Mussels in a White Wine, Garlic and Shallots Broth

I'm really not sure what possessed me to decide to take tonight's culinary adventure but I got it in my head that I wanted to try mussels. I've never really had them before. I think I tired one once while at an all you can eat buffet place and it tasted ok then.

Metro had mussels on sale this week, so I took that as a sign to give this a whirl. I bought a small pack, just shy of 2lbs and decided to make them this evening. Turns out, they're good for you too. They're high in vitamin B12, Omega 3 fatty acid and roughly 15 mussels have the same amount of protein as a 6oz steak. (Click here for more nutritional info on them)

I'm rather paranoid about my food. I very conscious of food safety and seafood really stresses me out. I guess I've heard one too many horror stories. So before cooking, I researched the proper way to clean and cook the suckers. Here's the trippy part - the damn things are alive. I noticed that there were holes in the plastic wrap covering the container and at first, I thought that the shells of the mussels had ripped it, but after reading up on them, I realized that they were air holes. The instructions said to throw out any that are open and won't close. To test this, you're supposed to tap them with your hand or against the counter or something. I'm going through the pile and find an open one. So I tap it...and I nearly threw it across the room because the damn thing closed right then and there in my had. Freaked me right out. LOL. Usually when I'm cooking something it's dead already!

So here's what you need:

Mussels. I used just shy of 2lbs but there was only one of me. According to the Tourism PEI website, you should allow 20-25 mussels per person. The mussels I bought were fresh, live, cultivated PEI mussels.

4-5 Shallots (you can use onions but you'll have a stronger flavour which might over power the mussels), finely chopped
4-6 Cloves of Garlic, finely chopped.
1 Cup White Wine (I used Barfoot Wine's Moscato. It's sweet, just like the mussels so they went well together)
1tsp Smoked Paprika
1tsp Pepper
1tsp Sea Salt
1/2 tsp thyme (or 1 tsp of fresh)
1/2 tsp Mrs. Dash
Good pinch of chili flakes (omit if you don't like it spicy)
1/4 to 1/3 cup Fresh Parsley, chopped.
2 tbsp Olive Oil
2 tbsp Butter (if using salted, decrease the Sea Salt to 1/2 tsp)
Your favourite bread or buns to soak up the broth

Start by soaking the mussels in cold water for 20-30 minutes. This will get rid of any grit/sand that's in them. Drain them, de-beard them and check them over. De-bearding them is funny. Some of the mussels have this seaweed like thread on the side that you kind of wiggle out. It is a little like playing tug-o-war with the mussels. Eventually it comes free and you just toss it out. Check over the mussels carefully. If any are open and won't close when tapped, throw them out. If any have broken or cracked shells, throw them out.

While the mussels are soaking, prepare the shallots and garlic. Just chop both finely. Also, open the bottle of wine. Pour out a glass and have a few sips to ensure the quality of the wine. When cooking with wine, my idea is that if you can't stand to drink it, why cook with it? Once the alcohol burns off, the underlying flavours are what's left behind. I have to say, I picked a pretty gosh darn good wine.

In a large stock pot, heat the olive oil and butter. Once hot, add in the shallots. Cook over medium heat for about 5 minutes. Add in the garlic and cook for another 3-4 minutes. Don't let the garlic burn. Once the shallots are soft, add in all the spices and stir well (about 20 seconds). Add in the wine and stir again. You can now add in the chopped Parsley. You might want to reserve some to use as a garnish at the end. Bring everything to a boil. 

Once boiling, add in the mussels and cover. Cook for 8-10 minutes. If you haven't finished that first glass of wine yet, do so now. If you've finished the first glass, pour another one while the mussels are cooking. You can swirl the pot once or twice (with the lid on) to prevent the mussels from burning to the bottom. Do not over cook the mussels. They'll get dried out and become tough. You know they're done when they open up and and the meat inside is plump. After the 10 minutes, if some haven't opened, just throw them out.

