Steamed Mussels in Rum Sauce Done My Way

             While shopping at Fairway and walking by the seafood section, my eyes suddenly locked onto a bag of mussels bounded by a thin purple net. I frequently enjoy mussels as an appetizer when I go out to eat, but I never actually tried making them myself. For some reason I'm always hesitant when it comes to cooking seafood because it always seems more complicated than other categories. I walked away from them to go after other items in the store, but I couldn't shake the prospect of cooking mussels off my mind, so I went back and bought them.

             Mussels that are purchased in a store or supermarket were likely raised on a "seafood farm" and already cleaned, but of course it's best to wash them off in a bowl and let them soak for about fifteen minutes before cooking. Any that are broken or already fully open should be thrown away promptly. Typically mussels are cooked in a wine sauce, usually white wine. For some reason I thought I had a bottle of white, or at least red, under my sink as an old gift someone had given to me that I never opened. The options I was left with instead was a spray bottle of Windex cleaning fluid and a bottle of Rhum Barbancourt, which is a rum brewed in Haiti. I didn't feel like walking to the liquor store to buy a bottle of wine, so the rum was going to have to do. I like pasta with my mussels, so I also planned to make some fresh (of course) linguine in tomato sauce on the side with it. In addition to the mussels, rum, linguine, and tomato sauce/paste, I what is needed is olive oil, balsamic vinegar, a bouillon  salt, black pepper, herbs, and garlic powder. 

             Since the pasta takes the longest to cook, I boiled up some water and sprinkled in some salt to get that started. Mussels take the fastest to cook, so I just left them soaking in a bowl of water as I focused on the gravy. I went with three cans of sauce, one of paste, poured in a little olive oil and vinegar, sprinkled in garlic powder, black pepper, salt, and herbs, then crushed a bouillon cube and dropped it in. I put some fire under the sauce and stirred it up. By this time my water was boiling, so I poured in a little bit of olive oil and dropped in two handfuls of the fresh linguine. With the pasta and sauce well on their way, it was time to work on the mussels. They could be steamed, grilled, broiled, and I really wasn't sure yet what method I was going to use. I looked in various kitchen cabinets and luckily discovered I actually had a steamer pot, which I don't recall ever having before and don't have a clue where it came from. 

            Whether using rum, Windex, or the more traditional white wine as a sauce, its important to not use too much of it, otherwise it dominates the flavor of the mussels and defeats the whole purpose. When mussels open up from being cooked, they actually emit their own juice which give them their unique taste. Pouring too much of the sauce into the pot will dilute these natural flavors from the mussels when they open. Use about a cup and a half into the pot before dumping in the mussels, then when the mussels are in, pour the remaining half cup amount on top of the pile. So really in total its about two cups worth of sauce only being used. Also at the bottom of the pot I put in some olive oil, black pepper, herbs, salt, and garlic powder to flavor it up more. Once those were settled in, I put the cover on the pot and had all three parts cooking in tandem. As mentioned before, mussels cook very fast and after only five minutes I peeked in and noticed most of them were already opening. I used a big spoon to mix them up a little so they could all get an equal splash of the sauce flavoring at the bottom of the pot. Then after another four minutes they were all done and I turned off it's fire. 

            The pasta and the sauce soon followed suit and I was just about ready to sit down to this rum-experimented meal. The great thing about cooking mussels in a pot is that it is also typically used to serve the food in as well, so that's less plates to worry about cleaning later. All that is needed is a bowl to dump the empty shells in. After straining the pasta and placing it on a plate, I poured some sauce on top, and since I had plenty of sauce leftover, I poured the rest on top of the mussels to add more flavor and provide a nice decor. Its recommended to have a nice soft loaf of Italian bread to dip into the mussels' sauce, but since I didn't feel like going out before, I had to utilize slices of wheat bread for that. The mussels certainly had a kick to them due to the rum, and it was almost like taking mini-shots, especially after eating the ones at the bottom which had been soaking in the rum sauce the longest. All in all I must say it turned out better than I imagined it would be and found a new taste with mussels I never had before. 

             With all the rum, I felt very sleepy and had to take a nap after eating....

                                         

Cheese Ravioli in Prosciutto di Parma Sauce My Way

            With a fresh batch of cheese ravioli to cook, I wanted to find a new variation of meat to go along with it instead of the usual meatballs or sausage. Taking a peek in my refrigerator, my answer was laying on the second shelf, prosciutto di parma. I purchased a quarter-pound of it sliced a few days earlier and felt this was a great opportunity to experiment. About seven or eight months ago I tried a slice of it and since then it's moved up to the top of my chart in terms of cold cuts meat. I never tried it cooked or heated before, so this was certainly traveling into uncharted waters.

