How to Cook & Freeze Mussels

Pebble Soup HQ has been invited to participate to an interesting challenge via Fish is the Dish. We pledged to eat 2 portions of fish a week for 6 weeks. A diet which will bring us enough Omega 3 to make a difference to skin and hair, vanity apart Omega 3 is excellent for your heart. More about Omega 3 oils with this cracking read Omega 3 as Easy as ABC.

Planning two meals around sea-food is not going to be hard (but it's only week 1) there are so many kinds of fish in the sea (I've always wanted to say that).  

That's the theory but  when you are faced with a bag of Mussels what do you do?

A good thing about technology is that mussels will have been cleaned and the beard removed by the time you buy them. There might still be a bit of beard which you need to be pulled off.

If you are not ready to deal with the mussels just yet, get a salad bowl, wet a towel, transfer the mussels in they will keep for a few days, a small amount of water will drain out of them.

The only rule we need to know here is: Mussels must go to the pot live. Rinse them in cold water and they will shut, if they don't give them a tap if they are still open discard them. In the batch I had, only few went to the bin.

To cook, put a little water about a mug full in the bottom of a large pan, bring to boil add the mussels and let them steam for 5-10 minutes until they have firmed up and opened.

To freeze, cook, discard the shells and transfer to a container with some of the cooking liquid, freeze only cooked mussels, they will keep for 3 or 4 months.

Diclaimer: thank you to Fish is the Dish for including Pebble Soup in the challenge and providing the ingredients for the recipes.

Aiolis & White Bread Mayonnaise

In my French teaching days, I used to tell students to torture words: chop them, axe them to bits, they'll soon reveal their secrets. Take Aioli (pronunced I-o-lee), cut it in two, you get: Ai + oli. Being a French student you would have known that Ail means garlic and oli with a bit of imagination could be ...oil...olive. Of course it's not a perfect science but it's better than giving up before even starting, plus the context should give you the rest of the clues.

Aioli is an emulsion in the same way than mayonnaise is, a mixture of two or more liquids that are normally unblendable (lemon and oil for example).  Egg-yolk can be used to blend, mustard and garlic too have emulsion-producing properties. Therefore Aioli can be made with egg-yolk, the Provencal way, or without, the Catalan way.

There is a third way, with garlic and bread. I havn't got a clue, why in the family we called this Aioli, Greek mayonnaise. It's the perfect accompaniment for cold fish such as salmon or white fish. It's an absolute delight, not for the faint hearted as it contains quite a lot of garlic. As Pebble Soup is about to enter the 6 weeks of Fish challenge with Fish is the Dish, we had a little rehearsal with my Dad's Greek Mayonnaise.

Ingredients:

Inside of 1/2 white bread loaf

5 to 10 gloves of garlic (pressed)

1/2 lemon juice

Olive oil.

Salt and Pepper

Method:

Cut the crust off a loaf of white bread, keep the inside only 

Put the bread in a bowl and wet thoroughly with water.

squeeze all the water out

add the pressed garlic and the lemon juice

with a whisk ( I use a fork) add the olive oil until you get something which reassemble a mayonnaise in texture

Serve with cold steamed fish.

   

Prague on the Trail of the Czech Cuisine.

Mention Prague, immediately the word conjures visions of gorgeous baroque facades, art-deco interiors, Bohemian-designed and crafted crystal glasses, then think food.......did you draw a blank or did a solitary pile of German bratwurst appear?

Let try again, this time with a clue, P for Prague.......Potato.....Pork....Pickles. standard staple, not worth writing home about. Therefore after 4 years of regular visits to this lovely town, I decided that there must be more to Bohemian cuisine than meet eye. 

Help appeared in the shape a wonderful guide, Michal Van Der Laan,  who made sense of the historic core of Prague: four towns,defined in the 14th century and the inner districts densely built in the 19th-early 20th century, the lot giving the impression of a Venetian maze.