Pour everything in a big bowl and serve right away while they're still hot. I ate them by transferring 5-6 at a time to a soup bowl, and pouring some of the awesome broth over them. I also had a glass of wine with them.

I used a fork to get the meat out of the first one but then I used the empty shell like tongs to get the meat out of the rest. The shell also work great for scooping up the broth. They're a little messy this way but they were SO GOOD!!!!!!!!! And it really didn't take long to make. I think I might have to buy more mussels and make them again next weekend. I definitely needs more wine too ;)

Here's one last fun mussel trivia fact - if the meat inside is kind of white, it's a male mussel. If it's a rust or orange colour, it's a female. I think most of mine were females. 

Enjoy!

Sarah

Egg, Bacon and Avocado Breakfast

I meant to blog this last weekend but got busy and totally forgot about it.

It's a very simple, very quick and fairly healthy breakfast. And the best part? It tastes amazing. I loved it!!

Here's what you need (for 1 person):

2 Eggs
1/2 ripe Avocado
4 slices of Bacon (mmmm, bacon)
2 slices of toast (I use multi grain or whole wheat)
Salt and Pepper to taste (optional)

Step 1: Cook the bacon. Simple and it makes my apartment smell awesome. Once cooked, put in on some paper towel to soak up the excess grease.

Step 2: Poach the eggs. The best trick I ever learnt was to add 1 tbsp of white vinegar to the boiling water. It  helps the egg stay together in the water. It's really cool and unless you plan on keeping the eggs in the water for a half hour, you can not taste the vinegar. When poaching the eggs, poach them as you like them. If you like them a little less runny, cook them a bit longer. They should be cooked for 2-4 minutes.

While the eggs are cooking, toast the bread and slice the avocado. I sliced it fairly thin.

Once everything is done, start by putting the avocado on the toast, then the bacon and put the egg on top. You can butter the toast or use mayo if you'd prefer that. Sprinkle with salt and pepper if you're using them. And you're done! Cut into it and enjoy!

I had thought about adding cheese, but the avocado adds a creamy texture to the whole thing so I didn't notice that the cheese was missing.

See? Really simple and very, very yummy.

Enjoy!

Sarah

Garlic-Pesto Shrimp Pasta

Since my bank account is looking a little scary at the moment, I decided it would be better to cook dinner tonight instead of ordering in (which I did last night). After poking around in my fridge, freezer and pantry, I decided to make pasta with shrimp.

It was very simple to make and I didn't follow any recipe. I just threw together some stuff that I like and crossed my fingers. Cooking should be fun and you shouldn't be afraid of it. Inventing stuff is a blast. Thankfully, most of the time it turns out.

Here's what you're going to need (to make 2 servings):

1/2lb raw, peeled shrimp, thawed if using frozen
1/3 to 1/2 a box of the pasta of your choice. I used multigrain spaghetti. Linguine would have worked well too.
3tbsp butter
2tsp olive oil
2tsp minced or pureed garlic
2tsp (heaping) of a good quality Pesto Sauce
1/2 of a lemon
1 large pinch of chili flakes (optional)
salt and pepper to taste.

Just before the pasta water boils, turn on your frying pan and get it hot. When the water is boiling, toss in some salt and then add the pasta. Once you've dropped the pasta, melt the butter in the sauce pan and then add the shrimp. Toss is around to coat it in the butter.

Once the shrimp has cooked for a moment or two, add in the garlic and chili flakes if you're using them. Continue to cook. After another 2-3 minutes, squeeze the juice from half a lemon directly into the pan with the shrimp. Stir to incorporate.

Just as the pasta finishes cooking, add the pesto to the shrimp and stir well. Add salt and pepper to taste. Keep in mind, the pesto sauce can be on the salty side so taste the sauce before adding salt.

Drain the pasta but don't toss all of the water. Keep a little bit of it. Next, add your pasta right into the pan with the shrimp. Drizzle with the olive oil and then gently stir everything all together. If it seems a little thick, take some of the pasta cooking water and add it to the pasta mix. Don't add more than 1/4 at a time and make sure to stir everything well when you add it.

