Chilli Mussels - Variation

EDC recipe with adjustments: I doubled it (some stuff) & substituted a few fresh items from pantry.

Step 1 - Additional whole onion, halved. 4 pcs garlic & 2 medium red chillis (1 with seeds inclusive). Basil leaves, two sticks of rosemary. Choppe on Speed 5, 5 seconds.
Step 2 - Add 2 cans of tomatoes (I purchased the one with pre mixed basil & oregano - adds extra flavor). Add 1 Tbspn of TM vegetable paste. Add 1 Tbspn of pizza base tomato paste.
Step 3 - Then place Varoma receptacle filled with cleaned mussels (2kg) on top of locked in lid).
Step 4 - Add 200 mL of white wine by drizzling it over mussels.
Step 5 - Cook for 20 mins on Varoma temp, at Speed 1.
Step 6 - At 16 mins, pick out the opened mussels, keep cooking the rest.
Step 7 - most mussels will have opens by 20 mins mark. Serve with sauce poured on top, garnish with chopped parsley / lemon rind / finely chopped spring onions.

Note: upon testing different branded & variation (diced, whole) cans of tomatoes. Coles or the generic brand canned vegetables will be more watery. So reduce the wine accordingly.

Friday night didn't go according to plan...

It's not much to look at in
the TMServer

Borscht - generally following TM recipe.
Sadly I added 1 carrot & 1 parsnip so the soup probably wasn't as 'fine' / smooth as it should have been. Also added less water as the vegetable weight increased.

Dash of cream upon serving
& maybe a green garnish?

I only had two beetroots and that was quite enough. The carrot wasn't a great addition and was quite earthy as well. I shall remove this in future. The parsnip sweetness was drowned out, so sadly this didn't work as well as I hoped. But mom loved it. She says it's not as smooth as the one she remembers but the taste is almost there!

Yippee! so a few more tweaks and this could be the Russian Borscht of her memories! Guess what she's going to have on Mother's Day dinner? *sniggers*





Instead of planned risotto, I bought some mussels at Coles. These were fresh enough - tasted delicious. Yes there's a recipe in the EDC but it wasn't very tomato-ey, so I varied the recipe from the Recipe Community:


Chilli sauce:
4 cloves of garlic
1 red chilli (parents not into spice)
1/2 red onion
1 small brown onion, quartered
100g tomato paste
1/2 tbspn TM vegetable paste
1 can Roma tomato (whole, skinless)
300 mL of Chardonnay

Method:
1. Fine chop onions, garlic & chilli (7 seconds, speed 8)
2. Use spatula to scrape moisture off sides of bowl. Add 50mL of olive oil.
3. Sauté the mixture (3 - 4 mins, 100 C, speed 2)
4. Add tomato paste, TM veg paste, Roma tomatoes & wine. Close lid.
5. Place cleaned/de-bearded mussels in Varoma receptacle. Place on top of TM with lid. Steam (15mins, Varoma, speed 2).
6. Serve mussels in TMServer, pour in sauce.

Tip: works best if mussels can be cover or stirred & left to rest in sauce for a little while before eating.

I'm not big on the loads of fresh herbs like parsley and basil Or dried oregano - this drowns our the natural sweetness of the mussels. I thinks properly done chilli tomato/garlic sauce is the cleanest way to go.