The Cooking Ninja

I just took a 4 days break visiting my best friend in Germany alone. It was a great break but I couldn't help missing my significant other and Little One every day. We left Little One with her grandparents for a week so that we get a nice 1 week break. We sound cruel, don't we ? She has recently entered into her terrible 'TWO' ... it's funny how my sweet little girl suddenly turns into Little Imp right after she hits 2. Someone told me that this will last till she's 18. I sincerely hope not!

This is our first summer in Clermont-Ferrand. So far I love the weather here - it doesn't rain as much as Nantes and less humid. With summer, we discovered what we have in the garden - a cherry tree, some wild strawberries in our front yard, 6 different type of prunes trees, some blackcurrant, redcurrant and gooseberry, and some wild black berries overgrowing from our neighbour's garden. This autumn we will be going back to Singapore, so we will not be doing any mushroom picking.

Before I left for Germany, I made a very simple cake calle 'Yogurt Cake' - the very first cake that every French kid learns how to make What makes this recipe so easy to do is the measurements of the ingredients are done using the yogurt cup or bottle (in France, the standard yogurt bottle is 125 ml). This time I decided to add a hint of originality by adding pandan flavour

Pandan Yogurt Cake

Ingredients

• 3 eggs
• 2 tubs or 250 ml plain natural yogurt
• 2 yogurt tubs or 200g sugar (a mix of brown and white)
• 80 ml or slightly less than 1 yogurt tub vegetable oil like sunflower or canola
• 4 yogurt tubs or 2 cups plain flour
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp Pandan essence or extract

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 180°C (350°F - gas mark 4)
2. Lined the bottom of a 9" round cake pan with baking paper and butter the sides.
3. In a large mixing bowl, gently whisk the yogurt, eggs, sugar and pandad essence together until combined.
4. Add in the sift flour and baking powder and stir until combined.
5. Pour in the oil and whisk gently until it blend together.
6. Pour the batter into the prepared cake pan and bake it for 30 to 35 minutes until the top is golden brown and the toothpick comes out clean.
7. Let it cool for ten minutes before transfer it onto a rack to cool completely.

The Verdict

I was surprised by how moist the cake turned out to be. It is dense yet fluffy (if that's how to describe it) and full of flavour. It's hard to stop at just one slice. The cake keeps well for a few days wrapped in a foil (to keep it moist) and the flavour develops with each day.

Notes

You can also bake this cake with fruit flavoured yogurt instead of plain ones.

What I like love about this cake is that one can replace the flavour with another without a problem and the cake still turns out as delicious. So we never get tired of it and can experiment with different flavours.

The next time I bake this, I'm going to try it with coconut or orange or orange-flower or even green tea. The combination is endless. I'm getting giddy just thinking about it.

The last time I tried making these little precious and oh-so-trendy macarons, I failed so badly. The recipe looked so simple yet they all turned out as flat as pancakes - well, even pancakes have a little hump. Since then, it has been on my mind to concur it.

A few months ago, I read several blogs having a lot of success with their macarons ... that only made me want to make it work. In the midst of our move, I had forgotten all about it until I saw someone posting again about her macarons. Finally on Thursday evening, I gathered my courage and decided to take the plunge. I followed the instructions given in Bernice's Baking Journey blog. I sat looking at my oven window like an anxious yet excited little kid .... then suddenly, within a minute or two ... I saw my precious macaron's feet started to grow ... I couldn't believe my eyes and got all excited and jumping up and down shouting to Pierre 'I think we got macarons this time!'. Of course anything could still go wrong ... so I kept crossing my fingers and hope everything turned out all right.

Dear readers, may I present you my very first chocolate macarons. Aren't these babies beautiful?

I'll have a macaron recipe soon here, but I want to do something more exotic than plain chocolate and need to experiment further with the filling.

PS: Speaking of filling, I'm still looking for a nice and light one. Anyone knows of a good ganache recipe?

