Mussels with Chorizo

Moules frites...is there anything better than briny, sweet mussels bathed in a sauce redolent with the taste of the sea accompanied by crisp, salty fried potatoes? Once in a while I will get a craving for this dish and yesterday was one of those days. So armed without a recipe, I just decided to wing it and make a big batch for me and the boys. I missed the frites, but the moules definitely hit the spot!

Mussels with Chorizo

2 lbs. mussels
6-10 inches of chorizo, cubed
2-3 tbsp. olive oil
1 medium onion, chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 cup tomato puree (or you could just crush some canned whole tomatoes)
1 cup white wine
1 cup water
1 tsp. sugar
salt
pepper
handful of parsley, chopped

1. Wash mussels well with cold running water.
2. In a large pot, heat olive oil and saute the chorizo until the sausage renders its fat.
3. Add onions and garlic and saute until transluscent.
4. Add tomato, white wine, sugar and water.
5. Simmer for 5 minutes to let all the flavors meld together. Meanwhile season with salt and pepper.
6. Place all the mussels into pot and cover.
7. Cook until all the mussels have opened, about 15 minutes.
8. Adjust seasoning and add parsley right before serving.
9. Serve with lots of crusty bread to sop up all the sauce.

Shrimp Curry

This Chinese-style curry is very mild but very flavorful. Just make sure you get Chinese-style curry powder and not the Indian one because Indian curries tend to have quite a bit of heat.

The original recipe I found called for crabs but I didn't want to cook anything so messy since we were going to serve it for dinner along with a few other dishes. So I improvised and this shrimp version was a hit!

A few tips...this dish comes together very quickly so have all the ingredients ready before you start. Also, use high heat to stir fry so that the veggies and shrimp stay crisp and sweet.

Sauce:
3/4 cup chicken broth
1 tablespoon cornstarch
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1 tablespoon Chinese cooking wine

Pork:
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon sugar
4 teaspoons curry
1/4 lb lean ground pork

Shrimp:
500-600 grams large shrimp, shelled and deveined
3 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 clove garlic, minced
1 medium onion, cut into wedges
1 medium green bell pepper cut into squares
1 egg, lightly beaten

1. Mix all the sauce ingredients together and set aside.
2. Season the ground pork with salt, sugar and curry powder. Mix well and set aside.
3. In a wok or large pan, saute the garlic until light brown.
4. Add the pork and saute until no longer pink.
5. Add the onions and green peppers and stir-fry for a minute or so.
6. Add the shrimp and saute just until pink.
7. Add the sauce mixture and mix until thick.
8. Stir in the beaten egg and cook for a few seconds more.

This dish is best served with lots of white rice to sop up all that wonderful sauce!

Orange!

No, I did not buy anything from Hermes. But I did get another orange thing during our trip to New York...

I was deciding between Tory Burch reva flats or my lovely orange kitchen bling...and I decided on the food thing. When it comes down to it, I don't have a shoe blog. I have a food blog. So we all know where my priorities stand :-)

I decided to make something orange in my orange, so tonight it was Aligue Pasta with Prawns and Scallops. Aligue is the Filipino word for crab fat, and my mom's recent visit resulted in a couple of bottles in my pantry. Woohoo!!!



Recipe below:
1/2 bottle of crab fat (taba ng talangka) or about 5 heaping teaspoons
450g spaghettini
400 g prawns, peeled and deveined
200 g scallops
4 cloves garlic, minced
3 stalks green onions, chopped
1/4 cup olive oil
zest of 1 lemon plus 1 tablespoon of lemon juice
salt
pepper

1. Cook you pasta until al dente and save a cup of the pasta water. Don't forget to add salt to your cooking water.
2. Meanwhile, pat the prawns and scallops with paper towels until they are dry to touch.
3. In a large skillet/pan, heat olive oil and gently saute the garlic and green onion.
4. Add the prawns, saute for a couple of minutes, then add the scallops.
5. Turn heat to low, add the crab fat, lemon zest and lemon juice.
6. Add the pasta water and stir until the sauce is thick and creamy. Taste and adjust seasonings at this point. Remember that the crab fat is a bit salty already, so taste and adjust accordingly.
7. Add the pasta and toss gently until each stand is coated with the yummy goodness.
8. Serve with additional lemon wedges.

