Doktor Dough

moules marinare
1 lb PEI mussels
1/2 cup red wine, lighter bodied and medium dry is nice
1 tbsp garlic
1tbsp shallots
1/3 cup chopped roma tomato
basil
butter
freshly ground pepper

heat a 1-2 quart heavy bottomed sauce pan (one with a lid) over medium high heat,
add a little olive oil and sweat shallots and garlic, toss in tomatoes and red wine, add mussels and cover with a tight fitting lid and steam for 3-5 minutes until the mussels open.
remove the mussels and reserve in a serving dish
reduce the pot liquor slightly , turn off heat and
mount with butter
pour sauce over mussels and garnish with freshly chopped basil

i really like mussels. i used to like them less when i spent time as a prep cook cleaning at least 20 pounds a night. Since 2000, 80% of the mussels available in north american are pei mussels, which minimize what was once a labor intensive process in the kitchen. Mussels like many other bivalves grow in the intertidal zone of the ocean, where the happily filter feed and reproduce, they attach themselves to a substrate and grow in large clumps. on prince edward island an industry has developed by growing them on strings in deeper water and this has resulted in a better product. but enough about the history lets get back to the cooking.

i like them steamed in red wine and served with a nice baquette for sopping up the juice in the bowl. they are also delicious served with french fries and a nice belgian beer. i’ll give you the recipe and method i use and you be the judge. feel free to try steaming them in white wine with shallots and tarragon as well.

i guess we’ll keep posting then…. what do you want see? how about summer soups?

i’ve had an opportunity to taste some good cheese lately and i’m hooked on farmstead cheese. the definition i know is that this means the cheese is made and aged on the farm where the goat, sheep or cow’s are stabled and milked.
the term ‘artisanal’ has lost some of it’s meaning, along such terms as ‘natural’ and ‘healthy’. i’ve had this discussion with a few cheese mongers, a wine maker and in my own head. i like a good baguette and i know how to bake one as well as choose one in the grocery. i look for a ’standard of identity’, when i see a term such as ‘artisan produced’ or ‘artisanal’ product X, the term is not a standard of identity it is a marketing gimmick. that said, i still buy an artisan baked baguette, it’s just not labeled as such.

back to the cheese; the last one i bought after one taste, the smell (OMG!) sealed the deal. i like the stinky cheese and it has a rind that’s beautiful, i believe it’s an aged sheep milk cheese, the mystery is because i had a bite saw the tan/brown pebbly rind and knew i had found a good cheese, the name is secondary. the farmers market stand had just three baskets and cutting board. in the baskets were 10 or twelve wedges wrapped in wax paper, i tried one and….had to have it, take it home, keep it in my refrigerator. of course a few minutes later i let my wife see it and she turned her nose up , pouted and asked me how much i paid, i believe she was jealous. go down and get yourself a love tree farmstead cheese, and you might like it.

seriously, i’ve been really busy, we got planting the garden , working 6 days a week….check back soon. my life is good how’z your day been

the side garden has been planted. my wife saw asparagus roots on sale the local home improvement store and bought them. we have a trench planted with twenty four 1-2 year old asparagus roots, i thought it was going to be 3 asparagus crowns, more is better.  i moved the rhubarb plant to this side as well. i put in mesclun under the dome in the front yard. peas will go into this space as well.

the first batch of compost for this year has cooled and will need to be sifted/screened before i can use it as a side dressing.  there are more than a few sticks and a few corncobs that need to be reprocessed in the next pile. composting proceeds through a ‘hot stage’ at the beginning of the process, this is due to the action of beneficial microbes. the heat also is purported to kill the weed seeds. when i first dug into the pile after a week , i was impressed by the color change and the heat. the color change was due to the rapid growth of fungi. i continued turning the pile every 3 -7 days until it cooled,  six weeks is good time frame for an active pile with plenty of aeration. it’s not a completely broken down pile, but there are no discernible ‘kitchen scraps’ evident and it looks a lot like dirt and smells earthy not rancid.

enjoy your spring, the planting of warm weather crops is still a few weeks off in Minnesota. see ya in the garden.