Blood Orange Mussels with Fennel, Ginger and Turmeric Roots
I'm still in my post Christmas meat-reduced phase, I just don't feel inspired to throw a heavy roast in the oven, or put a steak in the pan. Although the annual feasting is already a month ago, my appetite calls for vegetables and seafood, light on the body and preferably refined with lots of citrus fruits, herbs, spices or whatever comes into my mind.
Out of all the wonderful culinary gifts we get from the sea, mussels are one of the easiest to prepare and luckily, they're still in season. I like to be brave when it comes to seasoning their cooking juices, I want each single flavour to be present to infuse their meat, this is not the time to be shy! Today's recipe follows this rule and makes the most aromatic broth, it's perfect to dip little pieces of crunchy baguette in. This is almost the best part of this meal and every time we have mussels on the table, it fills me with excitement. So, I chose a combination of sweet blood orange, fennel, fresh ginger and turmeric which literally melts in your mouth, it's a colourful explosion of fresh flavours. Look at the bright yellow, the vibrant orange and refreshing green, translate that into taste and you'll have an idea of what happened at our lunch table!
For the cooking broth, I mixed the citrus fruit's juice with some white wine and grated a little zest which created a wonderful aroma. Roots were my next addition, strips and slices of warming ginger and luckily, I can get fresh turmeric at the moment. The deep orange root is a fragrant concentrate, it's so unique you can't compare it to anything else, not even the powder. When I peel the thin skin off it turns my fingers into a golden yellow, it had the same effect on the broth and looked stunning. I couldn't help it, this buoyant dish just put a smile on my face!
Some more mussel inspiration:
Blood Orange Mussels with Fennel, Ginger and Turmeric
For 2-3 people you need
fresh mussels 1 kg / 2 pounds
white wine 200ml / 1/2 pint
freshly squeezed blood orange juice 50ml / 1 3/4 ounces
blood orange zest 1 tablespoon
small fennel bulb, quartered and thinly sliced, 1 plus the fresh green, chopped, for the topping
fresh ginger, cut into small strips, a thumb sized piece
fresh turmeric, sliced, 1 thumbnail sized piece
bay leaf 1
salt 1/2 teaspoon
Rinse and scrub the mussels under cold water and cut off the beard, discard any broken mussels.
In a large pot, bring the wine and juice with the zest, fennel, ginger, turmeric, bay leaf and salt to the boil. Add the mussels to the hot broth, close with a lid and cook on lowest heat for 5 minutes or until the shells open (shake the pot once or twice while cooking or gently mix with a slotted ladle). Discard any mussels that don’t open! Sprinkle the mussels with the fresh fennel green and serve immediately, preferably with baguette and a glass of chilled white wine.
Roasted Apricots on Turmeric Bread
Sandwich Wednesday news! After 7 months of baking my own bread or visiting one of my trusted bakeries, there will be a new monthly sandwich feature on the blog, eat in my kitchen x The Bread Exchange.
The Bread Exchange is a trading project started by Malin Elmlid in 2008, she is a master when it comes to baking the perfect sourdough bread. Together we will share our creations on eat in my kitchen, every month she will deliver a loaf of bread to my kitchen and I will turn it into a new sandwich idea. This will be exciting as Malin likes to use the exotic ingredients she gets through trading; turmeric from Iran, vanilla from Madagascar, salt from Israel, charcoal, matcha, the list is long and inspiring!
You can't buy Malin's bread, you can only trade for it and that makes it all the more special. You can offer culinary products, a dinner, invite her to a special place, teach her one of your skills or share a talent. Anything of personal value might inspire her and become your trade. The Bread Exchange has been going on all over the world, wherever Malin goes, her sourdough travels with her. More than 1400 loaves of bread have been traded and thankfully enjoyed in Berlin (where she lives), in Sweden (where she's from), the Netherlands, Afghanistan, Sinai, Morocco, Greece, USA and Belgium.
Last winter Malin asked me if I would like to test cook a couple of the recipes for her first cookbook which will be published this autumn. I cooked, baked and savored, they were all delicious and worked out perfectly - it will be so exciting to have the final The Bread Exchange book in my hands!
Now it's time to talk about sandwiches! Malin suggested starting off with her Moonraker Sourdough, a turmeric and honey bread which she created a couple years ago. It's originally made with dried apricots but she left them out this time. This glowing yellow loaf of bread with a strong spice aroma is inspired by the colour palette of the famous 70's Bond movie which gave it its name. Look at the colour and texture of this beautiful bread, imagine turmeric and the best sourdough bread you've ever eaten and you will have an idea of what I had on my kitchen table! As most of you won't be able to find a turmeric bread I will involve the flavours that Malin uses in her bread creations for my sandwiches, so you just have to get (or bake) the best sourdough bread you can find in town and then you can start!