Shrimp and cilantro rolls

I first tried this in New Jersey, where Tito M and Tita R always host the best parties with never-ending food! I was so shocked to find out that this dish only had 3, yes THREE, ingredients: shrimp, cilantro and spring roll wrappers. The sprigs of cilantro bring a freshness and sweetness to the dish like no other herb can. If you don't care for cilantro (and I cannot imagine why, but I know some people are weird like that :P ), I suppose you could use flat-leaf parsley. It wouldn't be the same though. Well, those would be shrimp and parsley rolls, for starters.

Recipe:
1. Peel and devein shrimp/prawns. Keep the tail on. It makes for better presentation.
2. Wrap in spring roll wrapper with a sprig or two of cilantro.
3. Deep fry until crisp and golden.

I serve this with sweet chili sauce but I imagine sweet and sour sauce or plum sauce would work too.

Spaghettini alle Vongole

We had a very memorable farewell meal for my father-in-law in a small, quaint Italian restaurant the other night. They had the BEST spaghetti alle vongole I had ever tried. The pasta was redolent with the taste of the sea and the clams were fresh, clean and flavorful.

So of course, I just had to try making the dish at home. My end product was not quite as transcendental, but better than most generic pasta with clams that I've tried. The trick to making this dish special is removing the pasta from the boiling water a couple of minutes before it's done and finishing the cooking process in the clam sauce/broth. The pasta then absorbs all that rich brininess and garlicky goodness in the sauce which makes for excellent eating.

1 lb. dried spaghettini (any other long noodle such as spaghetti or linguini would work too)
1 whole garlic, minced
1/2 cup olive oil
3 lbs. fresh clams, soaked to make sure they have no sand in them
1 can clams (yes, I cheated), drained, juice reserved
1/2 cup white wine
1/2 cup chopped Italian parsley

1. Put clean clams in a deep pot with white wine. Steam until the clams open.
2. Discard clams which did not open.
3. Remove the clams from the liquid and strain the liquid to remove any sand. You can use a cheesecloth, which I didn't have, or a coffee filter, which I did have.
4. Combine the liquid with the juice from the canned clams. Set aside.
5. In a large pot, saute the garlic in the olive oil until the garlic barely has a hint of gold.
6. Add the whole and canned clams.
7. Add the clam juice and most of the parsley, reserving some for final garnishing.
8. Taste and season with salt (I didn't need to) and freshly ground pepper (this I did).
9. Simmer until you have about 1 and 1/2 cup of liquid left in your pot.
10. Meanwhile, boil pasta in lots of salted water. A couple of minutes before it's done, drain it and throw it into the pot with the sauce.
11. Toss the pasta with the sauce over low to medium heat until the pasta absorbs the rest of the liquid.
12. Serve with a sprinkling of fresh parsley on top.

Note: Remember, no cheese with this dish, please. Traditionally, seafood based pasta dishes are never served with cheese. Although as you can see here, I've never been a stickler for rules.

Halibut and Pancetta in Lemon-Caper Sauce

I rarely follow a recipe to the letter but this was one that sounded so good that I felt that I could use it as is. Tyler Florence is one of my favorite Food Network hosts. His food is simple, flavorful and unapologetically straight-forward. I've tried many of his recipes and they've always come out well. The halibut I bought for dinner tonight was NOT cheap ($22.99/lb!) so I definitely did not want to mess it up. Tyler's recipes (naks, first name basis) are always easy to follow and extremely doable so I was optimistic things would go well.

