Mussels in Brussels

Mussels are unbelieveably popular in Belgium. Near Grote Markt in Belgium, there are alley ways of restaurants serving nothing but Mussels and Seafood Paella. The Mussles at the tourist trap restaurants are okay, but when you get away from the tourist trap and find the non-touristy restaurants, the quality of the food jumps up quite a bit and with the mussels, the flavors are unreal. Really good. The recipe below is from a web-site containing information on Belgium and Belgium recipes.

Ingredients

4kg Mussels
2 onions
2 sticks celery
25g butter
salt
freshly ground black ppper
2 tspns chopped parsley

Directions

Rinse the mussels under running water. Chop the celery and onions in rings.
Melt the butter in a pan, add the onions and celery, let them brown a little.
Add the mussels, cook on a high heat. Stir frequently.
Cook until mussels are all open, which means they are done.

Season with salt and pepper. Sprinkle with chopped parsley.

Moules

Next month I will be going to Belgium on business. I have a couple of friends from Belgium and have been getting tips on things to do and more importantly, things to eat and drink.

Apparently, the staple, or most common thing to eat is mussles and french fries. Sounds about right and something I could get along with easily. Here's a site that has a basic recipe: Belgian Mussels with Weissbeer Sauce

When my friend told me about that, it reminded me of the best mussles I've ever had while in Nice, France. There was this restaurant right in front of the Hall of Justice in Old Town. They served 4 different types of mussles; mussles gorgonzola, mussles provencal, and the other two escape me. I know I have it written down somewhere.

Anyway, the Moules Gorgonzola was the best one. It mussles soaked in a gorgonzola cream sauce with sun-dried tomatoes and basil. It was awesome. I've found a salad dressing that tasted almost like the sauce on the mussles, so I've made this several times at home. The sauce was a Goat Cheese salad dressing with sun-dried tomatoes and basil. I just heated that up, tossed it with steam mussles and voila. I hardly get to have any. Once Lindsay and Chris know there are mussles in the house, they hover around like vultures and finish them before I can get to them.

The Mussles Provencal was simple. A wine sauce with tomatoes, basil, and garlic tossed with the mussles. This was good as well.

Pasta Night

Every once in a while, I get together with my sisters husband, Dale, and we cook everybody pasta. I have done this at home several times before doing this with Dale. I got the idea after going to KC's Golf Club in Redding for Pasta Night....hence the name. Each person's pasta is made just for them, so there are no two bowls of pasta that are a like.

It was a cool idea to cook the pasta for each person right there and it looked simple to do. It takes time getting the ingredients all cut up, but that's part of the fun. Dale and I are on the phone while we go shopping, trying to figure out which grocery store has the clams and mussels in stock and which store has the best pasta sauce to use. Pasta Night turns into quite an event with most of the activity happening before dinner even starts.



The challenge with this dinner is not putting too much in the pot when you're cooking. It adds up quickly and people will be more than stuffed when done.

Enjoy!

Ingredients

Whatever you want......really.

This is our typical list:

4 mussels per person, steamed
3 clams per person, steamed
3 uncooked shrimp per person (shelled and deveined)
BBQ'd chicken breasts. Use whatever marinade you like.
Sausages - I like the specialty ones with apple, artichokes, garlic. Whatever sounds good.
Basil - chopped.
10-15 Roma tomatoes - seeded, chopped.
1 Bulb of Garlic - chopped
Tomato Sauce - I like basil and tomato. Use your favorite
Can of chopped or stewed tomatoes with seasonings
Sliced mushrooms
Capers
Zucchini - chopped
Green onions
Red and or White wine for cooking
Parsley
Olive oi
Cooked Pasta - vermicelli, fettucini, whatever you want. We add a little bit of olive oil to the pasta so it won't stick.

grated Paramesean cheese

Cooking

Have whoever you're cooking for say what they want, then cook it. We usually start off heating the olive oil in a small wok style cooking pan. We'll add the shrimp and garlic and cook the shrimp until it's pink. While the shrimp is cooking, toss in the zucchini. When that's close to done, start adding whatever your customer wants. At the end of the cooking, we'll add in the mussels and clams then the pasta. Stir it all together and put into the bowl.