And voila! You're done. You can add cheese if you like but there's already cheese in most pesto sauces.
The leftovers heat up nicely the next day too.

Enjoy!

Sarah

Beef, Barley and Beer Stew

I haven't blogged about a recipe in a while so I thought I'd do one tonight, especially since I made a crazy, kick-ass stew tonight. It was amazing. It's Beef, Barley and Beer stew. It was so good that I'm never going to make regular beef stew again. Best part? Crazy simple and it only has a few ingredients in it.

The hardest part for me was finding the beer for it. The recipe calls for "dark" beer. I am not much of a drinker at all and I really dis-like beer so I had no idea what beer could be good to cook with. I took to Facebook and asked my beer-loving FB friends what they thought. The consensus online was Rickard's Dark. So that's what I bought and it worked very well. I used my beer field trip as an excuse to hit up the mall and get a few groceries along the way. It was such a nice and sunny day that I was happy to be out and about.

This recipe is originally from the tv show "Fresh, Simple, Delicious" with host Lovoni Walker. It's a Canadian show that focuses on simple recipes that use a lot of local ingredients. Here's a link to the original recipe http://www.simplefreshdelicious.com/recipes/beef-barley-and-beer-stew

As with most recipes, I tweaked it suite my tastes. Here's what you'll need:

Oil (vegetable or olive)
3lbs of stewing beef, trimmed of any visible fat
1/2 large onion, chopped/sliced (use the whole thing if you like onions. I don't so I only used half)
4 carrots, peeled and chopped (if they're really big, use less. Unless you really like carrots).
6 garlic cloves, minced or finely chopped (use 4 if you're not a garlic fan)
1 package sliced mushrooms (I added these. The original recipe didn't have them).
4 cups (1 liter) dark beer
1 cup beef broth
2 rosemary sprigs ( I took mine off the stem and chopped them a bit )
2 tbsp tomato paste
1 cup barley ( I used pot barley simply because that's what I had in my pantry )
Salt and Pepper

Use a large pot or dutch oven and put a little oil in the bottom. Brown the meat in batches, adding a little more oil as needed. Set aside.

Heat about 2tsp of oil in the pot (don't clean it out!). Add in the onions, carrots, garlic and mushrooms (if you're using them). Cook for about 5 minutes until the onions have softened.

Add in everything else (warming, the beer will foam up!) and stir. Don't forget to add the beef back in. Add in some pepper and salt. I used about 1/2 tsp of pepper and 4 good grinds of sea salt. Don't use too much salt but do put some in.

Bring everything to a boil then cover and turn the heat down to med-low. Simmer/boil gently for about 1.5 hours. Stir it every now and then. Un-cover and cook for about 30 minutes until it's thickened. I only had to un-cover it for about 15 minutes. I let it sit for 5 minutes and then served it up and it was AMAZING. I'm taking it for lunch tomorrow.

Hope you enjoy it as much as I did!

Sarah

Cherry Bomb Cookies

This past week at work, we held a fund raising bake sale and I volunteered to bake. In doing so, I managed to use up all the corn starch and butter I had in my apartment. And I was mighty glad I decided to pick up a 2nd bag of flour.

One of the cookies that I made for the sale are ones that are being a staple of mine when it comes to Christmas baking. They're called Cherry Bomb Cookies. Basically, you wrap cookie dough around a maraschino cherry that still has the stem attached (usually called cocktail cherries) and you bake it like that. They do look like little bombs when they're done.

I can't take credit for the recipe though. I came across it in "Sugar Cookie Murder" by Joanne Fluke. I did tweak the recipe a little though. Not only are the cookies awesome, but so is the book. It's a whole series by Joanne Fluke where recipes are included in the story.