It seems like the Flu just can't stop from visiting us this winter : our poor daughter is running around blowing bubbles with her runny nose - she finds it very interesting (sigh!) and a nasty cough. Though it doesn't like it is bothering her too much. Now she likes to share her dirty hanky ... first she will wipe her nose and then she insists on wiping my nose and then Pierre's. Ugh!

Back to something more appetizing : one of the most classic French gratin is gratin dauphinois (originated from Dauphiné), made up of mainly potatoes and heavy cream (crème fraîche). There are many different ways of cooking it, some cook the potatoes with milk first before baking it, some just bake it with milk or just plain cream. Some (to the food snobs horror) even add grated cheese to it, making it something called gratin savoyard.

Gratin Dauphinois

Ingredients

• 1 kg potatoes (peeled & sliced)
• 5 tbsp heavy cream
• 1 clove garlic
• butter
• milk
• salt, pepper & ground nutmeg

Directions

1. Cut the garlic into half and rub the garlic all over the bottom and sides of a baking or gratin dish.
2. Then grease the bottom and sides of the dish with butter.
3. Wash the potatoes, peel off the skin and then use the food processor to cut them into thin slices.
4. Spread a layer of sliced potatoes on the dish and sprinkle on top of it with salt, pepper and ground nutmeg. Then lay another layer of potatoes and season it with salt, pepper and ground nutmeg. Repeat it until all the potatoes are used.
5. Mix milk and cream together until it is combined and liquid enough. Spread the mixture evenly all over the potatoes.
6. Bake in the oven at 210°C for about 45 minutes. The potatoes are cooked when the toothpick pierced through the gratin easily. If the top browns too quickly, lower the temperature slightly.

The Verdict

Well cooked, the potatoes litteraly melt in your mouth and the cream makes it even more smooth! It's a nice side dish to go with some red meat.

Notes

You can either spread the milk-cream mixture on top of the potatoes or you can spread a bit of the mixture on each layer of potatoes.

You can do different variations with this dish like sprinkling grated cheese and bread crumbs on top of it, however it will not be called gratin dauphinois anymore.

My sincere apologies to my readers for my lack of posts lately. I promise to do better and get back on the wagon on things - it just seems my routine has been shattered after moving house.

Little One was ill with flu and cough (so did Pierre). She seems to have made a fast recovery but she still coughs a bit now and then. Now the super bug has caught up with me and I'm sick again. It seems that as a girl born and raised under the equator, I'll never get used to winter !

Now back to food, while going through my documents, I realized that I have not posted this interesting dish that I made some time back. Who would have thought a combination of pork with dried fruits stuffing would turn out this delicious. Oh... please avoid making the same mistakes as I did.

Rolled Roasted Pork

Serves: 6

Ingredients

• 2.5 kg boneless pork shoulder with rind/skin
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 2 tsp salt
• 1 tbsp plain flour
• 375 ml chicken stock

Stuffings

• 130 g long grain rice
• 75 g dried apricot (finely chopped)
• 105 g dried seedless prunes (finely chopped)

Directions

The Stuffings

1. Cook the rice in a pot until it is almost cooked and drained. Let it cool.
2. Mix the rice with finely chopped dried apricot and prunes.

Making the crispy rind strips

1. Preheat the oven at very high temperature.
2. Lay the pork with the skin laying on the chopping board.
3. Using a very sharp knife, slice the skin off the pork leaving about 5 mm of fats on the pork.
4. Place the skin on a big baking tray or dish and lightly mark the surface diagonally with the knife. Brush it with half of the olive oil and season it with salt.
5. Roast it in a very hot oven without covering for about 40 minutes until it is crispy and well brown or golden.
6. Cut it into strips and keep it aside.
7. Lower the oven temperature.

