Mussels...

If you are out to impress with your table manners, don’t serve mussels in the shell. To really enjoy every drop of deliciousness, you must pick them up in your fingers and slurp!

Tangy Mussel Soup, Asian style

A bag of frozen New Zealand green-lipped mussels in the shell is a great standby to keep in the freezer. To thaw, tip them into the sink (empty) and leave for 15 minutes. Then remove any visible hairy beards by pulling firmly with your fingers. There is no need to rinse frozen mussels – you will just wash away flavour. Fresh mussels, however, need to be immersed in water to remove sand.

FROGBLOG TIPS

• To keep mussel meat tender, do not overcook - 60 seconds max, whether steaming, simmering or barbecuing.
• If feeling fainthearted about shells, use fresh or frozen mussel meat (though it is not nearly as much fun).

raw mussels, thawed and de-bearded

TANGY MUSSEL SOUP – Asian style with lime, chilli and fresh crisp vegetables (top photo)


A clear soup to serve over steamed rice or your favourite noodles. Excellent with bean thread or rice vermicelli.

Serves 2

Time: Five minutes preparation to cut vegetables; 10 minutes cooking.

You will need: Medium saucepan with lid; cutting board and sharp knife; lemon squeezer.


Ingredients:
Small onion, peeled and chopped as for stir-fry (in strips, not diced)
medium carrot, cut into thin strips
handful of green vegetable (zucchini, beans, broccoli stem), cut into thin strips
2 cm piece fresh young ginger root, cut into strips
green leafy herbs to taste - could be Thai basil, sweet basil, coriander, Vietnamese mint
small red chilli, finely sliced
juice of 1 lime or small lemon, or 40 ml rice wine vinegar
¼ tsp salt or 20 ml fish sauce
fresh pepper
1½ cups (350 ml) water
splash cooking oil
≈ 1 kg NZ green-lipped mussels in the shell, with beards removed.


** Before beginning the soup, put rice on to steam, or prepare noodles.


1. In wide saucepan over medium heat, lightly fry onion in splash oil until transparent but not coloured.

2. Add all other ingredients except mussels (keep aside a few greens and chilli pieces for garnish), and bring pot to vigorous boil.

3. Drop all mussels in; shake pot to settle them into the liquid. When stock comes back up to the boil again, turn off the heat, put lid on pot and let sit on the stove for 5 minutes undisturbed.

4. Place prepared rice or noodles in base of deep bowls, and serve soup steaming hot on top.


WHOLE MUSSELS IN DRY SOUP – Spanish style

Cut vegetables into pea-sided cubes rather than in Asian-style slivers, and use couscous or pre-cooked short-grain rice as the carbohydrate base.
Serves 2
Time: 5 minutes preparation; 10 minutes cooking
You will need: medium saucepan with lid; cutting board and knife; juicer

Ingredients:
small onion, peeled and diced
≈ 1 cup diced fresh very ripe red tomato (or canned diced tomato)
medium carrot, cut into small cubes
green vegetable (zucchini, beans, broccoli stem), cut into small cubes
handful sweet basil and/or flat leaf parsley, roughly chopped
small red chilli
juice 1 lime or small lemon
¼ tsp salt
fresh pepper
1 cup (240 ml) water
splash cooking oil
≈1 kg NZ green-lipped mussels in the shell, with beards removed

Optional: ½ cup small whole olives, or 2 teaspoons diced capers (and omit salt from recipe).

** If using rice, cook before preparing soup. There is no pre-prep needed if using couscous.

1. In saucepan over medium heat, cook onion and fresh tomato in a little oil until onion is transparent and tomato mushy - about 5 minutes. If using canned tomato, cook onion first, then add tomato and cook hard for 1 more minute.

2. Add all other ingredients except mussels. Bring to the boil. Simmer 1 minute only.

3. Add mussels and shake pot to settle them into stock (doesn’t matter if not completely covered). Bring pot back to a hard boil.

4. Immediately stir in ½ cup dry couscous, or 1 cup cooked rice. Bring pot to the boil again.

5. Remove pot from the heat. Cover with lid and sit for another 5 minutes before serving.

MUSSEL MEAT in DRY RICE SOUP

Prepare as above, using the meat of 10 or 12 mussels, fresh or frozen.