Anyhow, the cookies were a bit hit and I sold them all, which meant I didn't have to bring any home, thus helping my waistline :)

Here's the recipe:

3 cups of Flour
1 tsp Vanilla
1/2 tsp Baking Soda
1/2 tsp Baking Power
1/4 tsp Salt
1 cup Butter, softened
2 Eggs
1 cup Sugar
2 jars (16oz) of Maraschino Cherries with the stems still attached (you can find them at Bulk Barn and Metro!)
Icing Sugar

A lot of recipes call for un-salted butter. I figure it doesn't really matter. If you're using salted butter, just omit the salt that's called for in the recipe. If you're using un-salted butter, include it. Even sweet foods need a tiny but of salt to bring all of the flavours together.

Before starting, open both jars of cherries and drain in a strainer. Let them sit in the strainer while you make the dough.

Pre-heat the oven to 350F

In a bowl, combine all the dry ingredients and stir to combine.

In another bowl, beat the eggs until frothy. Add in the sugar and still until it's mostly dissolved. Add in the vanilla. You can also use almond extract instead.

Slowly add the dry ingredients into the wet, stirring well after each addition. Once mixed, take a small ball of dough and wrap it around one of the cherries, allowing only the stem to show. Roll it in your hands until a ball forms around the cherry.

Place them on a parchment paper lined baking sheet and bake for 10 minutes. They'll still be light in colour (slightly browned on the bottom). You want them to be light. If they've browned, bake them for less time. Transfer them to a rack to cool.

Once cool, put icing sugar in a bowl. Dip the cookies into the icing sugar so that they're all white. Gently shake off the excess sugar.

Now pop one in your mouth and enjoy! Just try not to eat the stem :)

Enjoy!!

Sarah

Lasagna - with lots of garlic!

It's a cold, damp and rainy day here. A perfect day to make some comfort food. I haven't had lasagna in quite some time so I decided it would be a perfect dish to make for dinner.

Lasagna looks complicated, but it really isn't. I even opted to make my own tomato sauce. Since it is December, canned tomatoes are a must. I'm not a fan of tomatoes, but I like to cook with them. I started my sauce with a special kind of tomatoes. A lot of the cooking "pros" and "experts" swear by them so I said "why not". That and I got them at a good price at a local Italian grocery store. They're called San Marzano tomatoes. I could only find whole ones, so I just poured the can into my food processor, gave it a few pulses and I had the base for my sauce.

Here's what you'll need:

1 medium onion
4-5 gloves of garlic chopped,  plus 1 tsp garlic puree
2 tsp Italian seasoning
1 tsp chili pepper flakes
1 tsp salt ( I used a special sea salt that I have, which has garlic and basil in it)
1/2 tsp pepper
1 28oz can san Marzano tomatoes (with liquid - crushed or pureed. Unless you like them chunky, then used diced)
1 tub (500ml) of cottage cheese or ricotta cheese
1/2 cup parmigiano reggiano cheese, grated
1 cup (or more) of mozzarella or cheddar or whatever you have in your fridge, grated
1/4 cup parmesan cheese (maybe a little more)
1 package of fresh mushrooms (or one can, rinsed and drained)
1 lb lean ground beef (if you don't use lean, cook it first and drain the fat off or you'll end up with greasy lasagna)
12 Lasagna Noodles (I use whole wheat ones)
2-3 tbsp Olive Oil (I use extra virgin, but use what you have)

In a large, deep sauce pan or pot, heat the olive oil. Add the onion and cook for a few minutes until it starts to soften. Add the Italian seasoning and chili pepper flakes. Stir. Add in the garlic (not the puree!) and continue to cook until everything has softened and smells wicked.

Add in the mushrooms. Cook for another 5 minutes until the mushrooms have cooked through. Add in the ground beef. Continue to cook until the meat is no longer pink. Pour in the tomatoes. Add salt and pepper. Stir well to combine everything. Allow the sauce to simmer for 20-30 minutes. The sauce will begin to thicken as you cook it. If it gets too thick, add some water to thin it out.

While it's cooking, take the 12 noodles and soak them in warm/hot water. Make sure they're completely covered by the water.