 

Personally, I often start planning a visit staring at a map, here Vinohrady is a no brainer. Though vineyards were in existence, beer is the drink of choice in Bohemia. Statistically Czechs detain the world beer drinking golden tankard, it used to be 160 litres of beer per inhabitant per year, recently dropped down to 145 litres or 1 beer every day per Czech. With beer goes heavier food.

 

Following the beer trail in Prague is easy and it will unavoidably lead you to a group of ancient streets which all bare the name of past master brewers. "The cathedral" is the smallest brewery in Prague U Fleku still brewing since 1499.

 

This proud brewery is also a restaurant and after an enjoyable guided tour, it was time to tuck in. This establishment offers another P which you will be hard pushrd to find in Prague. Prices. Lunch is the main meal so between 12 and 15 you will be able to find offers. 

 

Prague is an expensive city which 24 years ago, started its revolution and kicked away an oppressive communist past with its grey atmosphere to be on the UNESCO's World heritaged list, a place restored to its past splendour, ready for tourists.



You will find that a lot of the restaurants are located in converted cellars previously used for storage. Italian cuisine  has started to be fashionable as it offers more vegetables, let's face it cabbage is a must in Czech cuisine. With time, Bohemia is driven towards a lighter diet. River sish, such as carp, a home-cook favorite is making an apparition on restaurants menu.

 

But you can't really imagine the culinary traditions changing, fast dumplings are a big favourite, use to swipe away the sauce of various dishes such as beef in cream or as eaten as a sweet with sugar. In the words of Miguel, "People like dumplings very much."

 

 

All my gratitude to the staff at the Czech Tourism Office who organised my stay so that I could make the most of my visit. 



Abricotines

I've got an Italian uncle. Tonton Tony. This tonton of mine has a theory related to cakes and national traits. According to him, you only have to look at a baker's window to appreciated the national distinguishing features. Say for example, Italians are light and airy like their Panettone. Where does that leave Britons with their scones and bread-puddings? a friend suggested rich and spicy.
 

 

If you study a French boulangerie's display, you will notice brioches, pains aux raisins, pains au chocolat and abricotines, the last three share the same pastry base, puff pastry. If we apply Tony's stereotyping theory, we would quickly arrive to the conclusion that the French like variety but only at cosmetic level and deep-down they have a one-track-mind?
 

 

Making your own puff pastry will definitely change the taste of your pastries, on the other hand it's time consuming, so cheating is justified. While we are on the subject of finding an easier way, the same goes for custard, I often use powdered custard which I better with good vanilla. Baring this in mind, making Abricotines is doodle.

 

Cheat Abricotines

 

Makes 6.

 

Ingredients

150g ready to use puff pastry

Tin of abricot halves

custard

1 egg to brush

 

Method

Preheat the oven to 210C

roll out the puff pastry to a large square 30cm x 30 cm

divide into 6 squares of 10 x 10

turn any 2 opposite angles so that touch in the middle so that you obtain a rectangle with pointy ends

When your custard is ready, leave it to cool and spread a good amount on the rectangle.

Place two abricot halves on the custard.

Bring the pointy ends back.

Brush with the beaten egg.

Cook in the middle of the oven for 15 minutes.

 

 

Home-Made Chocolates : Spoons

It all started with  a masterclass where I was taught how to make hand-made chocolates filled with ganache (that's the soft bit in the center). The end-products didn't last long. First there was the taxi-driver on the way back. He really believed that Greenwich would be under terrorist-attack during the Olympics, he definitely was in need of hand-made chocolates therapy. 

 

Then, followed a flurry of friends, some who had "a difficult day", others with "work problems" and last but not least those without any excuse but who simply lust over chocolate and had heard about my stash. Result: 2 kilos of hand-made chocolates gone in two days.

Of course, everyone marvelled on how nice the chocolates were. Personally, I didn't think much of them, he was not a great fan either and the entire episode got forgotten....until Christmas where I attended a chocolates gifts swap.

