First Dinner (Theme: French Bistro)

The first dinner went great. Here are the photos...

Mussels and Pate with a French Baguette

Course 1 (Light/was Course 2 but since it was hot, we started with this first):

Louis Roederer Champagne paired with the Mussels.

Mussels with slices of bread to soak up the sauce.

Pate with bread awaits.

Mussels.

A toast to friends and food...and wine (and champagne)...and...

Pate. Some of us love pate too much.

Seared Scallops in a Lemon Butter Sauce over Belgian Endives

Course 2 (Light/was Course 1):

Scallops.

Wine Pairing: Side Yard Rielsing

Excellent colors.

Herbed Steak Frites in a Mustard-Wine Sauce

Course 3 (Main):

Fries served on top.

Wine Pairing: James Cole Malbec.

Fries on the side.

Lemon Tart (Sabayon method) with a Blood Orange Sorbet and Candied Orange Peels

Course 4 (Dessert):

The whole tart! Looks very French!

Fabulicious tart with sorbet.

Inniskillin Sparkling Ice Wine paired with dessert.

An excellent way to end the dinner!

Moules Mariniere: Freshness Is Key!

Mussels!

We had a little trouble trying to find fresh mussels. Lee went to Whole Foods in Palo Alto, and they had some for $5.99/lb. But, when tapped, none closed, so they were pretty dead. The clerk said to come back the next day. Lee was thinking about trying the Los Altos Whole Food since it’s bigger but ended up looking at Najiya Market in Mountain View, but they didn’t have them. Across the street, at Ranch 99, Lee found very fresh mussels for $3.99/lb., but they came in a bag, so you couldn’t sort through individual dead ones.

We started off going through the recipe but we didn’t have thyme, which probably was a major element that was missing, but the freshness of the mussels made up for that. We cooked the mussels for about 3 minutes. Most of the mussels were cooked well, but a few were still a little raw. So, like the other posts mentioned, probably a little longer would be better, say 4-5 minutes. We substituted chervil for the parsley since we had a bunch left from the frites trial.

Overall the mussels were very good in the onion, butter and wine sauce. I think the key element is freshness when it comes to this recipe. We had a few dead mussels, but not to many. So I’d say sourcing your seafood is a very important part of making this dish. The sauce went well with bread as well.

Onions, butter, and wine, all cooking in harmony.

Adding the mussels into the pan.

Mussels opening up. Fresh!

A lone mussel wades in butter and wine. C'est la vie!

Coquilles St. Jacques à la Fondue d'Endives et Moules Mariniere: Lessons Learned

We celebrated Kirk's birthday last weekend up in Calistoga, and this weekend down in Mountain View, so had fallen behind on our homework!

As a result, tonight we decided to double up on our assignments and dined on bread, butter, and both of the bivalve courses: Coquilles St. Jacques à la Fondue d'Endives and Moules Mariniere.

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Moules Mariniere

• Selecting/Storing the Shellfish. Going into Ranch 99, we were prepared to follow some of the standard selection tips on the Web as well as request all live ones per Agnes' post, but they only sold them in bunches of purple, mesh bags that were on ice, so we took our chances - I would say about 20% of them were DOA. Also, I believe they were probably farmed, as we didn't need to clean or debeard them all that much. We had originally been planning on cooking them Saturday evening, but that didn't happen so we ended up storing them in a bowl near the bottom of the refrigerator, covering the bowl in a damp towel.
  
• Missing Minutes. Like Andrew & Yurah, we found that three minutes wasn't enough time to cook the mussels fully, especially over low heat, and we were working with a halved recipe (2 lbs.)...now if only we had read their post prior to preparing this! ;) If we were to do this again, we'd likely cook them for a longer period of time, or at least until a majority of the shells opened up fully. We had halved the sauce preparation as well, so I might just go ahead and prepare the entire portion next time so that the mussels were fully immersed.
  
• Superb Sauce! The sauce was easy to prepare and really delicious paired with bread, which we made sure to stock up on, thanks to previous posts.
  

