Ingredients:

• Mussels (500g for this recipe)
• Cheap white wine or cooking wine
• Bouquet garni - either pre-packaged, or make your own
• Bay leaf - 1 leaf per 500g mussels
• Dried ikan bilis to make fish stock; or, just use the dried cubes

The method:

• First, discard any mussels that smell bad, or are not opening
• Pull out the threads and scrub the mussels if needed
• Soak them in water for 1 hour or more
• Drain the water, then soak again for a few more minutes. If you're a cleanliness freak like me, you could do this cycle for many many many times.
• Prepare a pot, add 500 mls of water, throw in a handful of dried ikan bilis and boil for at least 20 minutes. Or, just do it the simple way and use fish stock cubes.
• Sieve and remove the ikan bilis from the stock, then add bouquet garni and bay leaf, and leave to simmer for a further 15 minutes.
• Add 250-750mls of white wine (depending on how drunk you want it to taste)

Now, there are 2 methods of preparing the next step, depending on whether you want the soup to be good, or the mussels to be good.

1. Add the whole lot of mussels into the stock, cover and simmer for 15-20 minutes. OR
2. Steam the mussels separately for 15 minutes, then add to the stock. Remove the whole pot from heat, and leave to stand for 15 minutes so that the mussels soak up the flavour.

• Add salt and pepper to taste.
• Finally, add just the pinch of corn starch to some hot water, stir and add into the finished soup and stir well. Remove the bouquet garni and bay leaf from the soup.
• The dish can be served on its own, or with an accompanying dip made of the juice of half a lemon, 3 tablespoons mayonnaise, 1 teaspoon of sugar and a small pinch of salt.

Posted by R. at 12:08 AM | Permalink | Comments

History:
A lovely dish I learnt from a lovely acquaintance, Giselle, when I visited Madison in March last year. She's Dominican, and apparently this is quite a common kind of food. I modified it somewhat, adding a little more texture and blanding down the beefy taste.

Ingredients:
1 bell pepper per serving - I like the colourful ones, and they tend to taste nicer than the greens.
75-80g minced beef per pepper - I use weight-watcher's, but that's not necessary.
Steamed rice - to add just that little bit of texture to it. Cous cous is an interesting alternative that I've yet to try, but should work out nicely too.
Seasonal vegetables - again, for the texture. Favourites are zucchini, yellow squash and mushrooms.
Assorted herbs - really up to you, but so far terragon with sage has been really great.
Seasoning for beef - soy sauce, wechestershire sauce, sesame oil, cooking wine (the chinese version works great!)
Parmesian cheese - grated or shredded

The method:

• Preheat oven to 200C.
• Slice off the top of the pepper neatly to form a sort of cap, and remove the seeds etc from the body to form an empty cup.
• Mix the beef with various seasoning sauces, then add salt and pepper to taste. Add various herbs to the mix. Leave to marinate at room temperature for a while.
• In the meantime, chop up the veggies into small cubes.
• Over medium heat, stir-fry the beef until 90% cooked at least, then add the diced veggies and mix well.
• Add this filling to steamed rice at a ratio of 3 parts beef to 1 part rice - more rice, if you want the mix to be fluffier.
• Fill the peppers with the stuffing, replace the peppers' caps, then cook in oven. I don't quite know the precise time, but just check with a chopstick once in a while. The peppers should be soft and indented easily, yet not overcooked to the extent of changing colour.

Posted by R. at 10:39 AM | Permalink | Comments

Ingredients:

White onions - the more the merrier!
Sugar - brown is good, but refined works too
Beef broth - or dark chicken broth if you can't get beef
Croutons
Butter
Parmesian cheese - shredded

The method:

• Thinly slice the white onions. There really should be half as much onion by volume, as the total soup volume, to make a really decent soup.
• Caramelize the onions in a saucepan, adding 1 tablespoon of butter. To aid the caramelization, just a pinch of sugar can be added. It should take almost 20 minutes at least, until the onions look like a brown, sticky, soggy mess. Not very attractive, I know.
• Add beef broth into the pan of onions, bring to a boil and let simmer for 10 minutes or more.
• For added ooomph, serve up into oven-safe bowls, then liberally top with croutons and shredded parmesian cheese. Place in pre-heated oven (200C should work fine) for 10 minutes, and the cheese should melt beautifully to form a crunchy later on top of the bowl.

Posted by R. at 9:51 AM | Permalink | Comments