 

Displayed among the home-made gifts were Kate's as in Turquoise Lemons' handmade chocolate truffles. Despite the noise, you could have heard the penny drop: give chocolates to the ones you love and you will never go wrong; hand-make chocolates and you will be elevated to god/dess status.

So when it came to write my first recipe for our beloved free local newspaper on Valentine's, the choice was narrowed down to two recipes: marshmallows, because in France St Valentine's is nicknamed marshmallows day, and red chocolates lips, for obvious reasons. I went for the latter which involved some research in silicone moulds. This is how I came across Lakeland chocolate melting pot.

One of the problem with melting chocolate resides in the pouring. Bain Marie is the classic technique to melt chocolate but then, what? Do you use a spoon, a pipping bag?. What ever the solution is, it's never satisfactory. Therefore a silicone pot made sense. Though, the new kitchen is not equipped with a microwave, next door's is.

The experiment had to happen there. First we broke, the squares and found out that if we had broken them in small pieces, it would have been quicker. As it was, it took longer to melt in the microwave than in the Bain Marie but on the other end it was a doodle to pour. Often hand made chocolates require precision pouring therefore having a spout to work with is ideal, this was starting to be a really good tool.

 

Until Neighbour had a gripe with waste, indeed we had to run a spoon to get it all the chocolate out, but don't worry none of it was wasted.

As for the silicone spoon moulds, it worked out perfectly. It was great fun and will make a brilliant activity for kids as demonstrated by Maison Cupcake Mother and Son team. Lakeland is celebrating their chocolate week from the 11th March, Next, I'll be making chocolate eggs, I can't wait.

 

For more recipe ideas have a look here
 

Many thanks to lakeland for sample products

Pebble Pictures Patchwork: The Pig in Brockenhurst

The Pig is set in the heart of the New Forest in Brockenhurst. A restaurant based on food either sourced locally, within 25 miles, or produced in their spectacular kitchen garden, not forgetting wild ingredients foraged by Garry Everleigh who has been gathering wild food from the area since he was a boy. The Head Chef is James Golding. The unpretentious style makes diners feel at home with bare wood tables and mismatched cutlery and the most alluring tiled floor.

 

 

A press party was invited for lunch, a couple of weeks back. Despite being mid-week the bright and airy dining room was full, buzzing and relaxed, I know it's a contradiction in terms but that's the way it was. If Andrew Barrow left with a copy of the wine-menu which he turned into an enjoyable read on Spittoon. I  spirited away the A5 recycled-paper menu. Though changes are made every day, depending upon the forager and the kitchen garden's team provisions, there are a few constants.

 

The cocktails, mixed by The Pig’s bar manager, Duncan Gordon, are served in Kilner jars, goblets or various props, a food-blogger's dream. Literally Picked This Morning provided my main: Hand-Dived Lyme Bay Scallops and streaky Bacon. Pleasing to see  Faggot, offal and pig-cheek sharing the page with other more common dishes such as risotto and chops.

 

With its eclectic furnishings, top-notch food, unpretentious atmosphere and  attention to details, it was home from home, only better, bring us sunshine and I'll be back.

 

The Pig

Beaulieu Road,

Brockenhurst,

Hampshire, SO42

01590 622354

thepighotel.co.uk/

 

Price: Three courses: £31.27

 

For the London crowd: train-ride from Waterloo to Brockenhurst rail station, about an hour and a half then a 2 miles jouney by taxi.

Les Bugnes Lyonnaises

Shrove-Tuesday has been and gone. It didn't occur to me until this morning that I had missed the yearly Bugnes' saga. You see, every year, the day before Lent, my dad got up at 5am to bang pots and pans and made a "pâte à beignets". A couple of hours later, he would proudly deep-fry his "bugnes Lyonnaises" .