Serve with shaved hard cheese.

This recipe is also a great way to cook white-fleshed fish such as cod, snapper or hoki. Cut fish into 3cm strips and add in Step 3.

FROGBLOG TIP – Plant rocket!

• Homegrown ‘wild’ rocket is a great thing to plant in the garden as the weather warms up. It is fast-growing, usually pest free and is a great addition to salads, sandwiches, stir fry and as a substitute in any recipe that calls for basil and/flat-leaf parsley. 
• Add in other salad greens and herbs that enjoy similar conditions – lots of sunshine, lots of water and a nitrogen-rich drink now and then to help with leaf production. In the tiny garden shown above (less than 3 feet square) are young plantings of parsley, rainbow silver beet, coriander, sweet basil, rocket in the middle, and shallots in front.
• If you haven’t got a garden, a pot will do. But don’t waste the space, add in other herbs (with rocket in the salad pot, shown, are bunching shallot, curly parsley and silver beet).

Next: Rocket pesto crusted fish with sweet potato chips

Simple octopus

WARM SALAD OF OCEAN-CAUGHT OCTOPUS, SLOW COOKED WITH LIME AND POTATO
Wild-caught octopus are slippery suckers but well worth the effort of wrestling with those tentacles. Slow cooked, they are tasty and tender. May be served chilled as finger food, bedded onto greens as warm salad, or as hot dish with a savoury-style rice.

For the dishes photographed, three octopus were used, each weighing about 300gm, and a simple fish stock. Chicken or vegetable stock can be substituted in, or lightly salted water. Preparing the octopus is a messy job but the recipe itself is very easy.

Cooking time: 1hour.
Serves 4 as a main dish; more for an entree.
You will need: deep frying pan or wide saucepan with lid; chopping board and knife; citrus squeezer; slotted spoon

Ingredients:
Whole ocean octopus ≈ 1 kg total, prepared and washed (see below for preparation)
4 medium scrubbed potatoes, cut into bite-size pieces
1 onion, peeled and diced
1 carrot, diced
1 stick celery &/or small red pepper , diced
¼ cup sun-dried tomato pieces, or ½ cup very ripe fresh tomato, diced
2 limes, juiced
large sprig fresh rosemary
1 tbsp diced parsley or sweet basil
1 tsp freshly ground black pepper
500 ml fish or chicken stock (or 500 ml water with 1 small level tsp salt/10-15ml fish sauce)

1. Add all ingredients except octopus and potato to deep-sided frying pan or wide saucepan. Heat to simmering (prepare octopus while this heats).

2. Add prepared octopus to sauce ingredients. Over low heat, return to simmering point. Just maintain the sauce ticking over on a slow simmer for 30 minutes, with lid on. (Boiling will toughen the octopus.)

3. After 30 minutes, add cut potato in a layer across the top of the pan. Continue slow cooking for another 30 minutes.

To serve as a warm salad: Allow to cool 10 minutes in the sauce, then lift out octopus and potato with a slotted spoon. Arrange on a bed of lettuce and salad greens. Dress with a drizzle of pan juices.

Frogblog Tip: Freeze remaining pan juices in 100ml quantities to add to curry, risotto, pilau or congee as stock as needed. The flavor is strong and delicious, but use judiciously so as not to overwhelm other ingredients.

To prepare whole ocean octopus:

It’s a good idea to spread open a newspaper on the bench and place the cutting board on that to contain the mess. When the job is done, just wrap up all the unwanted bits in the paper. Have a large bowl to hand for the flesh as it is prepared.

1. Cut the tentacles from the body, just below the eyes.
2. Cut off the hood above the eyes. Discard the 1 cm piece that holds the eyes.
3. Cut through the flap to separate tentacles from one another taking care to remove the hard black 'beak' at the centre point. Put tentacles in the bowl.
4. Cut the hood lengthwise down the middle. Pull out the inner workings and ink. Discard.
5. Rinse the hood pieces well. Cut each in half again. This allows them to curl neatly during the cooking. Add to the bowl.
6. Wash the prepared octopus pieces under running water.