The Roast

1. While the skin is being baked, prepare the stuffings.
2. Lay the pork with the fat part laying on the chopping board. Slice the meat into half on the thickest side without completely cutting it at the end. (in the direction of the longest side).
3. Spread the stuffing (at the beginning only like you make sushi roll) on the longest side of the meat.
4. Roll it up tightly and tie up the roast with a cooking string every 2 cm apart.
5. Place the roast in a baking tray that was used to bake the skin and brush the roast with the remaining olive oil.
6. Grill it in the hot oven without covering it for about 1 hour until it is perfectly cooked.
7. Once the roasted pork is cooked, take it out of the oven. Cover it and keep it warm.
8. Once the sauce is done, serve the roasted pork with the sauce and the crispy strips.

Making the sauce

1. Keep 1 tbsp of the juice from the roast in a small pan and keep the rest in a bowl.
2. Heat the pan under medium fire and stir in 1 tbsp of flour. Stir the mixture until it bubbles/boils and the flour turns mousse like or roux to your liking.
3. Add in little by little the rest of the juice and the chicken stock. Continue to stir until the sauce boils and thickens.
4. Pour the sauce into a saucière.

The Verdict

Although my roast didn't have enough fats to cover it and keep it moist, it still turned out good and tasted fine on its own without the sauce. The taste of it...how shall I describe it? Imagine taking a bite of the roast, you get the tasty taste of meat and fruity flavoured rice - salty, sweet and a bit acid (from the prune) all in one. Pretty interesting tasty combination isn't it. Hmmm... roasted pork !

Notes

Shame on me: I didn't make the crispy rind as my pork roast came with a small layer of fats only.

Mistake #1
I sliced the meat on the wrong side. Instead of length wise, I cut it width wise as you can see from the photo. Duh!

Mistake #2
I bought the meat prepackaged from the supermarket that had hardly any fats. So if you are buying a prepackaged one like me, do ask your butcher for extra skin fats. It would make a difference to the roast as it would keep the meat moist and prevents it from drying out.

Little One caught a bug after New Year and was sick for 3 days. It was no fun for her and me. You would think with her being so sick, she would be calling out 'mama' all the time .... oh no no no, the first word Miss Cheeky cried out while being so sick in bed in the middle of the night was Babar (the elephant) - her favourite story character. Each time she woke up, it's 'Babar' or 'mama, Babar' - meaning she wants to watch her favourite DVD Babar. Since then, it is always Babar, the first thing that is on her mind when she wakes up. I think we made a mistake when we introduced her to Babar.

Back to cooking, today I'm going to share with you a very nice recipe that involves lots of eggs and cheese. A Soufflé is easy to whip up yet delicate to bake. It's spectacular looking but must be eaten immediately after taken out of the oven or else it will crumble under its own weight (and that would be a pitty !).

Souffle Au Fromage

Michèle's recipe

Serves: 4

Ingredients

• 4 eggs
• 100 g grated emmental cheese
• 50 g butter
• 40 g plain flour
• ¼ litre milk
• salt, pepper & ground nutmeg

Directions

1. Preheat the oven at 190°C (375 °F).
2. Melt the butter in a pot and stir in the flour.
3. Cook it for 1 or 2 minutes before adding slowly the milk. Stir the mixture vigorously to dissolve it. Make sure that there is no lumps.
4. Season it with salt, pepper and ground nutmeg.
5. Bring it to boil and let it cook until the mixture becomes firm or thickens.
6. Take it off the heat. Mix in rapidly the egg yolk one by one using an electric beater or by hand. Set it aside to let it cool.
7. Beat the egg white until it is stiff. Delicately incorporate the grated cheese. Fold this into the mixture in the pot.
8. Grease the soufflé mould with butter and sprinkle grated cheese on the base and sides of the mould.
9. Pour the mixture into the mould. It should not fill up more than 2/3 of the mold.
10. Once the mould is put into the oven, reduce the temperature to 180°C (350°F) and bake it for 30 minutes. Do not be tempted to open the oven during baking. This will cause the soufflé to collapse.
11. Serve it immediately in its mould or you can remove it from the mould and serve it on a plate.

The Verdict

It turns out very beautifully even when we removed it from the mould. For me, the taste is a bit like scrambled eggs with cheese. I simply love it. The texture is like soft bread that melts in your mouth. Little One who doesn't like cheese nor eggs was tugging in her share mouthful after mouthful.