4 halibut fillets (about 200-250g each) -- I actually used 5 since there were 5 of us
1 cup flour
salt
pepper
4 tbsp. olive oil
2 tbsp. butter
1 cup white wine
juice from one lemon
4 tbsp. chopped parsley
4 tsp. drained capers
8 slices pancetta, cut into strips

1. Preheat oven to 375.
2. Mix salt, pepper and flour in a shallow bowl.
3. Dredge halibut fillets in seasoned flour.
4. In an oven-proof skillet (I used enameled cast iron), heat 2 tbsp of olive oil and brown the fish skin side up for 2-3 minutes.
5. Flip fish over and add pancetta pieces.
6. Place skillet in oven and cook for 10 minutes.
7. Remove fish and pancetta from pan, add butter and deglaze pan with white wine.
8. Add lemon juice, capers and parsley. Adjust seasoning.
9. Reduce sauce to about half.
10. To serve, place pancetta pieces on top of fish and pour a few tablespoons of sauce on top. Garnish with fresh parsley.

I served the fish on top of some cauliflower puree. On the side we had haricots verts in brown butter and rosemary-garlic potatoes. I thought the dinner was a success. Everyone at the table seemed to really like to food! Thanks Tyler!

Cioppino

And now back to our regular programming...

It's been so long since I had a good seafood meal. Actually, that's not entirely correct. Last week, we had dungeness crabs for dinner. One whole steamed crab for each one of us. It was heavenly!

Anyways...

I've always wanted to try making cioppino, which is an italian seafood stew made with an assortment of the freshest seafood. So off I went to Bill's Lobsters in Chinatown East and bought my ingredients. I googled cioppino recipes, found one that I could use as a launching point, and here's what I came up with.



Cioppino

3 tbsp. olive oil
1 medium onion, chopped
2 shallots, chopped
3 tsp. chopped garlic
1/2 fennel bulb, sliced thinly
1 tbsp. fish sauce
1 tbsp. salt
1/2 tsp. chili flakes
1 bay leaf
1/2 tsp. dried basil leaves
1 can whole tomatoes in juice
6 cups shrimp stock (or fish stock)
1 lb. halibut fillet, cut into cubes
1 lb. mussels, cleaned
1 lb. headless shrimp, deveined
1/2 lb. sea scallops, cut into fourths (or bay scallops would work too)
1/2 lb. squid, cleaned and cut into rings

1. In a very large pot, heat olive oil and saute onion, shallots and fennel until soft.
2. Add garlic and chili flakes and saute for a couple of minutes.
3. Add tomatoes, stock, salt and fish sauce.
4. Cover and simmer over low heat for about 30 minutes.
5. Adjust seasonings, remove bay leaf, then puree with a hand blender.
6. Add mussels and cook until they open.
7. Add the rest of the seafood and simmer gently for about 5 minutes just until everything is tender and opaque. Be careful not to overcook the seafood!
8. Serve with some crusty garlic bread.

We had this last night for dinner. It was perfect with a few glasses of Riesling. We had LOTS of leftovers so we gently reheated them tonight and it was even better! I think the stew develops its flavors over time. Very, very, very good! Definitely one to make again another night, maybe when we have guests :-)

Baked Mussels with Butter, Cheese and Garlic

This is the simplest version of Baked Mussels there is.

Son #2 loves it and could probably eat a couple of dozens if I let him!

This dish is exquisite with freshly steamed mussels, but you could definitely use pre-cooked frozen mussels in a pinch (which is what I did today).


BAKED MUSSELS WITH BUTTER, CHEESE AND GARLIC

36 cooked mussels on the half-shell
3 cloves of garlic
2 tbsp. butter
2x2x2 inch cube of sharp cheese
2 tbsp. olive oil

1. Put all ingredients except mussels in a food processor and pulse until you make a paste.
2. Put about 1/2 tsp. of the paste on each mussel.
3. Bake in a 400 oven for 15 minutes until the topping is sightly brown.