To make a simple fish stock: In a pan lightly fry 1 diced onion and ½ diced carrot. Add 2 cups water, ¼ teaspoon salt, freshly ground black pepper, and a fish frame. Simmer 10 minutes. Discard fish frame.

SLOW-COOKED OCEAN OCTOPUS WITH SAVOURY RICE

Follow the recipe for warm salad of octopus. Instead of potato, use ¾ cup long grain white rice.
Add at Step 3, and stir in gently. Cook at a low slow simmer with lid on for 30 minutes.

Next: Muscle up for mussels...

Simple seafood...

Nothing can beat standing in a vegetable garden full of lovely leafy greens and ripening tomatoes, but the next best fresh-foodie thing a person can do is take a trip to a local seafood market and pick up a bundle of just-caught prawns and a few cleaned whole fish.

Goldband snapper

So, on a sunny Spring Sunday, Country Frog slipped down to the seashore to visit the seafood store, stopping to see the seagulls at Scarborough boat harbour where the fishing boats pull in with the fresh catch.

PRAWN SALAD

Serve with crusty bread, sea salt and freshly ground black pepper. No need to mess around with fancy dressings – let the fresh produce shine all on its own.

On a bed of fresh salad greens, toss down a combination of roughly chopped tomato, cucumber, avocado and mango or pawpaw. Top with a finely sliced salad onion if desired then add a double handful of fresh unpeeled cooked prawns. (The photo shows mango slices that were frozen from last summer’s crop, and so are slightly softer than fresh mango slices but just as tasty.)


SIMPLE POACHED WHOLE FISH
There is no simpler way to cook fresh whole fish.

Serves 2
Time: 5 minutes preparation; 10 minutes cooking; 5 minutes resting.
You will need: Large stovetop frying pan with lid; egg lifter


Ingredients:
1kg(ish) fresh whole white-fleshed fish such as snapper or squire (young snapper), gutted and scaled
Juice of 1 fresh lemon, and slices of lemon skin
½ teaspoon salt
½ - 1 cup water

1. Heat water, juice, sliced lemon skin and salt in pan until simmering. Lower the fish into the liquid, return to a slow boil and cook five minutes with lid on.
2. Carefully turn fish using egg lifter. Cook covered further five minutes, with lid on.
3. Turn the heat off and leave fish undisturbed in hot liquor for further five minutes.

To serve: Turn the fish again, very carefully and lift the fillet from the back bone in one piece. Lift away the bone, and serve the second fillet. Eat piping hot with salad, salt and pepper.

OPTIONAL EXTRAS – This makes a lovely light seafood dish to serve with fluffy white rice.

1 small onion, finely sliced
1 stick celery cut into fine strips
1 small carrot cut into fine strips
3 – 4 whole green prawns per person
fresh herbs to taste (basil, parsley or coriander)


1. Add onion, celery and carrot to cold poaching liquor, as above, and bring to boil.
2. Cook fish on one side, as above, then after turning, add green prawns and herbs to the pan. Increase the heat to keep the liquor at a slow boil. Cook for further five minutes, and rest five minutes.
3. Serve fish, prawns and vegetables onto a bed of rice, adding a little of the seafood stock as sauce/juice to moisten the rice.


Tip: Leftover rice can be added to leftover liquor. In a small saucepan, simmer 15 minutes with extra vegetables to make an excellent fishy congee (rice soup).

Back home on the farm, inspired by fish galore at the market, I found a couple of interestingly shaped stumps in the wood pile and painted them up to be outdoor coffee/beer tables. You’ve just gotta smile when you see a happy fish!

Next: More spring-season seafood – octopus and mussels

Spicy rice and lentil soup...

Rice and lentil soup

A soup for supper - not too heavy, but with enough substance to see you through whatever your dreams should demand of you.


Serves 4 - 6 as a light meal
Time: 10 minutes prep; 30 minutes cooking
You will need: Chopping board and knife; medium saucepan with lid; breakfast cup.