One warning though, this soufflé is more nourishing and filling than it looks. After a few mouthful, I was already full. Given the ingredient list, it's not entirely surprising, eh ?

Notes

Soufflé goes very well with white wine like Bourgogne or Alsace. Other cheese than emmental should work, it might be interesting to experiment here.

HAPPY NEW YEAR !

How was everybody's Christmas and New Year? Hope all of you had a wonderful time!

Little One had a great time with lots of gifts from Santa... a rocking horse and a toy bus before Christmas, then on Christmas day, a tricycle, lots of books, and more toys. Santa was very generous with her ... he knows she has been a very good girl through out the whole year (obviously he was not watching during her lunch and dinner )

This Christmas, we had a big roasted turkey with stuffings and chestnuts - which as usual took a few days to finish . But some things remain a tradition in the family like having a home-made foie gras on the table. Every year, a few days before Christmas, we will be out hunting for the perfect looking raw foie gras in supermarkets, and then try to cook this delicate dish to perfection.

Foie gras, a luxury (and somewhat controversial) dish, is one of the most popular delicacies in French cuisine and traditionally consumed as a cold entrée, usually eaten with crusty or toasted bread. Foie Gras can be from duck or goose liver, however duck liver is easier to find in supermarkets and cheaper than goose liver. It's also easier to bake. Finding a proper raw liver outside of France might be a challenge, but it helps a bit that frozen ones also exists and can give great results.

Foie Gras en Terrine

Michèle's Recipe

Preparing a foie gras isn't complicated at all, in fact it's a very simple recipe. The real difficulty is in baking : too much or too hot and the liver will melt and you'll just get a big chunk of fat. But you want it to be cooked enough as well...

Ingredients

• 1 fresh duck liver (approx. 500 g)
• Marinate
  • a small glass of Port wine or Porto
  • 1 tsp paprika
  • ½ tsp salt
  • a bit more than a sprinkle of pepper

• a terrine

Directions

1. Leave the foie gras in the room till it reaches room temperature (the foie gras feels supple when touched).
2. Delicately remove the nerve veins.
3. Make sure to lay the foie gras flat in a baking dish.
4. Sprinkle it with paprika, salt and pepper. Then pour the Port wine all over the foie gras.
5. Cover it and put it on the lower section of the refrigerator for 1 night. If possible, spoon the marinate over the foie gras once or twice.
6. Preheat the oven at 140°C.
7. Take the foie gras out of the baking dish and put it a rectangular terrine (about the size of the foie gras). Press lightly on the foie gras a little bit all around so that it is fits nicely and compact into the dish.
8. Pour a little bit of the marinate on the foie gras to moisten it and throw away the rest.
9. Cover it with aluminum foil and press it well all around.
10. Put the terrine in a bain-marie with very hot water (but not boiling hot). Bake the whole thing for about 35 minutes.
11. After 35 minutes, take the terrine out of the bain-marie. Put some weight (like stones or something heavy) on top of the aluminum foil to let the liquid fat solidify cleanly.
12. Once the terrine of foie gras has cooled down, remove the aluminum foil and leave the covered foie gras in the refrigerator for 2 days (this is to allow the taste and flavour of the foie gras to heighten) before savouring it.

Conclusion

It's simply delicious as it should! If you get it right, it must be smooth and firm like cold butter, and have a very slight bitterness. The preparation might gross you out a bit, but rest assured that the result is mouthwatering

Note

It's sometimes served with a sort of cold sweet onion confit, which goes very well with it.

As for wine, it goes well with sweet white wine (vin moelleux) like sauternes or champagne.

Cauliflower Gratin (Gratin de Chou-fleur) is one of the classic French gratin dish - a casual dish in every French family. It's another great way to eat this veggie besides eating it simply boiled, fried, steamed or even raw.