Shrimp with Special Sauce

This simple recipe is always a hit with the boys. The sweet-salty sauce coating the shrimp requires one to eat with the hands. Using forks and knives (or spoons) is simply an injustice. There is requisite slurping and licking as one tries to get every bit of garlicky goodness before peeling the shrimp. One then breaks of the head, and savors the shrimp fat within. Each segment of the shell is then peeled away to reveal the tender sweetness. The peeled shrimp is then used to scoop up more sauce, placed on a mound of steaming white rice, and popped into the mouth whole. Yum!

Shrimp with Special Sauce

1 kilo shrimp (I usually cut off the long antennae and the tip of the sharp barb on the head)

3 tbsp. minced garlic

2 tbsp. butter

1 tbsp. cooking oil

1/2 cup oyster sauce (Lee Kum Kee is my preferred brand)

1/2 tsp. sugar

2 tbsp. water

1. In a pan, melt butter and oil and saute garlic until light brown.

2. Add in the shrimp, oyster sauce, sugar and water.

3. Stir-fry for a few minutes, just until shrimp turns pink.

4. Serve with lots of rice.

Seafood Curry

I'm so happy that my 2 sons have acquired the taste for spicy food :-) It definitely widens the scope of our gastronomic adventures. I remember 2 years ago, Tita N. came and we took her to a Thai restaurant. Son #1 was 8 at that time and Son #2 was 6. So while the adults enjoyed our pad thai and curries, we had to buy pizza for the boys. It's a good thing the restaurant was so accommodating!

But now, they actually request that I make our food even spicier! Today, we had dimsum for lunch and they put chili oil in their soy sauce. Yes, I have made them into spicy food fiends. Success!!!

So while this curry might be a tad hot for some people, our family enjoys this level of heat.

Yellow Seafood Curry

300 grams peeled black tiger prawns or large shrimp
300 grams squid or cuttlefish, cleaned and cut into 2 inch squares (I used frozen ready to cook, that's why it looks so fancy)
2 cups snow peas, topped and tailed
8-10 stalk chinese broccoli, cut into manageable pieces
6 slices ginger
3-4 kaffir lime leaves
1 small onion, quartered
1 can coconut milk
3 tbsp. yellow curry powder
1 tbsp. shrimp paste
1/2 tsp. sugar

1. In a pot, put the coconut milk, onion, ginger, kaffir lime leaves, sugar, shrimp paste and curry powder. Simmer over low heat for about 7-10 minutes.
2. Once the coconut has thickened slightly and has given off some oil, add the rest of the ingredients and simmer for a few minutes more. It won't take long because the seafood and the veggies need only a few minutes to cook. The squid, particularly, will become tough if cooked for more than a few minutes.

Just some notes. The saltiness of shrimp paste varies greatly with brand and country of origin. I used to use belacan, but I've now gone back to Filipino bagoong (I always use the Barrio Fiesta brand). It's gentler and less smelly and has that sweet-salty balance that I like. Also, belacan needs to be sauteed before using, which adds another step. If you don't have shrimp paste, fish sauce is an ok substitute but it doesn't have the depth of flavor that shrimp paste has. My suggestion is to taste the coconut milk before adding the seafood and veggies so you can adjust your seasoning then.

You can use any combination of protein and vegetables for this curry. I've made this with chicken and will try it with beef next time. Mushrooms work very well and so does broccoli. I just tend to use whatever I have on hand :-)

Steamed Fish Fillet with Garlic

This dish was inspired by a restaurant we used to frequent back home in Manila. Hap Chan started out as a small hole in the wall serving food that was reminiscent of the food in Hong Kong tea houses. The restaurant became so popular, which resulted in many branches and copy cats, but the original one in Malate will always remind me of the many lunches I spent there :-)

Steamed Fish Fillet with Garlic

Fish:

3 white fish fillets, skin removed (I used cod but the Hap Chan version uses grouper)

4 slices ginger, cut into matchstick pieces

• In a shallow bowl, spread ginger pieces and put the pieces of fish on top. Steam for 10 minutes. Pour off the excess liquid which accumulates in the bowl after the fish is cooked. Set aside.

