Happy birthday little Belgium!!!

Happy 178th birthday Belgium! You are a great country to live in. Of course, there are certain governmental issues, but other than that, I have to admit... I love you.

For those of you who want to learn more about Belgium, here is a great video explaining everything...

Unfortunately I had forgotten that grocery stores are closed on public holidays, and I hadn't been to the store yesterday. Thus I was caught without food. Or so I thought. It is situations like today that I am very happy about my method of shopping. It is similar to my mentality about clothes. If you always buy clothes that match, then you always have a cute outfit, even when you're just too lazy to care about fashion. Translated to food: If you always buy ingredients that taste yummy together, you will always have a nice meal waiting to be discovered in the back of the fridge! So tonight I made pasta (a staple ingredient in every household) with marinated artichoke hearts (which I had left over from the previous post's meal), mushrooms, garlic, white wine, cream, Gouda, and fresh Parmesan. It was simple and quick and most importantly, delicious! As Mitch Hedburg would say, "Mac and cheese  for adults". 

In case you were wondering how I made it, I'll tell you. I sliced up the mushrooms, fried them in olive oil, added one clove of garlic, and after it was cooked, added a bit of white wine. Once the alcohol had burned out, I added cream, Gouda, Parmesan and diced the artichoke hearts. Stir, stir, stir and you have a fabulous, easy pasta sauce. 


Not exactly a Belgian dish, but still one worthy of a celebratory meal. Now if only the clouds would go away so I could watch the fireworks...

  

A tribute to my kind, eclectic host: Belgium

I can't think of a better first post than to pay tribute to Belgium's most world famous dish: Moules Frites! I made this a few days ago and it was absolutely delicious. My favourite version of this dish is moules à la crème (mussels in a cream sauce). The problem is that my palette has been spoiled by a restaurant in Cannes, South of France, called Chez Astoux. It was the most creamy, rich, velvety sauce I had ever experienced. Which means my taste buds are lucky to have learned of its existence, but doomed to only eat it on the off chance I am in Cannes. Now after numerous attempts to find a duplicate sauce in Belgium, I decided to take matters into my own hands. I found the basic recipe for moules à la crème online and then proceeded to make it my own. 


There was a sale (hurrah for sales letting me buy food normally too expensive!!) on moules de bouchot (800g) at my local grocery store. Moules de bouchot are mussels that attach on to oak or chestnut trunks (ranging from two to six meters long) that have been half stuck in the sand along the Atlantic coastline. 

Now, in the kitchen, armed with the little guys, we have to wash them, remove the beards, and trash the open ones (this means they are dead - despite that we are about to kill them, we have to be prejudice to the those early departed ones). To clean the beards, I find it easiest to pull towards the joint in the shell. It acts like very primitive scissors. Let's leave them to sit in a bowl of cold water for the moment. 


Now I take four shallots, given that I have 800g of mussels, slice them thickly, and throw them in a large pot with about 2-3 tablespoons of olive oil. Once these have browned, after about 2-3 minutes on a medium heat, I add 5 cloves of crushed garlic. Stir this around for a little bit, less than a minute. There's nothing worse than the taste of burnt garlic. Now for the wine; its only fair that we get these mussels drunk before they die. I add about 2 cups of white wine, and let the alcohol begin to boil out. As this is boiling I add a cube of chicken boullion (something I use in almost every sauce, you will come to find) and two bay leaves. After the wine has boiled for about one minute, drain the mussels and lovingly lay them to rest. Quickly cover the pot with a lid, and make sure it is tightly sealed. Mussels need to cook with the steam. After about three minutes, they should all be opened, but if there are a few stragglers, wait a moment. If they don't open by the fourth minute, maximum fifth minute mark, it is time to count them out, they were dead long ago. Turn off the stove, take off the lid, add 1.5 cups of creme fraiche, stir, and Enjoy!


The best part of this meal in my opinion, is throwing the frites in the sauce and letting them soak it up. I always get so full from lack of restraint with these devilish saucy fries.