mussels in white wine

http://kitchenetteblog.com/2012/08/mussels-in-white-wine/

On Wednesday we celebrated what would’ve been the 100th birthday of one of my biggest inspirations in both food and life: Julia Child!

As a kid, I’d watch her shows less for the cooking instruction – as I was still in the Easy Bake Oven stage – but just because I found her fascinating and hilarious.

Once I was able to reach the counter tops, her fearlessness and honesty taught me that there’s nothing to fear in the kitchen. You’re going to mess up, it’s going to be OK – you’ll learn from that mistake and be a better cook because of it.

Whether it’s as simple as steaming mussels or as fancy as croquembouche, she believed in making food the right way – from scratch, using real ingredients.

And as she stated in one of my favorite books, My Life in France, “…nothing is too much trouble if it turns out the way it should.”

And making these mussels was really no trouble at all!

There is a bit of prep involved, but it happens to be the kind I find quite relaxing. I’ll go over it in case you aren’t familiar with preparing mussels.

First, you’ll want to put the mussels over ice to make sure they stay cold while you’re working. Now the inspection and cleaning phase begins!

A good mussel in one that’s closed tightly and not cracked or chipped in any way. If you come across one that’s open, give it a good tap against the counter. If it closes immediately, it’s still alive and good to go – if not, it’s already dead, throw it away!

Scrub the mussels with a brush to remove any sand, and if what they call the “beard” is present you’ll want to yank that out (see photo above).

Once cleaned, drop those dudes in your prepared soaking water (I’ll go over that in the recipe) and have a glass of wine with a friend!

You don’t necessarily have the dress up like Julia, but I feel it helps.

Also I think I need to have a kitchen towel affixed to my waist at all times. So useful!

Once you’ve done the prep, you’re 90% of the way there! Throw those beauties in a pot with some shallots, butter and wine, and go to town!

mussels in white wine

Adapted from Mastering the Art of French Cooking

This recipe is delicious as is, but there are tons of ingredients you could add to boost the flavor even more! Garlic, fresh tomatoes, red pepper flakes, different herbs... get crazy!

Serves: 3-4

ingredients

• ~2 pounds fresh mussels, scrubbed & debearded (see post for instructions)
• 1/3 cup cornmeal or flour
• 3 tablespoons butter
• 1/4 cup minced shallots
• 1 1/4 cups dry white wine
• 4 sprigs fresh parsley
• 3 sprigs fresh thyme
• 1/2 small bay leaf
• freshly ground black pepper
• zest of 1 lemon
• 1/4 cup roughly chopped parsley
• French bread, for dipping

method

• In a very large bowl, whisk together 10 cups cold water with the cornmeal or flour. Soak the cleaned mussels in this mixture for at least half an hour, or up to 2 hours. This will allow the mussels to disgorge their sand, while the cornmeal is supposed to help them become more plump. Lift the mussels out of the bowl and into a colander for a thorough rinse.
• In a large pot, melt the butter over medium heat. Add the shallots and cook until translucent. Add the wine, parsley & thyme sprigs, bay leaf and pepper; bring to a boil over high heat. Cook for 2-3 minutes, until it reduces slightly.
• Add the mussels to the pot and cover tightly. As Julia instructs, you'll want to frequently hold the lid tightly and, "...toss the mussels with an up and down slightly jerky motion so the mussels will change levels and cook evenly." Don't you just love her?
• After 4-5 minutes, the shells will have opened. Remove them from the heat, add the lemon zest and stir. Serve the mussels topped with the extra liquid from the pot and chopped parsley. And don't forget the French bread!

swedish meatball

http://iamafoodblog.com/ikea-swedish-meatball-recipe/
IKEA SWEDISH MEATBALL RECIPEslightly adapted from ikea-friends.com
yield: 16 large meatballs

• 1/2 pound ground beef
  1/2 pound ground pork
  1 egg
  2.5 tablespoons finely chopped onion
  1/2 cup breadcrumbs (I used panko)
  2 small potatoes
  3 tablespoons butter
  salt and white pepper
  1/4 teaspoon all spice

Peel and cut the potatoes into chunks. Place in a small pot, cover with water and bring to a boil. Cook the potatoes until fork tender and drain well. You can mash the potatoes at this point, or if you have a potato ricer, use the potato ricer for fluffy potato grains. Set aside until completely cool.

In a frying pan, melt a tablespoon of butter over medium heat and brown the onions. Remove and set aside.

Mix all the ingredients until homogenous and flavour generously with salt, white pepper and the all spice. Shape the meat into balls.

In a large, non-stick frying pan, heat up the remaining butter over medium heat. Fry the meatballs slowly,  turning when needed, until a golden-brown crust forms and the meatball is cooked throughout.

swedish meatball

http://www.simplyrecipes.com/recipes/swedish_meatballs/

Swedish Meatballs Recipe

Lingonberry jelly is traditionally used with Swedish meatballs; you can substitute cranberry, red currant or raspberry jelly if you can't find lingonberry jelly.

