Garlic Mussels

Give me a big bowl of mussels and a crusty baugette and I'm happy! Seriously.   Mussels are one of my favourite foods, so easy to make (literally takes seconds) and can be flavoured in many ways.

Think Mediterranean with chopped tomatoes, garlic, onion or something completely exotic like a green curry with coconut milk, or just keep it simple, garlic and parsley or just GARLIC and lemon then you can truly savour the flavour of the sea!


If you've been eating mussels at restaurants and perhaps baking the frozen ones at home you need to upgrade and start making these in your kitchen, I promise, it's super easy!

All you need:

Fresh live Mussels that smell of the sea (Costco has them in a 2 Pack vacuumed sealed tub, just bring them home, pop them in your fridge and cook in the next couple of days) One pack makes one bowl that you see above, perfect as a meal for one person or to share as a side or "snack"

First sort your mussels and make sure they're all nice and closed, sometimes it takes a bit of time for them to wake up if they're cold from the fridge. Nearly my entire tub was good, maybe with the exception of 2-4 mussels that I threw away.

Other ingredients:
- Big drizzle of olive oil
- 2-4 large cloves of garlic, chopped in a fine dice
- Salt

In a large pot add olive oil to the bottom, on medium high sautee the garlic until fragrant. As soon as you get that garlicky whiff add your mussels in the pot.  Turn the heat up to high, sprinkle a nice amount of sea salt.

Now for the liquid, most people use white wine but you can absolutely use water, I just drizzle 3/4 of a cup or so and cover the pot with the lid.

It helps to have a glass lid to see what's goin' on but as soon as the mussels open up they're done!  To help them along I grab a tea towel and use it to hold the lid down and give the pot a little shake and place back on the heat just to get all of them opened up (kind of like if you've ever done popcorn on the stove)

Transfer the mussels to a large bowl and pour over those delicious juices.

Grab the bread, a couple of lemon wedges and grab your friends! ENJOY!

Spicy Mango Salad

Delicious refreshing mango salad!

This recipe is courtesy of A.Vogel cookbook that I received earlier this month in a gift basket, thank you A.VOGEL and Herbamare!

I really just winged the recipe but I'll give you the exact amounts.



Spicy Mango Salad

Book title: Naturally fresh & delicious, healthy cooking with A.Vogel

Translated by Irene E. Robbie

Ingredients: 

serves 4

1 ripe mango

1 organic cucumber, approx 250 g

25 g cashew nuts

1 tsp green Thai curry paste

2 tbsp peanut oil

1 small lime

1/2 tbsp Thai fish sauce

1/2 tbsp raw cane sugar

100 g cherry tomatoes

1 large handful of chives

1. Peel the mango and remove the flesh from the stone. Cut the flesh into strips, laying aside 50 g for the sauce. Peel the cucumber, cut in half lengthwise and deseed. Cut into chunks and mix with the mango strips. 

2. Roughly chop the cashew nuts. Toast in a frying pan without oil until golden brown and set aside.

3. Cook the curry paste in the oil. Remove the pan from the heat. Grate the lime peel and add to the pan with the juice of the lime. Add the fish sauce, sugar and mango pieces that were set aside. Puree everything finely. Mix with the mango and cucumber. 

4. Slice the tomatoes and add the mango and cucumber and mix together. Chop the chives and sprinkle over with the cashew nuts. 

Here are a couple of shots of my fun adventure to Cobourg, Ontario yesterday where I met so many interesting people and discovered new shops and fun ingredients! Picked up the thai green chili at a quaint gourmet shop called "A matter of taste". The owner Elaine is the sweetest, she knows her food stuff and is a pleasure to chat with. If you're ever out east do stop in and say hi to her, then pickup some of the cool ingredients she has in shop!

30 Minute Lamb Platter

I love this spread because it comes together in less than 30 minutes!

Begin by adding boneless seasoned lamb leg to the grill, following instructions on package. Usually it involves keeping the heat guage to 375 F and placing the piece of meat fat side up. That's pretty much it! After about 17-24 minutes (depending on the size of the piece) it's ready!

- 1 cup couscous

-1 tbsp harissa evoo (Olive That!)

zest of half a lemon

Herbamare seasoning salt by A.Vogel 

Black pepper
Sundried tomato, chopped finely

Meanwhile add 1 cup couscous to a bowl, drizzle 1 tbsp harissa olive oil (or plain) and zest of 1/2 lemon overtop. Add the sundried tomato and herbamare seasoning, black pepper and a bit of sea salt.

Cover with 1 cup of boiling water and wrap top of bowl tightly with cling wrap. Set aside

Other ingredients: 

1/2 cup yellow cherry or grape tomatoes

1/2 cup red cherry or grape tomatoes 

More lemon zest

Fresh mint sprigs
Chives or green onon
sea salt

2 heaping tbsp chopped Roasted red pepper in olive oil - I make mine homemade and keep in fridge.

Once the meat is done, remove from the BBQ and rest it on a plate, cover/tent it with a piece of foil and allow to cool slightly and reabsorb all it's juices.

Fluff the couscous after removing the cling wrap. Spread couscous on a platter and top with roasted red pepper (a little here and there) 

Slice lamb into medium slices across the grain and top over couscous. 

Garnish with tomatoes, sprinkle lemon zest over meat and bit of sea salt. Add pieces of mint and chives or green onion.

Serve with mint tea and hummus!

Enjoy!

Nigella's Blackberry Orange Trifle

Nigella's Blackberry Orange Marmalade Trifle

Super easy and tasty dessert from Nigella that whips up in seconds. Nigella used pound cake, but I'm using a store bought day old angel food cake for this variation.