Cauliflower has very high nutritional density: obviously low in fat, it's also high in dietary fiber and an excellent source of vitamin B5, B6, C and folate. It also contains sulforaphane, which has anti-cancer properities. So to make it short, it's supposed to be healthier than fries and you should eat some. There, I said it

How to Select and Store

Season: December to March. Look for clean, creamy white and compact curd, while avoiding spotted or dull-coloured ones or those that have small flowers on them. Uncooked cauliflower can be stored up to a week if kept in a paper or plastic bag, preferably upside down to get any moisture out of it.

This recipe is also an entry for this week's Weekend Herb Blogging, hosted by The Expatriate's Kitchen.

Cauliflower Gratin

Ingredients

• 1 cauliflower (trimmed and separated into florets)
• For the Béchamel Sauce :
  • 30 g plain flour
  • 30 g butter or margarine
  • ½ litre milk
  • salt, nutmeg & pepper

Directions

1. Cook the cauliflower in a pot of boiling salted water for about 20 minutes or until soft (according to your preference). Drained and set aside.
2. Preheat the oven at 180°C (350°F - gas mark 4)
3. Spread the cauliflower in a baking dish, pour the béchamel sauce all over it. Sprinkle generously grated cheese on top.
4. Bake it for about 15 to 20 minutes or just 5 minutes under grill mode until the top is golden brown.

To prepare the Béchamel sauce

1. Melt the butter in a sauce pan at medium heat. Make sure that the butter doesn't turn brown.
2. Add the flour into the melted butter and stir it vigorously with a whisk. Continue to stir vigorously until you obtain a mousse like mixture.
3. Stir in the milk a little at a time (make sure it's well incorporated), vigorously to avoid getting lumps.
4. When about half the milk is in, switch to a balloon whisk and start adding large amounts of milk instead, but always whisking briskly. Your reward will be a smooth, glossy, creamy sauce.
5. Whisk it until it thickens, then turn the heat down to its lowest setting.
6. Season it with salt, nutmeg and pepper.
7. Let it simmer for about 10 minutes (whisk it from time to time) and then remove from heat.

The Verdict

I'm a big fan of cauliflower, I love the naturally sweet, milky and slightly nutty flavor of the plant. Combine this with the béchamel sauce and grilled cheesy top and you get some extra 'oomph' that will encourage children (or adults who aren't keen on eating vegetetables) to give it a go. My picky 1 year old loves it very much.

Notes

For an additional crunch, sprinkle some bread crumbs on top of the grated cheese before baking it in the oven.

Heat up the leftover in the oven at 180°C for about 10 minutes. I usually do it the lazy way - just pop it in the microwave oven.

After spending a week in Paris with the public transport on strike, we were lucky enough that the TGV (bullet train) decided to resume work over the weekend and we were able to get home without a hitch 2 weeks ago. Last week it was Air France's employees turn to stop work - in a big way on La Toussaint's holidays. Thousands of peoples ended up as hostages, stuck at the airport with no flight to return home for their work the next day or worst ... some found themselves spending their holidays at the airport going nowhere. Thank goodness, we didn't planned any trip. My friend, Bee Ean posted some funny caricatures about this whole mess.

It seems like November will also be a worthy month for strikes: I just heard on the news that EDF (electricity company), SNCF (trains) & other public transport are threatening to go on strike (again) next week. The fishermen, in difficulties because of rising oil prices, are also demonstrating and threaten to block the petrol supplies. Looks like it will be a fun month for the French and Mr Sarkozy.

Anyway, as I was saying, we got back from Paris to find a day old expired bottle of milk in our fridge. We decided to salvage it by turning it into a all time delicious and favourite French dessert, Gateau de riz or Rice Pudding.

