Whip-It-Up: Week 3

Yes, I know, I made and posted Week 4 for Whip-It-Up before Week 3, but it works! :)

Week 3's theme was Regional Favourites. I wasn't sure what I should do and my friend, Aileen, suggested Salt Spring mussels. Well, I love mussels, so I thought, why not?

I found a recipe online that seemed relatively easy and tasty. I went and shopped for all the ingredients I need but for some reason, I can't find creme fraiche! So I asked Nick, a chef at work, where he thought I could buy some and he suggested a couple of places to go. He also suggested I go to The Lobster Man, a store on Granville Island that specializes in seafood to get the mussels.

The Lobster Man was a cool store!!! They have all these bins with various oysters, clams and mussels, kinda like those bulk bins at gorcery stores. They have quite a few variety of oystersa and I really wanted to get some but I would have to shuck them myself and I wasn't ready for that yet! While I was there, I decided to add some clams to my mussels cause I love clams too. It's the first of a number of changes I made to the recipe.

So what were the other changes? Let's see:
* I didn't get parsley as I figure they were more a decorative thing and not essential
* I couldn't find creme fraiche and Cory, another chef from work, said I can use a mixture of sour cream and cream cheese as a substitute (who knew!!)
* I didn't use celery because I don't like it!
* I didn't get fresh thyme, I used dry thyme instead

I did get white wine, but since I didn't want to use an expensive wine, I got one that was recommended by the salesperson at The Kitsilano Wine Cellar. It's called Painted Turtle andit only costed $6.50. Perfect! (I also bought a Pinot Gris and a Sangiovese! Mmmm...)

Ok, getting sidetracked. Back to cooking...The recipe was actually quite easy to follow, the only issue was that it didn't specify how much bay leave to use, it just said "half"! Half? Half of what? Half a leaf? Half a bag? Geez...I'm just going to use a few leaves.

With that issue solved, I moved on from that and started my prep. I put the mussels and clams into bowls of cold water to clean them and started cutting the onion, etc. Surprising, the prep work is minimal, the most work was cleaning and debearding the mussels. Much easier than baking! lol

Cooking the mussels and clams were also simple. The recipe was very easy and it only took me about 30min of cooking before I was ready to eat!

First I brown the butter, then add the onions, wait for them to become clear, then add the mussels and clams. Then I add the wine, then the herbs, then finally the mixture of sour cream and cream cheese. 20 minutes later, I was done.

The finished meal was amazing! The sauce/soup tasted delicious and the mussels and clams tender and juicy. I am soooo proud of myself! I actually cooked mussels and clams, something I didn't I could do easily at home. Now that I've done it, I know I can do it, I am definitely making them again.

Now I'm getting ready to go to Carla's for the BBQ and I'm bringing a steak!