Cooking for Two - Bruce Weinstein [43]
2 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 small onion, thinly sliced
2 celery ribs, thinly sliced
1 large tart apple, such as Granny Smith or McIntosh, peeled, cored, halved, and thinly sliced
2 teaspoons chopped fresh sage, or 1 teaspoon rubbed Sage
¼ teaspoon grated nutmeg
¼ teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
One 8-ounce bottle clam juice, or ½ cup water
¼ cup brandy
2 pounds mussels, scrubbedand debearded
1. Melt the butter in a large saucepan set over medium heat. Add the onion and cook for about 3 minutes, until golden, stirring constantly. Add the celery and apple; cook for about 2 more minutes, or just until the apple softens. Then stir in the sage, nutmeg, salt, and pepper and cook for just 10 seconds, or until the spices are redolent.
2. Raise the heat to high and pour in the clam juice and the brandy. (If the mixture in the pan ignites because of the brandy, cover the saucepan and take it off the heat for 30 seconds, or until the flame goes out.) Cook for about 2 minutes, or until the liquid reduces by half. Stir in the mussels and bring the mixture back to a simmer. Cover the pan, reduce the heat to medium-low, and cook for 5 minutes, or just until the mussels open. Serve at once.
On Mussels
Buy mussels “loose”—that is, not in prepackaged bags—so you can inspect them. They should smell fresh and briny, never fishy or oily; they should all be closed.
When you get them home, store them for no more than 12 hours in your refrigerator in a large bowl loosely covered with damp paper towels.
When you’re ready to use them, rinse them in cool water, scrubbing the shells lightly with a potato brush or your fingernails to get rid of any sand. Discard any mussels that are open and will not close when tapped or gently squeezed. Then debeard them—that is, remove the wiry hairs that sometimes protrude from the shells; pull these off just before you cook the mussels because removing the beards fatally damages the mollusks.
Once cooked, always err on the side of safety: discard any that do not open.
CRAWFISH STUFFED ARTICHOKES makes 2 stuffed artichokes
Here’s a dish for a small celebration: an anniversary or a promotion. The artichokes are stuffed with a cheese-laced, spicy crawfish stuffing. For a larger meal, start off with Escarole, White Bean, and Roasted Garlic Soup (page 22); for dessert, serve Chocolate Chip Espresso Cookies (page 208). Because artichokes turn brown when cut, work quickly with the lemon juice to cover any cut areas; the acid in lemon juice will impede any discoloration. Look for cooked crawfish tail meat at most large supermarkets in the frozen seafood section, or buy it fresh at the fish counter of gourmet markets.
½ cup plain dried bread crumbs
1 small shallot, cut in quarters
1 small garlic clove, chopped
2 tablespoons freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano (about ½ ounce)
¼ cup chopped fresh parsley, or 1 tablespoon dried parsley
2 teaspoons chopped fresh oregano, or 1 teaspoon dried oregano
1 tablespoon chopped fresh basil, or 1 teaspoon dried basil
¼ teaspoon red pepper flakes
¼ teaspoon salt
4 tablespoons olive oil
8 ounces cooked crawfish tail meat (if frozen, thaw, rinse, drain, and squeeze dry)
2 large globe artichokes (about 12 ounces each)
1 large lemon, cut in half
1. To make the filling, place the bread crumbs, shallot, garlic, cheese, parsley, oregano, basil, red pepper flakes, and salt in a food processor fitted with the chopping blade or a large blender. Pulse four or five times, until well chopped. Add 2 tablespoons of the olive oil, then pulse to incorporate. Add the crawfish meat and pulse four or five times to chop and combine. The mixture should be coarsely chopped, not puréed or pastelike. Set aside. The recipe can be made in advance up to this point; store the filling, covered, in the refrigerator for up to 2 days. Let it come back to room temperature before proceeding.