             The sauce always has the most steps, so its the best place to start. Use three cans of tomato sauce with a can of paste to even out the texture. Next, pour in a few teaspoons of olive oil as well as balsamic vinegar to bring out a little sweetness. To add flavor to the sauce you can sprinkle in some garlic powder, black pepper, and crumble up a chicken bouillon cube with your fingertips. Don't put the prosciutto in just yet, the key is to keep the meat soft and tender, at this point its just about cooking up the sauce first. As that heats up for a good ten minutes, its time to move onto the pasta. The star of the show are the ravioli, so after boiling up a hot pot of water, sprinkle in a little salt, pour in a little olive oil, and dump in a couple of dozen ravioli so those can begin cooking as well.

            Remember to keep going back to the sauce every few minutes to give it a stir, otherwise it will burn at the bottom of the pot and have a clumpy surface up on top. Ravioli has a unique shape versus other pasta, this serves as a mjaor benefit because once you see them start floating up on the water's surface, you'll know they're just about done. This is the moment when you add the prosciutto. It's best to shred up the slices into tiny pieces and add it to the sauce. Stir it up for a few minutes, but only a few minutes, its important the prosciutto doesn't cook or get burned. By this time the ravioli should have been floating up top for a few minutes now, so its time to take those out of the pot by dumping them on a strainer to get all the water out. After a few minutes, everything should cool down a little, so then empty the ravioli from the strainer onto a plate, pour on a layer of the sauce with the prosciutto di parma shreds mixed in, and dig in!

            The best dishes are the ones you don't expect....

Linguini in Clam Sauce My Way

            The other day at the supermarket I was in the mood of dumping random cans into my shopping cart for no good reason, one of these cans was preserved baby clams. I continued up and down the aisles getting the other items I needed, all along keeping an eye on the can of clams and thinking what could I do with it. Then the thought came to my head, how about make linguini in clam sauce. Since I was already in the supermarket, I went to the pasta booth and picked up a package of fresh linguini.

             I had a red pepper in my refrigerator from a previous week, so to spice things up a little I decided to add that into the equation as well. I started out by boiling a pot of water, and adding a little salt, to cook the linguini. Since it was fresh pasta, it only took about twelve minutes to cook. I strained the water out and let the pasta cool off for a moment, while that happened I started to heat up the clams. I took a frying pan, greased the bottom of it with olive oil, and dumped out about half of the can of baby clams onto it. Once those started cooking, I added the linguini into the frying pan as well as poured the rest of the baby clams on top of the linguini pile. Then came the additional ingrediants such as a can of tomato sauce and the red pepper I cut into slices. I used a simple fork to mix everything up and stir the linguini in the pan. I let it cook for about ten minutes, and when I saw that the baby clam pieces were starting to stick to the bottom of the pan, I knew it was done.

            I'm happy I didn't knock a can of tuna into my shopping cart, otherwise I would have been clueless on what to do with it...

Spaghetti to Satisfy Meat and Veggie Lovers

            This afternoon I was conflicted on what to do for lunch, either go out and get something or stay in and cook something. I was close to choosing going, but then the last second a box of spaghetti caught my eye and got the wheels in my head turning. I knew I had some groundmeat in the freezer, but I also had an assortment of vegetables such as peppers, onions, and mushrooms. Not sure how to go about it, I decided to try throwing them all together and see what happens.

            The groundmeat was frozen solid, so the first step was placing it in a short pot with a little water and covering it up. While the meat de-frosted and cooked in the pot, I chopped up a green pepper, a few mushrooms, a small onion, and a little piece of garlic. I opened the pot again and noticed the meat was cooking quite well, so I took a folk to break it up until it was small pieces of chopped meat. I added flavor to the meat by adding some black pepper, salt, oregano, and finally some chicken bouillon, then let it cook more. The next step was getting the spaghetti cooked, so I filled a taller pot with water, sprinkled in some salt, and let the water boil for about ten minutes before adding the pasta. The meat was done and ready before the spaghetti was, so I just let the meat sit in the short pot. When the spaghetti was ready, I strained out the water and dumped it into the short pot. I also placed the chopped vegetables in the short pot and poured some tomato sauce on top, now everything was together in the one pot. I took the folk and mixed everything up a little before placing the cover back on the pot and letting it all cook for another ten minutes. When it was done, I had a balanced mix of spaghetti with meat and vegetables.

             Where would have I found this if I had decided to go out instead...