Gateau de riz meringué

(Michèle's recipe)

Ingredients

• 270 g round grain rice or short-grain rice
• 50 g butter (approximately)
• 4 medium sized apples or apricots (peeled and sliced)
• 2 eggs (separate the yolks and whites)
• 7 tbsp sugar
• 1 litre milk
• a little bit of vanilla extract (bean or essence)
• a pinch of salt
• candid fruits (optional)

Directions

1. Wash the rice and cook it in a pot of boiling water. When it comes to a boiling point again, let it cook for 5 minutes. Then drain the rice.
2. While the rice is being cooked, sauté the apple slices in a pan with a bit of butter. (Optional: spread some cognac on the apples while it is being cooked.)
3. In the meantime, boil the milk with the vanilla. Once it's boiling, stir in the drained rice.
4. When the rice completely absorb the milk, stir in 5 tbsp sugar and eventually the candid fruits if desired. Turn off the heat.
5. Mix in the butter and stir quickly when adding the egg yolk to avoid it being scrambled.
6. Spread the rice on a baking dish. Then lay apple slices (or apricots) on top of the rice.
7. Beat the egg whites until stiff peaks form, delicately fold in the rest of the sugar. Spread it on top of the apple slices
8. Bake it on grill mode to golden brown the egg white. Be careful, it only takes a few seconds to brown.
9. Chill the pudding in the refrigerator and serve cold.

The Verdict

As I was pressed for time, I did a simple version of it - just the pudding without fruits and the meringue (we covered it with home-made strawberry jam instead). It still tasted as good but I have to admit that the fruits and meringue version (which Michèle normally makes) give this pudding a special taste and kick. The meringue is soft and creamy - it's like you are eating a coating of melted marshmallows. It's a rather filling dessert that'll keep you from going hungry too soon.

We were at the supermarket doing our usual weekly shopping. I paused by the vegetable section trying to figure out what to cook and buy... Finding something that both Pierre and I likes and that is a bit new isn't easy since he doesn't like most of the vegetables and our taste are so different. Suddenly Pierre came by and suggested : 'how about we make gratin d'endives au jambon?' ... I wasn't very enthusiastic about it at first as I don't like anything bitter and endives have a very bitter taste however Pierre assured me that it wasn't that bitter once baked and drowned in sauce. OK, why not?

Endives (Cichorium endivia) was, like so many other things, invented by accident. The technique for growing endives was discovered in the 1830s by a Belgian farmer, Jan Lammers in Schaerbeek, Belgium. Upon returning from war, he found his stored chicory had sprouted white leaves, and that it still tasted OK.

Nowadays the plant is grown underground or indoors away from sunlight, to prevent the leaves from turning green and opening up. As such, it is also often sold wrapped in a protective opaque paper or plastic to protect it from the light. The whiter the leaf, the less bitter the taste; but to make it easy in the mouth it's recommended to cut out the harder inner-part at the bottom before cooking. Today France is the largest producer of endives (yay!).

Rich in vitamins, minerals, especially in folate and vitamin A & K, the endives are also high in fiber. They can be eaten raw as salad (great with dices of blue cheese and walnuts), or cooked in various ways: stuffed, baked, boiled, steamed or fried.

How to choose and store Endives?

Select those that have crisp, firm, tightly pack heads no longer than 15 cm (or 6 inches). Good endives are creamy white with a yellowy green tinge to the leaf edges. To avoid them from turning green and becoming bitter, store them in the refrigerator wrapped in kitchen paper and placed in a plastic bag.

Here's my entry for this week Weekend Herb Blogging host by Haalo from Cook (almost) Anything At Least Once.

Gratin d'endives au jambon

Ingredients

• 4 endives
• 4 slices ham
• grated cheese

Béchamel Sauce

• 30 g plain flour
• 30 g butter or margarine
• ½ litre milk
• salt, nutmeg & pepper

Directions

1. Preheat the oven at 220°C.
2. Wash the endives and cut off the base. Using a small sharp knife, carve out the middle bitter cone-shaped part at the base of the endives.
3. Cook them in a steamer for about 8 minutes or in a pot of salted water for about 15 minutes. Then drain them well in a strainer.
4. Wrap a slice of ham around each endives and lay them on a baking dish.
5. Pour the béchamel sauce on top of the wrapped endives and sprinkle some grated cheese on top of it.
6. Bake it for about 15 to 20 minutes.