Sauce:

1/4 cup light soy sauce

1/3 cup water

2 tbsp. sugar

1/2 tsp grated ginger

• Simmer ingredients together just until everything blends together. Set aside.

Garnish:

2 stalks green onion, sliced thinly on the diagonal

Oil:

1/4 cup neutral cooking oil like canola, corn or peanut oil

2 heaping tbsp. minced garlic

1 tsp. sesame oil

• Heat oils over medium heat. Add garlic and gently cook until garlic turns light brown. Watch carefully because garlic quickly turns from brown to burnt. Remove from heat.

To assemble:

1. Pour sauce over steamed fish.

2. Top with green onions.

3. As soon as the garlic-oil mixture is done, pour it over the fish. The hot oil will sizzle and will cook the green onions.

Rotini with Shrimp and Spanish Chorizo

It's Friday night. Time for one of my "throw together what's available" pasta dishes. My basil needed a "trim", I had some Spanish chorizo, shrimp, and sundried tomato pesto. There was a box of rotini pasta in the pantry. Yup, all I needed for a tasty pasta dish.

Rotini with Shrimp and Spanish Chorizo

450 g box rotini (or whatever pasta your heart desires)

300 g peeled shrimp

1 Spanish Chorizo

1/2 cup water

2 tsp. garlic

1 bunch italian parsley, chopped

12-15 whole basil leaves

3 heaping tbsp. sundried tomato pesto

1/4 cup grated sharp cheese (like pecorino or manchego or parmegiano)

1. Cook pasta according to package directions. By the time the pasta is done, the sauce will be ready too.

2. For the sauce, chop or slice the chorizo into small pieces. Put in a large pan with about 1/2 cup water.

3. Simmer until chorizo renders its fat and the water evaporates.

4. When the chorizo has rendered its oil and is gently frying, add garlic.

5. Saute for a few minutes then add the shrimp.

6. Cook just until shrimp is opaque then add herbs.

7. Turn off stove. Mix in drained pasta and pesto.

8. Add cheese and mix everything together.

9. Done!

On the side, we had marinated goat cheese on slices of pane di casa from Cob's bread and a glass of South African Pinot Grigio. Simple, quick and satisfying...

I think this will be another submission to presto pasta nights.

Holy crab!

Practice makes perfect, that's what they say. And in no other instance is this mantra true than when eating a whole crab. I mastered the art quite early :-) Thanks in part to the many Good Friday crab fests we had when I was a child. I'm trying to pass on the skill to my kids. Son #1 isn't too interested, but Son #2 diligently "practices" when the oppotunity arises.

I snagged these beautiful B.C./Dungeness crabs during my Chinese grocery trip this morning. Simply steamed, they are the epitome of perfection. I'm looking forward to having them for dinner with a huge plateful of steaming hot white rice and vinegar on the side. Yum!

Happy Father's Day!

We were also celebrating the first piano recital of the 2 boys, so I thought a very special meal was in order :-)

The steaks were seasoned with Barberian's steak seasoning and seared in a cast iron skillet, 4-6 minutes per side. The lobsters were simply boiled in a huge pot of water for about 15 minutes. The potatoes were baked in the convection oven for about 45 minutes. We had some drawn butter and lemon/lime wedges for the lobster and some sour cream and chives for the potato. To drink, it was a bottle of Cab Merlot.

It was awesome. The lobster fat was so creamy, we groaned with every delectable bite. The steak provided a salty, meaty counterpoint to the richness of the lobster. And to top it all off, we had warm apple pie with vanilla ice cream for dessert. Oh, caloric nirvana!