Date: July 31, 2011
Today, during lunch, I ordered a Thai Steam Mussles, and it is way to spicy for Jay Jay. So, at the dinner time, I wanted to cook soem mussles for Jay Jay.
The ingredients for the mussles. Basically, it is a steam mussles using white wine, lemon and garlics.
1. Some garlics. (1 and a half)
OK. I found this convinient tool in the kitchen cabinet. I don't know what it is called, basically, you just put your garlic into the this and squeeze it.
And wala... your garlic becomes diced. fine dinced.
2. Lemon. (Half)
Now, you will squeeze the lemon into the garlic that you juse diced.
3. Olive Oil.
Add some olive oil into the Lemon + Garlic.
4. Salt.
Add some salt in.
5. Live Mussles.
I got this from Cold Storage. It is Live Mussels. What? Live? Yes, these mussels are kept in a almost vacumn pack. And they lower the temperature down to very low for them to herbinate. Usually, what I did is to prepare a pot of salt water (yes, add sea salt into water), and then try to "wake" them up. Welcome to Singapore, you said...
Add in what ever you have come up with just now into the mussels. Let the mussels soaked inside the Lemon + Garlic + Olive Oil. Marinate it a bit. (not true, they are not opening their shell at all). hahaha
6. Lime Leaves. (or Basils)
OK. I ran out of basil leaves. So, I used this instead. My wife said is a lime leaves. I tasted it, and its OK, can be used. So, now you know keeping a few pots of herbs in your balcony can come in very handy.
7. White Wine. (Cheap)
I also ran out of white wine in my wine collections. So, I have to run downstairs to grab one from the grocery store. Oh ya, a good friend of mine taught me this. "You don't have to use good wine for cooking". But sometimes I disagree with him, because in Chinese cooking, when we cook some dishes, we always will sprinkle some cooking wine at the very last just before you died down the fire. So that the alcohol in the cooking wine is not completely vaporized. And yet you can taste the alcohol plus whatever flavor in the cooking wine.
So, when you cook the steam mussels, it shall be the same too. If you used a good sweet wine, then, the sweetness will still be there. And yes, the alcohol will be vaporized during the steaming, but don't forget at the end, before you turn off the fire, you always had a choice to sprinkle some additional white wine and leave it "uncook" so that it can bring up some alcohol taste.
But today, no choice, I ran out of white wine. So, I bought a wine from the grocery store. It's $26 Chille wine.
Cooking Now!
The whole process should not take longer than 15 minutes.
1. Heat the wok or pan.
2. When the wok or pan is very hot, pour in some Olive Oil.
3. Pour in the mussels with the marinate sauces (Lemon + Garlic + Olive Oil).
4. Stir fry for 20-30 seconds.
5. Pour in the white wine.
6. Bring it to boil, and then small fire, and cover the lid, and steam it for a while.
7. Steam it for about 3-4 minutes.
8. Use 1 finger to cover the white wine bottle, and sprinkle the wine on top of the mussels.
9. Turn off the fire, and serve the dish. Don't forget, you can always add salt + sugar to bring it to your taste before you turn off the fire.
OK. 简简单单又一餐.
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