Béchamel sauce

1. Melt the butter in a sauce pan at medium heat. Make sure that the butter doesn't turn brown.
2. Add the flour into the melted butter and stir it vigorously with a whisk. Continue to stir vigorously until you obtain a mousse like mixture.
3. Stir in the milk a little at a time (make sure it's well incorporated), vigorously to avoid getting lumps.
4. When about half the milk is in, switch to a balloon whisk and start adding large amounts of milk instead, but always whisking briskly. Your reward will be a smooth, glossy, creamy sauce.
5. Whisk it until it thickens, then turn the heat down to its lowest setting.
6. Season it with salt, nutmeg and pepper.
7. Let it simmer for about 10 minutes (whisk it from time to time) and then remove from heat.

The Verdict

All I can say is that this one is a keeper. I love it - the taste of the ham and endives with béchamel sauce is delicious - salty, creamy ... the endives just melt in my mouth. There was no taste of bitterness at all except at the base - just a tint of bitterness. Even my little daughter loves it, it looks like a great way to get kids to eat some veggies.

Moules Marinière (Moules = Mussels and Marinière being any shellfish cooked in white wine with onions and herbs) is the classic French mussel dish and the most common recipe used in restaurants nowadays. As it turns out, I live not far from the coast, so mussels are plentiful and fresh at local markets... but in the 6 years I've been living here, I've never tried cooking them! Always had them at Michèle and Patrick's place on Sunday's when it's the season. Guess what? It's mussel season now! With the firm intention of not sparing any existing ingredient the fate of going through my kitchen, I've finally given them a try.

But a word of warning first: mussels, like any shellfish, needs to be bought very fresh, and cooked right away. Bad stuff (the sort that keeps you longer than you'd like in the bathroom) can also happens if you don't cook them enough. If after having cooked them properly, some still aren't opened, this might be a sign that the mussel you are about to eat is not really fresh (but then, sometimes they are just fine... it's a food full of surprises!)

Moules Marinière

Ingredients

• 4 kg mussels (approximately)
• 100 ml white wine (dry)
• 1 onion (chopped)
• 4 shallots (finely chopped)
• 150 g salted butter (cut into cubes)
• 1 spoonful parsley (chopped)
• pepper

Directions

1. Wash the mussels under cold, running water. Pull out any fibrous beard and scrape off any barnacles with a knife. Discard any open ones that do not close when tapped or those with broken shells. Put the cleaned ones aside in a strainer to drain off water.
2. Put the mussels in a big pot, pour in the wine, chopped onions, shallots, pepper and cubed butter. Cover it with a lid and cook it under high heat.
3. Shake the pot every now and then so that the mussels are well mixed with the sauce (avoid stirring it with a spatula: it will squash the mussels).
4. Once all the mussels are opened, toss in the parsley and shake the pot one last time.
5. Serve it immediately in a soup plate with a spoonful or two of the wine sauce over it and French fries on the side. Enjoy it with a glass of white wine.
6. Don't forget to provide a bowl for the empty shells.

The Verdict

Mmm...delicious and excellent. Tastes just like the ones done at Patrick's home and in any restaurants. The sweet and tasty aroma of mussels cooked in wine and onions ... *happy sigh*. I love mopping up the sauce with some of my baguette. And since I live in the region famous for making muscadet, I of course cook my mussels in it and finish the rest of the bottle along with my mussels What more can I ask for - excellent food and wine.

Notes

You can leave out the parsley if you don't like it and it will still taste as good.

If the fresh mussels are not going into the pot immediately, they can be stored in the refrigerator for 1 to 3 days depending on how fresh they are. Take them out of their plastic bag and put them in a colander with a larger bowl underneath to catch any dripping water (this is to avoid them from soaking in the water) and to allow air to circulate. Keep them moist by covering the mussels with a damp towel and store them in the coolest corner of your refrigerator. Never put fresh shellfish in water or in an air-tight container as they would suffocate and die.