The steps on her television show were as follows, but I copied the recipe from foodnetwork star for you guys below, although it's slightly different on there and does not use the marmalade. 

2 pound cakes or one angel food cake, sliced and layered on a plate

Marmalade mixed with some hot water into a syrup and drizzled over. 

Zest of 1 orange, thicker longer zest pieces and reserve juice of orange to drizzle over cake either mixed into the marmalade or overtop. 

Top with soft clouds of whipped cream (whipped into soft peaks and not any more - heavy cream/vanilla extract/1 tbsp powder sugar)
Garnish with blackberries and orange zest.

Tastes great the following day too if covered well in the fridge 

Source: Food network 

Ingredients

1 store-bought pound cake

1/3 cup orange liqueur (recommended: Cointreau)

1 orange or 2 clementines

1 cup heavy cream

10 ounces blackberries (about 2 cups, or blueberries if blackberries can't be found)

Directions

Cut the cake into slices and arrange them on a plate or a wide, shallow dish. Drizzle with the orange liqueur.

Zest the orange or clementines into a bowl and set aside. Squeeze the juice from the orange or clementines, over the liqueur-soaked cake.

Whip the cream in a small bowl until thick but soft, and spoon it unfancily over the top of the saturated, not to say gloriously sodden, cake.

Arrange the blackberries over the top of the whipped cream, then scatter with the reserved zest before serving.

Baby Octopus Stew

Baby octopus stew

This recipe requires only a handful of ingredients and the basics that everyone should have in their kitchen.

- Baby Octopus (fresh or frozen - thawed if frozen)

- Olive oil

- 4-7 garlic cloves, peeled, chopped and mashed using a bit of salt.

- Italian strained tomato sauce


Wash the octopus well. Add to the pot and cover with cold water.. salt the water slightly.

Let it come close to a boil then remove the water and add new cold water and repeat the process.

Once the octopus is tender (and you can cut the tenticles with a fork or poke through it easily) then it's done.

Remove and strain, set aside.

In a pot on medium heat add a few tablespoons of olive oil, add the garlic and as soon as it smells (just a few seconds in) Add the tomato sauce and let it simmer until the garlic is tender (10 minutes or so) Taste for salt and if it needs add some.

Add in the octopus and toss, cover and simmer a little longer until the octopus is tender and the whole thing smells great.

Enjoy!

The exact same stew can be used to make calamari rings, my grandfather used to make it for us this way, you don't need to blanch them in advance though so just poach them in the sauce until they're tender.
Serve with couscous.

My Mum's Orange Cake

My Mum's Orange Cake

Ingredients:

3 eggs

1 cup sugar

vanilla

rind of 1 orange

1/4 cup oil

3 tablespoons sour cream or yogurt

Whisk all the above together

Add to the wet ingredients:

2 cups flour

3 tsp baking powder

juice of one orange

Continue to whisk these last ingredients and then pour into

a greased and floured pan and bake in preheated 350 oven for 25-40 mins

depending on oven.

Delicious Saturday Meal

Here is our delicious saturday meal - following our big feast on friday (10th of June)

My mother put together a yummy salmon casserole which I called "engagement salmon" because later that night we watched Ina Garten prepare her take on the famous "engagement chicken" and it was very similar to this dish only mum used limes in the salmon instead of the lemons in the chicken but it still had lots of onion and it was delicious !

Along with that we made Chef Lidia's pasta with homemade bread crumbs Mum had a loaf in the freezer so to my amazement she began grating it and then sauteeing it in the olive oil and garlic ... then tossing the fresh pasta in it. YumYum!

This truly was one of the yummiest pasta dishes I've had, so simple but so comforting.

We also roasted asparagus (salt & pepper, olive oil drizzle- bake on 400-425 until tender then squeeze lemon juice on) and made salad. It was a really memorable and great day.

Honey our cat gave me a not so pleasant face when I pointed the camera at her but she's a real sweety :)

Simple and delicious

Sometimes the simplest things in life are the best.

Here is a healthy but satisfying dessert of fruit and whipped cream to enjoy on a lovely summer afternoon or as a light dessert at your next get together.

1. Add your favourite berries (or any fruit) into pretty bowls.

2. Pour some chilled heavy cream into a bowl, a few tbsp of powder sugar and a splash of vanilla.

I highly recommend doing it by hand, it's fun and a little work out. I also take a step outside to do this in case it splashes a bit.

Whisk it up until it comes together into a nice soft cream, should not curdle or be too "heavy"

3. Now spoon it onto your fruits and maybe garnish with some mint if you like.

If you want to mix some yogurt into the cream that's fine too or do it with yogurt alone (some honey to sweeten?) for a super healthy version.

Enjoy! :)

Hard boiling eggs

Egg, a photo by Adventuress Heart on Flickr.

Easiest way to hard boil eggs: Add eggs to pot, cover with water. Sprinkle a pinch of salt in the pot.

Place pot on burner, let water come to a boil, immediately cover and remove from heat.
Let sit for 10 mins minimum.

Peel and enjoy! Beautiful eggs with bright yellow yolks.

Making Manti

Some shots of manti making today using a recipe I found a short while ago, it was a perfect thing to do on this chilly November day while sipping a homemade pumpkin spice hot cocoa.

Manti are these turkish (also armenian and variations are made in different regions) dumplings made easy by stuffing a savoury spiced beef (or lamb) mixture into a wonton wrapper and baking until golden then baking one more time with a flavourful broth. The dumplings are tender with golden crispy tips served with yogurt sauce.



Recipe courtesy of My Barbarian Table