At which point, the house would reek of hot oil. By then, my mother would turn as red as if she, herself, had been deep-fried, she would scream at all that sugar and fat, refusing blankly to eat the most wonderful bugnes Lyonnaises that ever graced any breakfast table.

My dad and I would eat most of them and my dad would take the rest to his friends by midday the delicious doughnuts, would have all vanished, until the following year when the ritual would start again.

But this year, there was no ritual. And no doubt that my dad's many mates will have looked at the charcuterie and boulangerie's windows, shaking their silver heads, probably telling one another "that nobody made bugnes like Michel".

Bugnes, a speciality from Lyon, are traditionally eaten for Mardi Gras. Though found in other cultures, bugnes were first recorded in Pantagruel written in Lyon by Rabelais (16th-century writer and doctor). They are thin and crispy doughnuts, sprinkled with icing sugar. They are really worth a go, even if Shrove Tuesday has been and gone.

Margot as in Coffee and Vanilla tells me that in Poland, Bugnes come under the lovely name of Angel Wings, therefore it seemed fitting to add this recipe to February's Inheritance recipes.

Les Bugnes Lyonnaises

Ingredients

250 g white flour
50 g unsalter butter
50g sugar for the dough and ice sugar to decorate
2 beaten eggs
Salt
oil to deep-fry the bugnes you will need about 1/4l

some recipes include orange-blossom water, it is nice with and it's nice without.

Method

The dough needs to be prepared 2 hours in advance making as much noise as you can

Combine all the dry ingredients together, add the butter a little at the time and mix (by hand or with the mixer)

Get the dough out of the mixer if you are using one, put in a salad bowl make a hole in the middle and pour in the beaten eggs

With your hands combine all the ingredients until the dough is shinny and smooth,

Leave to rest for 2 hours at room temperature

Flour the table a little, roll the pastry as thin as you can, cut 6cm stripes preferably with a zig-zag cutter.

divide the strips into length of 14cm and slit the middle vertically over half.

If you feel adventurous lift the strip and pass the bottom end through the slit it will make a sort of knotted butterfly.

Heat the oil in a deep pan, when very hot place each bugne in,  when they puff get them out and place them on kitchen paper before sprinkling with icing sugar.

Eat as soon as they are cooled down, can keep for a couple of days in a metal container.

Picture's copyright Wikipedia under creative common

Crème Brulée

Publishing a dessert for Valentine's is a bit risky. To suit the occasion, it will have to be dazzling. But dazzling in recipe terms, is often synonymous to tricky and I wouldn't like Pebble Soup's readers to get their knickers in a twist before the evening starts. 

It also has to stand out from the army of chocolate(s) offerings. The ideal recipe needs to be simple, dazzling and goes without saying, sexy. Don't look much further than Crème Brulée.

 

Contrary to common belief, Crème Brulée is not French, it has its origins in England. Having said this, Burnt Cream doesn't have the same ring.

 

You don't need a blowtorch, the grill will do. The "custard" needs to be really cold and last but not least never leave a Crème Brulée waiting on the side, keep it in the fridge or it will get soggy.

 

Crème Brulée

 

Ingredients

300ml double cream
1 vanilla pod scraped
3 egg yolks
15g caster sugar
1 tbsp demerara sugar

Method
1. Preheat the oven to 150C and put 2 small ovenproof ramekins in a baking tin. Crème brulée requires a bain-marie, a fancy name for an easy technique.
2. Put the yolks and caster sugar in a bowl and stir until white completely dissolve. Leave aside.
3. Pour the cream into a heavy based sauce pan. Add the vanilla. Bring to boil. Keep an eye on it at all times. 
4. When boiled pour the cream on the mixture, stirring constantly.
5. Divide between the ramekins and pour cold water in the tin. Bake for 40 minutes. Leave it to cool before transfering to the fridge for an hour.
6. Scatter the tops with demerara sugar use the hot grill to caramelise the top and back in the fridge time it so that it will not stay there for more than an hour.