Mussels with Thyme and White Wine Cream Sauce (Moules a la creme)

I love Mussels! I love hunting for them on the rocks, love picking them off the rocks, cleaning them, cooking with them, eating them and if there are any left over, pickling them!

My grandparents, Winifred and Leslie, used to live at Kayser's Beach and when my family got together at Christmas time, they used to go and pick mussels and then bring them back for us all to eat.  This is my first memory of eating mussels.  I remember we used to dip the mussel meat in a small bowl of vinegar - yummy!

Now, my grandparents have since moved to Gonubie, but I still visit Kayser's Beach, to pick mussels.  My ever patient boyfriend, Brad, always comes along to help me or to simply watch me prance over the rocks like a 5 year old on Christmas morning!

We usually steam our mussels and serve them straight away with lemon, Lea and Perrins hot pepper sauce or a bit of vinegar but one day I felt like something a little differerent.  I found a super recipe for a sauce with cream and wine so I tried it out and it was DELICIOUS!  We sat around the dining room table over the pot and dunked our mussels into the creamy sauce, just like that!  It was heavenly!

Once we had had our fill, there was still plenty of sauce, and mussels, left over so the next night we poured the sauce and mussel meat into a huge bowl of pasta - very very yummy!

Here is the recipe for the sauce:

Ingredients:
5 shallots or half an onion sliced thinly
2 large cloves of garlic
A handful of fresh thyme
1 and a half cups of white wine (I use about one cup only and sip the other half cup!)
A quarter cup of cream
4 tablespoons of butter (I use about 3 as it is a lot of butter)
1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil

• In a heavy bottomed pot or saucepan, heat the olive oil and butter until melted
• Saute the onions until translucent, then add the garlic and saute for a couple of minutes more.
• Add the wine and thyme and stir everything around nicely.
• Once the wine is bubbling, reduce the heat and add the cream, some salt and pepper to taste and stir.
• Depending on how thick you like your sauce, you may want to add some Maizena or cornflour to thicken it a little.  Grab a spoon and spoon out a nice full tablespoon of the sauce and pour into a little bowl or cup.  Add about a teaspoon or so of cornflour and mix to form a smooth paste.  Once mixed, add to your pot of sauce and whisk until all is blended.  Your sauce should thicken almost immediately.  If needed, repeat the process until it is thick enough for you.
• Sometimes, I like to add a bit of crumbled feta cheese to the sauce just before I serve it - it's DELICIOUS!

Jamie Oliver's Get Ahead Gravy

This is definitely worth it!

I love gravy - in fact my favourite thing is rice and gravy together - I could eat a whole bowl of it - just like that!  But you know, during the week when things got really busy I would use instant gravy. I know, I know! But it does the job in 2 minutes! That was, until I discovered Jamie Oliver's gravy.

Now the beauty of Jamie's gravy is that you can make it in advance and simply store it in your freezer and use it whenever you like.  A suggestion is to maybe freeze a batch in smaller Tupperware or freezer bags so that there will never again be a need for instant gravy!!

I made this gravy for the first time just before Christmas and it was so worth it - absolutely delicious!  Brad and I had our families over for the day on Christmas day so we wanted things to be just "zhoosh!"

Okay, here it is:

Ingredients:
2 celery sticks, trimmed and roughly chopped
2 carrots, roughly sliced
2 onions, peeled and quartered
5 fresh bay leaves (I used dried bay leaves but definitely, the fresh leaves would have been better)
5 fresh sage leaves
4 sprigs of rosemary
2 star anise (I substituted this with a few dried cloves)
2 rashers of smoked streaky bacon
8 chicken wings (wings have the most flavour)
olive oil
salt and freshly ground pepper
4 tablespoons of plain flour
60ml sherry or port (optional)
2 heaped dessertspoons of cranberry sauce for finishing ( I omitted this)

• Preheat the oven to 200 deg Celcius
• Throw the veg, herbs and star anise into a steady bottomed roasting tray. (Try to use the biggest you have, to hold about 2 litres of water. I had to transfer my ingredients half way through cooking which wasn't ideal)
• Scatter the bacon on top.
• Break the chicken wings open and then put them onto a board and bash the bones up with the end of a rolling pin - this will release more of their flavour. (Tip # 2 - make sure you are wearing an apron - it's a bit messy bashing chicken! I looked like I had 'done someone in' whilst cooking mine!)
• Put the chicken in the pan, drizzle with olive oil, sprinkle over a few pinches of salt and pepper and toss everything together and put the tray in the oven to cook for 1 hour or until the meat is tender and falling off the bone.
• Take the pan out of the oven and put it on a hob over low heat and use a potato masher to really grind and mash everything up.
• Keep mashing, moving and scraping all the goodness from the bottom of the pan as you go.
• Gradually mix in the flour to thicken the mixture. The longer you let everything fry, the darker your gravy will be.
• When the flour is combined, pour in 2 litres of hot water, turn the heat up and bring to the boil for 10 minutes until thickened and then turn down the heat and simmer for about 25 minutes, stirring occasionally.
• If you want to add 60ml sherry or port for flavour, do that now.
• When it has reached the consistency you're looking for, check the seasoning then push the mixture through a sieve into a large bowl.  Really push and mash everything through so you get as much flavour as possible.  Discard anything left behind.
• Once the gravy has cooled down to room temperature, put it into containers or freezer bags and pop it into your freezer. You'll finish it off on Christmas Day - or whenever you need to use it.
• To finish the gravy:  Take the gravy out of your freezer to defrost well in advance.
• When roast is perfectly cooked, collect the juices from the roasting pan and add to your pre-made gravy.
• Bring the gravy to the boil over the hob and add the cranberry sauce.  (I didn't add the cranberry sauce as our roast chicken has been glazed in cranberry and port glaze.)
• You may need to add a little bit of Maizena or cornflour to the gravy to thicken it slightly, according to your own preference.
• And there you have it - the most DELICIOUS gravy ever!

Super Simple roasted veggies on the braai

If you are tired of the same old salads at a braai or if the weather is cool, try roasted veg as an accompaniment to your meat.  You won't regret it!

One can use any roasting vegetable for this dish, the more the merrier!  I like to use butternut, sweet potato, courgette, onion, mushrooms, peppers and cherry tomatoes. I chop the veggies into bite size chunks, not too small and not too large either. To flavour the dish, use whole cloves of garlic, rosemary, salt and pepper and, of course, olive oil!

Find the oldest roasting pan or dish you have (not glass) that you don't mind using on the braai and spray the bottom and sides with Spray n Cook.
Throw the veggies that will take the longest to cook (i.e butternut and onions) into the dish and place onto braai grid over medium to fairly hot coals.  Leave to warm and brown slightly.
Once those have had a kick start, throw in all your other veggies, garlic, rosemary and seasoning except for the cherry tomatoes.  Sprinkle with a little olive oil and toss through. I find that if I use too much olive oil in this dish it either makes the veg soggy or burns too much so be cautious.
Give these a few minutes to start heating through then cover with tinfoil.  This will steam the veg for a while to make sure that they are cooked through.
Once veggies are 'al dente' remove the tinfoil lid and allow to brown for a little while.  You can add your cherry tomatoes at this stage. If you like, add a (very) little splash of balsamic vinegar - it adds a lot of flavour to roast veggies.  This is, of course, optional.
Try not to cook your veggies for too long, or you will land up with charred or mushy veg.
It is so simply and so DELICIOUS!
Try it!