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INGREDIENTS

Meatballs:

• 1 large yellow or white onion, peeled, grated (through a cheese grater)
• 2 Tbsp butter
• 2/3 cup milk
• 4-5 slices of bread, crusts removed, bread cut into pieces
• 2 eggs
• 1 pound ground pork
• 1 1/2 pounds ground beef
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 1 teaspoon freshly ground nutmeg
• 1 teaspoon ground cardamom
• 2 teaspoons black pepper

Sauce:

• 6 Tbsp butter
• 1/3 cup flour
• 1 quart beef stock
• 1/2 to 3/4 cup sour cream
• Salt
• 2 to 4 Tbsp of Lingonberry, cranberry, red currant or raspberry jelly, more or less to taste (optional)

METHOD

1 Sauté the grated onion in the butter over medium-high heat until the onions soften and turn translucent, about 3-4 minutes. Remove from heat and let cool.

2 In a medium bowl, mix the bread pieces with the milk. Set aside for 15-20 minutes, or until the bread soaks up all the milk. When it does, pulverize the bread in a food processor and pour it into a large bowl.

3 Add the cooled onions to the bowl of milk and bread. Add the rest of the meatball ingredients—eggs, ground pork, ground beef, salt, nutmeg, cardamom, pepper. Using your (clean) hands, mix well for about 2 minutes until the ingredients are well combined.

4 Use a tablespoon to measure out the meat for the meatballs. As you form the meatballs, set each one aside on a sheet pan or plate. You should get 40 to 50 meatballs.

5 Heat 6 tablespoons of butter for the sauce in a large sauté pan over medium heat. When the butter has melted, reduce the heat to medium and add some of the meatballs. Do not crowd the pan. Work in batches, browning them slowly on all sides. Be gentle when you turn them so they don't break apart. Do not cook the meatballs all the way through, only brown them at this stage. Once browned, use a slotted spoon to remove them from the pan, setting them aside so you can make the sauce with the remaining pan butter.

6 Start the sauce. (Check the pan butter to see if it has burned. If the butter tastes burnt, discard the butter and replace with new 6 tablespoons.) Heat the pan butter on medium until hot. Slowly whisk in the flour. Stirring often, let the flour cook until it is the color of coffee-with-cream; this is a classic roux.

7 As the roux is cooking, heat the beef stock in another pot until it simmers. When the roux has cooked until the color of coffee-with-cream, slowly add the hot beef stock a little at a time. Everything will sputter at first, and the sauce will seize up and solidify. Keep stirring and adding stock slowly, and it will loosen up and become silky.

8 Add the meatballs to the sauce and turn the heat down to low. Cover the pot and cook on low heat for 10 minutes. You might need to do this in batches.

9 To finish, move the meatballs to a serving dish. Add the sour cream and mix well. Either add the lingonberry jelly to the sauce or serve it on the side.

Essential cookbooks

http://www.cookinglight.com/m/cooking-101/resources/top-100-cookbooks-00412000073148/


Mastering the Art of Chinese Cooking

The Japanese Kitchen

Hot Sour Salty Sweet

The Breath of a Wok

Elephant Ear Pastry

Ina Garten

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/ina-garten/cinnamon-elephant-ears-recipe/index.html

onde onde

www.chopstickdiner.com 

Onde onde

Prep time: 15 minutes
Cooking time: 30 minutes
Makes approximately 25 onde onde balls 

200g white-fleshed sweet potato, peeled
90g glutinous rice flour (adjust accordingly — some sweet potato holds more moisture, therefore, will call for more flour)
2 tablespoons pandan juice* or a few drops of pandan extract
100g palm sugar, roughly chopped
100g grated fresh coconut (fresh is possible, if not dessicated coconut will do)
a pinch of sea salt 

1. Cut sweet potatoes into thin slices & steam for approx 20 minutes or until soft to touch. Whilst still warm, mash the sweet potatoes in a bowl using the back of a fork. 
2. In a large bowl, combine mashed sweet potato, glutinous rice flour and pandan juice and knead well to form a soft dough.
NOTE: If dough is still sticky, add a little more glutinous rice flour.  
3. Mix grated coconut and sea salt together and steam for approx 2-3 minutes. Allow the mix to cool completely. 
4. Pinch a small piece of the dough and roll it into a ball. Flatten the ball slightly and place a small piece of gula melaka in the centre. Pinch the sides of the dough towards the centre and roll it in your palms to form a smooth ball.  
5. Cook the onde onde in boiling water. Once they float to the surface, scoop the onde onde with a slotted spoon and gently shake off excess water.  
6. Roll the onde onde in grated coconut mix and serve immediately. Best eaten warm 

* To make pandan juice, blend 10 blades of pandan leaves with approx 40g water. Then, either strain the pandan leaves through a sieve and gently press the leaves against the sieve using a spoon or place pandan leaves in a muslin cloth and squeeze out the juice.