Here's our first eat in my kitchen x The Bread Exchange sandwich creation, fresh apricots roasted with thyme, cardamom and turmeric in honey olive oil together with maple syrup and cardamom crème fraîche on thick slices of turmeric sourdough bread! This sandwich is wonderfully aromatic, juicy and fruity, the spices are present but not overpowering. If you don't have a loaf of bread at hand you could also pack the roast fruits on vanilla ice, this is just as good!
My next sandwich cooperation with Malin will be in August, I don't know what she'll bring to my kitchen but I can't wait to enjoy another one of her creations!
Roast Cardamom Apricots on Turmeric Bread
For 4 open sandwiches you need
sourdough bread, 1 loaf, cut into thick slices
fresh apricots, cut in half, 6
honey 1 tablespoon
olive oil 1 tablespoon
ground turmeric 1/4 teaspoon
ground cardamom 1/4 teaspoon
thyme 10 small sprigs
coarse sea salt
For the spread
crème fraîche or cream cheese 150g / 5.5 ounces
maple syrup 1 teaspoon
a pinch of ground cardamom
a pinch of salt
Set the oven to 230°C / 450°F.
Warm up the honey in a sauce pan and whisk in the olive oil, turmeric and cardamom. Coat the apricots with the honey olive oil, sprinkle with sea salt and spread on a baking dish (cut side up). Lay the thyme on top and roast in the oven for 8 minutes, turn the fruits around and bake for another 2 minutes.
Whisk the ingredients for the spread till creamy, season to taste and spread on the slices of bread. Put 3 apricot halves on each slice, gently as they are soft. Sprinkle with a couple roast thyme sprigs.
A juicy treat with orange, turmeric and ginger
Today's post is dedicated to all my friends who have a cold - unfortunately, quite a few at the moment. I would love to have them all over to nurse them, so I decided to come up with a tasty and healthy juice, full of vitamins and powerful roots to give them a recipe that will strengthen them again!
My current favourite, the blood orange, is as important to this juice as freshly grated turmeric and ginger roots. Turmeric is a great helper when your body suffers from inflammations, be it in the throat, the ears or your tummy. This root has an important role in the Ayurveda philosophy and is assumed to have a big effect on our cells like ginger which is an antiseptic boost to the immune system.
If you feel well and strong - which I hope you all are - then you can just enjoy this wonderful juice and its spicy, fruity taste. And anyways, prevention is better than cure.
For 1 big glass of this powerful drink, you will need around 350ml of freshly squeezed orange juice (I used 6 of my blood oranges), 1/8 teaspoon of freshly grated turmeric root and 1/4 teaspoon of freshly grated ginger. I bought the turmeric in a small organic shop around the corner but you can find it in lots of Asian shops as well.
Drink it, enjoy, and get well soon!
Mussels with Spices, Ginger, Lemongrass and Coriander
Last summer I enjoyed a sumptuous dinner in a beautiful candle lit garden at an old villa surrounded by fragrant Stephanotis and Plumbago. The setting was just perfect and the food divine as always, cooked by my dear friend Vanessa. She treated us to the freshest seafood, prepared in inspiring variations. We started the dinner with mussels cooked with coriander, turmeric, cayenne and ginger in a wonderful broth made with coconut milk and lemon. I was never too fond of mussels until that night. I used to cook them with celery, carrots and onions in white wine which is nice but the exotic mixture of spices and herbs was something special and unexpected.
When I bought the mussels for our dinner I knew I would take Vanessa's version and mix it with mine. I used white wine instead of coconut milk but adopted her mix of coriander, turmeric, cayenne and ginger. To this I added some lemongrass, garlic, spring onions and carrots. The velvety broth was a fantastic match for the mussels, very bold while not overpowering the fresh sea taste of the mussels. We finished all the mussels and soaked up every drop of the remaining broth with some Ciabatta bread
Mussels with Spices, Ginger, Lemongrass and Coriander
For 2 hungry people you need
mussels, rinsed, 1 kg / 2 pounds
garlic, crushed, 1 clove
spring onions, cut into slices, 2
carrot, cut into cubes, 1
ginger, grated, thumbnail size
lemongrass, cut into thin slices, a 7cm / 3" piece
coriander seeds, ground, 1 teaspoon
turmeric, ground, 1/3 teaspoon
cayenne pepper, ground, 1/8 teaspoon
salt 1/2 teaspoon
white wine 250ml
lemon juice 1 tablespoon
oil for frying 2 tablespoons
fresh coriander, chopped, a handful
Heat the oil in a large pot and fry the ginger, lemongrass, garlic and vegetables for a couple minutes. Add the ground spices, mix and fry for another minute. Pour the wine and lemon juice into the pot and bring to the boil, season with salt. Add the mussels and mix with the liquid. Close with a lid and turn down the heat to the lowest temperature. Steam for 5 minutes or until the shells open. Take out the mussels which didn't open, you should not eat them! Mix in the coriander leaves and serve on big plates.
