's really quite simple to pull together.

1 cup (250 mL) white wine

1/2 cup (125 mL) sugar

2 teaspoons (10 mL) pink peppercorns, crushed and lightly chopped

2 teaspoons (10 mL) finely chopped fresh mint

1 vanilla bean, split and scraped

pulp of 1 passion fruit * (optional)

7 navel oranges

1/2 cup (125 mL) raspberries, fresh or frozen

20g gelatin (10 leaves or 2 tablespoons powder)

raspberry coulis to serve

The night before: Heat the wine until just warm to the touch, then stir in the sugar, mint, vanilla bean, and passion fruit pulp. Refrigerate overnight. 

The wine base

Prepare the orange supremes. Slice about an inch off the top of the orange (where the stem is) and a bit less of the base (the navel side) and place all the oranges on a cutting board standing upright. Using a very sharp knife and working with one orange at a time, slice off the peel and the pith starting at the top and slicing in a curve towards the bottom. Work around the perimeter of each orange, and be sure to slice off any remaining pith afterwards. When all the oranges are peeled, pick up each in your hand, and, over a bowl, cut between the membranes to make a segment, dropping the segments into the bowl beneath as you make them. Be sure to catch any juices, and when all the orange segments have been removed, squeeze the remaining orange pulp into the bowl to accumulate all the juice from each orange (you will need it later). When all the supremes are done, push them down to submerge them in the juice, cover the bowl and refrigerate overnight. You can relax now, the hard part is over!

To prepare the terrine: Prepare an 8X4X21/2' terrine mold by lining completely with two layers of plastic wrap, being sure it hugs the corners. Refrigerate.

Submerge the gelatin leaves, one by one, in a large bowl of cold water. Strain the oranges from their juice, being sure to catch the juices. You should have 200 ml (just under a cup) if not add more juice or wine to make up the difference. If using gelatin leaves, pour half the juice into the wine mixture and heat the rest until hot to the touch. Squeeze out the gelatin leaves very well, then Whisk them into the hot juice. (for powdered gelatin, pour half the juice over the powder to bloom and heat the rest until hot to the touch, then whisk the bloomed gelatin into the hot juice). When the gelatin has dissolved, strain the juice into the wine mixture and whisk to combine.

Ladle about 2 oz (60 mL) of the mixture into the terrine and then arrange rows of the oranges to make a decorative surface. Reserve about 16 slices for the base and chop the rest into large pieces. Reserve about 2 oz (60 mL) of the wine mixture aside, and add the chopped orange slices as well as the raspberries to the rest.

The mix right before you pour it into the mould

Pour this mixture into the mould, spreading it into the corners and making a smooth surface. Arrange the last whole orange supremes over the top, pour over the last of the reserved jelly and wrap well in plastic. Refrigerate for at least 8 hours or overnight.

Wrap and refrigerate

To serve: Remove the plastic wrap from the surface of the terrine and unmould onto serving plate. Refrigerate again and slice it at the table to serve, accompanied by a pool of raspberry coulis.