Why is there a picture of Jack instead of a picture of the mussels with smoky bacon, etc? Because spending time screwing around with getting a picture of the meal after it took me forever and a day to cook it, would have been unspeakably cruel to my guests..
I am not dinner party-giving material due to my complete lack of even the most basic time management and organizational skills.
I have never tried to sit a group of eight people at a table and serve them a complete meal. The whole business of serving multiple components of a meal at the same time when it is just me, Mike, and Benjamin completely eludes me. There is no possible way I could do it for a larger group. Particularly one to which I was pretending to be someone with hostessing skills.
Instead I am cultivating an entertaining style in which I invite people over for dinner (which is completely different from a dinner party), and keep everything very casual and expectations low. Yet even this can be fraught with difficulty for me.
You might think that I'd just accept the fact that I was issued DNA without the time management/ organizational skill strands, acknowledge the fact that these management skills are crucial components in feeding a group of people, and simply move on to some other pastime that did not involve skills I so clearly lack.
But no, this would not be the case. I continue to invite people to dinner.
This past Saturday we had three friends over for dinner. As usual there were mishaps: There were two separate emergency runs to purchase missing ingredients. Everything took longer than I expected. Things were complicated by the fact that someone was installing cabinets in my kitchen for a good part of the day.
"Oh, no problem at all," I'd said when we originally discussed a time for them to come, "as long as you're out by five o'clock, I'll be fine." My guests were coming at seven o'clock. This, I think, is a good example of my limited ability to plan.
But in the end, it all worked out, and eventually my guests and I sat down to eat mussels with smoky bacon, lime, and cilantro in a broth with tomatoes and jalapeno.
I like to serve mussels because I think they fall a little into the realm of the exotic and fancy, but they are relatively inexpensive and easy to fix. A lot of the work like cleaning the mussels can be done ahead of time which is always a help. This recipe came from Michael Romano, a chef at Union Square Cafe, by way of The Best American Recipes 2003-2004. This dish is much more substantial than the usual steamed mussel preparations, it smells enticing, and isn't the name of the recipe alone like a bit of poetry? It lives up to its name -- it's unbelievably rich and delicious.
I used six pounds of mussels and doubled everything else. It was really too much for five people although we managed to finish it but it would have fed six very easily. Be sure to serve this with bread for sopping up the broth.
Mussels with Smoky Bacon, Lime, and Cilantro
1/4 pound thick-sliced, lean smoked bacon, cut into 1/2 pieces
2 large shallots, thinly sliced
1 large jalapeno, thinly sliced into rings, seeds removed
Salt and freshly ground pepper
14 oz can of plum tomatoes, drained and finely chopped
1/2 cup dry white wine
2 tablespoons ketchup
3 1/2 pounds of mussels, scrubbed and debearded
2 tablespoons fresh lime juice
1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
Cook the bacon in a large enameled cast-iron dutch oven over medium heat until crisp, about 8 minutes. Pour off all but two tablespoons of the fat. Add the shallots and jalapeno, season with salt and pepper, and cook, stirring occasionally, until softened but not browned, about 4 minutes. Add the tomatoes and cook for 3 minutes. Add the wine and ketchup and simmer until reduced by half, about 4 minutes.
Increase the heat to high and add the mussels. Cover and cook, shaking the pan a few times until the mussels open, about 5 minutes.
With a slotted spoon, transfer the mussels to four large shallow bowls. Off heat, stir in the cilantro, lime juice, and butter. Ladle the sauce over the mussels and serve.
So it's possible to clean the mussels ahead of time?! Hmmm, who knew? Jack looks delicious by the way.
Posted by: discount family oracle online | March 27, 2006 at 05:34 PM
Much as I love photos of food, give me a photo of your beautiful dogs any day!!
Those mussels sound delicious. Is there anything unusual about the bacon or is it just ... bacon!? Like what I'd get from the deli in the supermarket. We have middle bacon, short bacon (basically the eye of the middle bacon), streaky bacon, bacon pieces and that's about it! When you say thick sliced how thickly is it sliced? The rest of the ingredients I can handle (we call cilantro 'coriander'). Who would have thought converting American to Australian would require learning a whole new language!!
I think I might give the mussels a go this weekend.
Keep cooking, Julie!!!
And don't forget to write that cookbook.
Posted by: Cazza | March 27, 2006 at 06:41 PM
Oh my, that sounds fantastic. I am never any good at serving things either. I usually just invite a lot of people so I can blame it on the amount of folks instead of my lacking abilities.
Posted by: angela | March 28, 2006 at 06:43 PM
Oh my, that sounds fantastic. I am never any good at serving things either. I usually just invite a lot of people so I can blame it on the amount of folks instead of my lacking abilities.
Posted by: angela | March 28, 2006 at 06:43 PM
Hey, I was one of the guests at this dinner party, and it was fantastic. Ignore Julie's comments about time management. Everything was wonderful and unfolded perfectly. The lovely hors d'ouvres, the delightful salad, and the unbelievably scrumptious mussels. I am very glad to find the recipe posted here!
Posted by: Ellen | March 28, 2006 at 10:21 PM
DFO, perhaps in the future you could use your oracle powers to help guide me in this process. You could look ahead and tell me just where things were going to go off the rails. Not that I'd necessarily be able to use that information.
Cazza, I think the bacon was just...bacon. Here's a picture and description. I wouldn't worry too much about how thick or what kind of bacon -- I think any smoked bacon will work.
Angela, good technique, I'll have to remember it in the future.
Ellen, thank you! You are being very kind.
Posted by: Julie | March 29, 2006 at 12:08 PM