Next, make the cheese filling. Take the cottage cheese and place it in a bowl. Add the parm reggiano and half the parmesan cheese and stir. Add in the garlic puree and some pepper. Stir well and set aside. You can use light or regular cheese, it doesn't matter and in my experience, it doesn't change the taste all all.

Once the sauce has cooked for about a half hour, take it off the heat and allow to cool a little. Pre-heat the oven to 350F. Spray a 13 x 9 pan with cooking spray.

To assemble the lasagna, you're going to need 4 layers of sauce, 3 layers of noodles and 2 layers of cheese sauce. Start by spreading some of the sauce on the bottom of the pan. Top with 3 noodles. Top that with half the cottage cheese mixture. Top that with some more tomato sauce. Repeat (noodles, cheese mix, sauce). The top layer will just be noodles and sauce and then your grated mozzarella/cheddar and any additional parm reg that you might want to add.

Cover the dish with foil and pop it in the oven for 45 minutes, or until the noodles are cooked through and are tender. Remove the foil and top with the rest of the parmesan cheese. Return to the oven and allow it to cook for another 15 minutes or until the cheese is all melted, bubbly and browned lightly.

Remove from the oven and allow the lasagna to rest for 15 or so minutes before you cut it. Leftovers can be stored in the fridge for a couple of day or if wrapped well, you can freeze it for a couple of months. Frozen individual pieces make a great lunch or quick evening dinner.

Just so you know, my apartment smells amazing right now! LOL.

ENJOY!!!!!!!!!

Sarah

Roasted Half Chicken and Brussel Sprouts

This week my local Metro had half chickens on sale, which got me super excited. Roast chicken is one of the easiest dishes to make and it can be dressed up into something special, or kept simple. And it delicious.

Since it's just me, I often find that roasting a whole chicken is too much for me. There's often too much left over and I get sick of eating it after a few days. So I'm thrilled when they have half chickens on sale.

Now for the brussel sprouts. I've never been a fan of them. When I was little, my grandpa tried to get my brother and I to eat one. He first put a piece of cheese on it. We wouldn't eat it. He then tried adding, chocolate sauce, then whipped cream and finally a cherry. My brother and I still wouldn't eat it. At this point, my grandma looked at him and told him to eat it. My poor grandpa did it and I still remember the look on his face. LOL. Credit to him for actually eating it and keeping it down. Anyhow, back in May, I got to go out for an amazing dinner at a very fancy place. My meal came with brussel sprouts. I gave them a try and LOVED THEM! Turns out they were either oven roasted or pan seared. So yesterday I was in the Byward Market and some of the stalls had brussel sprouts, so I decide to try roasting them in the oven.

First up is the chicken.

Pre-heat the oven to 400F.

I gave the chicken a quick rinse and then patted it dry. I rubbed about a tsp of olive oil on the chicken and then liberally sprinkled it with some Mrs. Dash (trying to reduce my salt in take).

 





I put the chicken in the oven for 15 minutes and then turned down the temp to 325F and cooked it for another half hour. You pretty much need to roast it for 20 minutes a pound.

While the chicken was cooking, I prepped the sprouts. I just cut the bottoms off, peeled off the touch outside leaves and then rinsed them off and dried them. I then tossed them with some olive oil, garlic power, pepper and a little bit of salt.

Once the chicken was out of the oven and resting, I put the brussel sprouts in the oven. I roasted them at 425F. You should roast them for about a half hour. Mine were small and I kind of over cooked them so they were on the crunchy side. LOL. But they still tasted really, really good. I will definitely make them again and keep a better eye on them next time.

The chicken was great too. It came out with a nice crispy skin and the inside was moist. The Mrs. Dash gave it a nice flavour too. I made a box of Idaho Potatoes Au Gratin to round it out (pretty damn good for potatoes from a box).

So there is it. A very simple, easy and super yummy Sunday dinner. And I have enough chicken leftover to take for lunch tomorrow. Now if only the dishes would magically do themselves, I'd be set.

Hope you enjoyed this recipe!

Sarah