Matt and I had a delicious, though perhaps not all that balanced or healthy, meal of steamed mussels and artichokes the other night. We first started eating mussels while we were studying abroad in France, where they are often served with French fries as “Moules Frites.” There, mussels are eaten not with one of those silly little shellfish forks as I’ve seen them served here, but by using one of the shells as little tongs to pull the meat from the other shells. (Sorry for the blurriness in the picture, but I thought it was worth including for purposes of instruction.)

We’ve cooked them a couple times since then, and they are very easy to prepare. A recipe in this months Cooking Light inspired us to make them again. This time, we simply steamed them with chicken broth, lemon juice, and some spices, and served them with some butter for dipping.

We also steamed an artichoke, which was originally planned as an appetizer but ended up being finished about the same time as the mussels. We also had some dipping sauce for the artichoke — as I said, not very healthy, but certainly delicious! If you’ve never eaten whole artichokes before, as we hadn’t until moving to California, they may require some eating instructions too. Basically, you pull off the petals, dip them in the sauce, and scrape the little bit of pulp off with your teeth. I didn’t take pictures of that part, but Elise has a nice tutorial. Also, you want to stop eating the petals when you get to the purplish ones in the center. This part is called the “choke.” It should be scraped out, leaving the delicious “heart” of the artichoke underneath.

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I apologize that the posts have been so sparse lately. I’ve just returned from a trip to Long Beach for a meeting, and preparing for that has also been keeping me pretty busy for the past month or so. I’ve had less time to cook than usual, and even less time to blog about it. But, the good news is that things have calmed down at least a tad, and so more tasty treats from my kitchen should be appearing here in the near future.

Today, something simple: another recipe recommendation, this time from Simply Recipes. Lately, when I’m faced with persistent questions of “What’s for dinner?” or “I wonder how to make (XYZ)?” Elise’s Simply Recipes blog has become my go-to source. And she seldom lets me down. Her recipes are, as you might assume, reasonably simple, and her instructions are very clear. This recipe for pan-seared salmon with a sauce made from avocados was no exception. I don’t think I ever would have thought of combining avocados and salmon, but since both Matt and I love both of those foods, as soon as I saw the recipe Ik new I had to try it. The creamy avocado matched very nicely with the flavor of the salmon. And it’s just so pretty, too.

I was amazed how smooth the avocado remoulade got — after food processing the avocado it was a bit coarse, but as soon as you add the olive oil it becomes silky smooth.

My only complaint about this recipe is the recommended cooking time — my salmon wasn’t nearly done in the middle after the 3-4 minutes per side she recommends (and I like my meat and fish on the rare side), so next time I’ll use slightly lower heat so I can get it done all the way through without having the outside be too crispy. And yes, I’ll definitely be making this again.

You can find the recipe here: Pan-Seared Salmon with Avocado Remoulade

Somehow Mom and I got it into our heads that it would be fun to try our hand at making gnocchi for the first time for Christmas Eve dinner. We were right — it was fun, but boy were these little potato dumplings a lot of work. Not including baking the potatoes, I think it didn’t take us but about an hour to make them, but we were working pretty hard for that hour.

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Matt made this for me for my (a few days delayed) birthday dinner. But he says “I don’t write,” so I’m describing the recipe for him. (His role on this blog is to get all the technical stuff working, and I get to do the fun part of writing up posts.) This was inspired but something Matt always orders at Madison and Fifth, a new-ish Italian restaurant in downtown Palo Alto. Their version uses orecchiette, but Matt decided he likes ravioli better. I made dessert — pomegranate-studded persimmon creme brulee; it was tasty but not the right consistency, so it needs a little work before I post a recipe.

Ingredients:

Olive oil
1 pkg. of cherry tomatoes
1 pkg. of artichoke cheese ravioli
2 cloves of garlic, minced
1 bunch of broccolini, roughly chopped
1 lb. Italian sausage, chopped
1/4 c pine nuts (toasting these would be nice, though we didn’t)
1/4 c parmesan cheese, grated

1. Place tomatoes in a small pan and drizzle with olive oil. Roast at 375 F for about 20 minutes, or until the tops are slightly brown and they burst a bit.
2. Cook ravioli according to package instructions. Toss with a little bit of olive oil to keep them from sticking together and set aside.
3. Brown the sausage in a large skillet over medium-high heat until done. Remove from pan and set aside. Remove the grease from the pan.
4. Saute some garlic in the skillet, adding a little olive oil if necessary. Add the broccolini and cook until it wilts a bit.
5. Add the sausage and ravioli to the pan, and cook until heated through. Add the pine nuts and parmesan cheese, toss to combine.
6. Garnish with extra parmesan cheese.