Mussels in White Wine Sauce, etc

February 5th, 2012 | Posted by Lunar in Sewing & Culinary Creations - (0 Comments)

This past Friday I decided that I was going to cook up not one, not two, but three dishes all in one evening (with no prep done beforehand). The menu for the night was:

Mussels in white wine sauce

Gourmet mushroom risotto

Apple pie

Two out of three were a hit. The mussels would’ve been a hit if I hadn’t bought the mussels from Superstore. I had to throw away a nice fraction of them to begin with because either they were already dead or shells were crushed. The rest of them didn’t end up cooking the right way (i.e. there was only a few that you could easily nudge out of the shell with your fork but 95% of them had both of their sides still stuck to both shells, so it was a complete mess removing the shells afterwards). Alright, maybe I screwed something up but I still thought that the broth came out quite great. And this was recreated from a memory of having these about 3-4 years ago at Steamworks, one of our downtown fancier pubs. They took it off the menu and I was never the same since. So here’s what I experimented with for the broth:

  • 1 cup of white wine (I’d probably use 3/4 next time)
  • 1 cup of organic chicken broth (probably also 3/4 next time)
  • 1 diced shallot onion
  • 1 tbsp garlic powder
  • dash of basil
  • dash of oregano
  • pepper to taste
  • 1 cup of heavy cream (most importantly)

And if you get the mussels cooked just right, you will be able to enjoy the heavenly concoction with the help of a piece of sourdough bread. I was too mad at my mussels to treat them in such a way ;) I’ll post my apple pie recipe another time.

Recipe: Sour Apple Sorbet

January 8th, 2012 | Posted by Lunar in Recipes | Sewing & Culinary Creations - (0 Comments)

An easy concoction if you’re in the mood for something sweet and sour!

Ingredients:

  • 3 green apples, peeled and cored
  • 1 can of Sprite (or any other lime-flavored can of pop)
  • 2.5 tbsp white sugar
  • 8 tbsp lemon juice
  • 1 1/3 cup apple juice

Directions:

  1. Put a pot on low heat with apple juice, white sugar, and lemon juice. Let it stand until all sugar is dissolved. Remove from heat.
  2. Grate the apples into a puree (or you could use your food processor for that, but I don’t have one yet, so I do the manual labour of grating).
  3. Pour the warmed juices into the apple puree, stir to combine and put it into the freezer. After the mixture has cooled off significantly to form crusts of ice on the side of the bowl, mix in the Sprite.
  4. Every 40 minutes (or for however long you can manage to do so), take the bowl out of the freezer and break in the ice. It makes the blending process easier in the end.
  5. When frozen, blend the puree and put it into the freezer until ready to serve.

If you like it less on the sour side, obviously less lemon juice is key but also – if I had to do it over again – I’d add less sugar too since Sprite and apple juice I used is sugary enough. What I like about my recipe in comparison to others of apple sorbet I’ve seen is that I use fresh apple puree while others boil the apples and then puree them in the blender, which ends up taking more vitamins and nutritional value out of your dessert. Hope you try it :)

Finally out of the woods!

January 5th, 2012 | Posted by Lunar in Myself | Sewing & Culinary Creations - (0 Comments)

I must say that the holidays were a little rough on me. No, I didn’t overindulge in alcoholic beverages or anything like that. And yet, nonetheless, I felt sick for days and could hardly get out of bed / off couch. I thought it would somehow magically pass and I’d be well enough to go to work but on the very last night, I caved and ordered the meds a prescription for which my doctor had given to me “just in case” (which thankfully saved me). And the next day I was run down by low blood pressure, which the drugs may or may not have caused but I was intent on going to work the following day, so I tore myself off the couch and did all I could to remain standing. $176.37 later, finally out of the woods!

And now that the not-so-pleasant part is hopefully behind me, I’m free to food-dream :) Couldn’t fall asleep last night thinking about mussels in white wine sauce (one with cream in it) and woke up with the resolution that I will definitely make it – either today or tomorrow. My stomach can’t wait any longer. When Steamworks took that dish off their menu, it nearly broke my heart. It was honestly one of their best, served with some sourdough bread you could finish up the sauce with. Every time I had some beer, I always craved the white wine mussels to go with it. It’s simply irreplaceable. Wish me luck making it! (If it’s a success, will post the recipe here immediately.)

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