Definition of "quenelle" []

• A ball or dumpling of finely chopped meat or seafood bound with eggs and poached in stock or water. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "The term quenelle is also used to describe the decorative shape of the portions - a neat, three-sided oval a bit like a mini rugby ball! formed by smoothing the mixture between two dessertspoons."
• "There were very good breads with a killer quenelle of smoked butter crusted with walnuts."
• "Ferran and Oriol had already shaped a purée of the stuff into a small quenelle that looked exactly like the edible part of a sea urchin, but they had a harder time with a dumpling-ish item they were trying to make."