Coquilles St. Jacques à la Fondue d'Endives

• Scallop Selection & Shortcuts. Unlike the mussels, you can select your sea scallops at Ranch 99. When buying, we just tried to make sure the fishmonger didn't pick any that looked brownish. We read a tip online that also said not to pick ones that looked stark white (vs. creamy white) because they may have been soaked in water to increase weight - I'm not sure if there's any weight to that or not. Generally, you would look for firm texture, a mild sweet odor, and fresh, moist sheen. We found the rest of the greens and the crème fraîche at Whole Foods. We were contemplating trying the homemade crème fraîche recipe, but will probably save that for another day.
• Straightforward & Quick. Not too much to say about the prep., it was pretty straightforward and the result was delicious! I wish I had tried one of the scallops prior to saucing, for comparison's sake.
• Endive Evaluation. I can't recall trying this dish before, so I don't have a baseline as to what the endives should have tasted like. Texturally, ours was nicely cooked with a slight, bitter undertone which I liked and found added some complexity to the dish. I've read recipes where it appears the endives are first blanched, then caramelized, which might be an interesting variation for a Round II experiment.

Next up...Steak au Poivre with Herbed Frites!

Course Deux

Moules Mariniere

Grown all along the coast of France on wooden posts, mussels are regional to many areas but are particularly associated with Brittany, Normandy, and the norhteast. This is one of the simplest ways to serve them.

2 kg (4 lb 8 oz) mussels
40 g (1 1/2 oz) butter
1 large onion, chopped
1/2 celery stalk, chopped
2 garlic cloves, crushed
410 ml (1 2/3 cups) white wine
1 bay leaf
2 sprigs of thyme
185 ml (3/4 cup) thick (double/heavy) cream
2 tablespoons chopped parsley

Serves 4

SCRUB the mussels and remove their beards. Discard any that are open already and don't close when tapped on the work surface. Melt the butter in a large saucepan and cook the onion, celery, and garlic, stirring occasionally, over moderate heat until the onion is softened but not browned.

ADD the wine, bay leaf, and thyme to the saucepan and bring to a boil. Add the mussels, cover the pan tightly and simmer over low heat for 2-3 minutes, shaking the pan occasionally. Us tongs to lift out the mussels as then open, putting them into a warm dish. Throw away any mussels that haven't opened after 3 minutes.

STRAIN the liquid through a fine sieve into a clean saucepan, leaving behind any grit or sand. Bring to a boil and boil for 2 minutes. Add the cream and reheat the sauce without boiling. Season well. Serve the mussels in individual bowls with the liquid poured over. Sprinkle with the parsley and serve with PLENTY OF BREAD.


...And since we have PLENTY OF BREAD (and I really really want to try this), we're gonna add to complement the bread:


Chicken Liver Pate

500g (1lb 2oz) chicken livers
80ml (1/3 cup) brandy
90g (3 1/4 oz) unsalted butter
1 onion, finely chopped
1 garlic clove, crushed
1 teaspoon chopped thyme
60 ml (1/4 cup) thick (double/heavy) cream
4 slices white bread

Serves 6

TRIM the chicken livers, cutting away any discoloured bits and veins. Rinse them, pat dry wtih paper towels and cut in half. Place in a small bowl wiht the brandy, cover and leave for a couple of hours. Drain the livers, reserving the brandy.

MELT half of the butter in a frying pan, add the onion and garlic and cook over low heat until the onion is soft and transparent. Add the livers adn thyme and sti over moderate heat until the livers change colour. Add the reserved brandy and simmer for 2 minutes. Cool for 5 minutes.

PLACE the livers and liquid in a food processor and whiz until smooth. Add the remaining butter, chopped, and process again until smooth. (Alternatively, roughly mash the livers with a fork, then push them through a sieve and mix with the melted butter.) Pour in the cream and process until just incorporated.

SEASON the pate and spoon into an earthenware dish or terrine, smoothing the surface. Cover and refrigerate until firm. If the pate is to be kept for more than a day, chill it and then pour clarified butter over the surface to seal.

TO MAKE Melba toasts, preheat the grill (broiler) and cut the crusts off the bread. Toast the bread on both sides and then slice horizontally with a sharp sesdrrated knife, to give eight pieces. Carefully toast the uncooked side of each slice and then cut it into two triangles. Serve with the pate.

Source: The Food Of France, By Maria Villegas and Sarah Randell (Murdoch Books)