Ingredients:
½ breakfast cup dry green or brown lentils
½ cup long grain white rice
1 medium onion, peeled and diced
1 small cup of any diced mixed vegetables
1 tsp dry mixed spices (such as garam masala, 5-spice, Cajun spice)
or 1 - 2 tsp mild curry paste
4 cups water (or 3 cups water and 1 cup chicken stock)
1 tbs vegetable cooking oil
½ tsp salt or 2 tsp (10ml) fish sauce (see fish sauce tip)
Optional: Diced left-over cooked chicken or roast meat; or 3 - 4 raw chicken wings, cut into segments and with fat pads removed; or small handful cashew nuts/dried shrimp/fresh prawns; or anything else you would like to add.

Vegetables used in the photo above: ½ carrot, finely chopped; 10 cherry tomatoes, ¼ stick celery, shredded rocket and fresh coriander. Try zucchini, beans, broccoli stem, mushrooms - basically anything to hand.


1. Leave lentils in breakfast cup and fill to the brim with boiling water (this step reduces cooking time).
2. Heat oil in saucepan over medium heat; add diced onion and cook, stirring occasionally, until transparent.
3. Meanwhile, finely chop selected vegetables.
4. Add spice to onion; stir well. Add rice and stir to coat with oil and spice.
5. Add vegetables, lentils and soaking water, any extras, and 4 cups water &/or stock.
6. Bring to boil; reduce heat to fast simmer; stir well; put the lid on and come back in 30 minutes.

RICE AND LENTIL CONGEE

Rice and lentil congee

Same method as recipe above, but use 3 cups water/stock in total, and serve with crunchy greens or fresh shredded wombok to stir through.

Young wombok in the CF's veggie garden

 Recipe by Country Frog, posted by Town Frog

Soups - broccoli and lentil (but not together!)

Even in sub-tropical eastern Australia, August is a cold time of year so Country Frog has gone into hibernation for a few weeks and is doing some writing, last I heard.  Luckily she left some winter warmer recipes which are easy peasy but still feed my whole family. 

CREAMY POTATO AND BROCCOLI SOUP
A very, very easy winter warmer that can be made in a few minutes and served as a complete meal. Low fat, nutritious and delicious!

Time: 5 minutes preparation; 10 minutes to cook.
Serves 4 as a meal; 6+ as a starter
You will need: Chopping board and knife; medium saucepan; food processor or stick-mixer.

Ingredients:
1 large head of broccoli, chopped (including stems and stalk)
1 tsp mild wholegrain (seeded) mustard
1 medium washed potato per person, skin on and roughly chopped
1 medium onion, finely diced
1 cup milk (full cream, low fat or rice bran – but not soy as the taste is too strong)
1 cup water or chicken stock
Salt to taste (start with ¼ teaspoon as mustard is salty)

1. Put all ingredients into saucepan (pan should be large enough so that milk will not boil over); simmer gently for 10 minutes or until the onion is cooked.
2. Take a spoonful of vegetable from the pot and set aside to use as garnish; puree the remaining. If the mix is too thick, add more milk, stock or water and bring soup back to the boil again before serving. Taste for salt and add sparingly.
3. For a complete meal, serve with crusty bread and a slab of crumbly mature cheese. For a starter or light meal, serve with pappadams or toasted flatbread.





LENTIL AND VEGETABLE SOUP
Wholesome and hearty, quick and easy – this is a meal in one pot to feed the whole family on a blustery wintry day.

Serves 6 – 8
Time: 10 minutes chopping; 30 minutes cooking.
You will need: Chopping board and sharp knife; large saucepan with lid.

Ingredients:
1 large onion, peeled and diced
1 large washed potato, diced
≈ 4 cups other mixed fresh vegetables, diced (or frozen mixed veg)
2/3 cup brown or green lentils
water ( ≈1.5 litres)
½ - 1 tsp salt
1 heaped tsp mild brown curry paste or dry garam masala spice
1 tbs olive or other cooking oil

Great veggies: pumpkin, green capsicum, eggplant.....

1. Heat saucepan over medium heat; add oil and diced onion; cook until becoming translucent.
2. Add curry/spice and cook 30 seconds.
3. Add all vegetables and lentils, plus salt, and enough water to just cover.
4. Bring to boil; put the lid on; turn to low heat and simmer 30 minutes until lentils are soft.
5. Serve with crusty bread.

Veggies with orange and rosemary

Country Frog soup tips:

• Adding a good amount of diced potato improves the texture of the soup. The potato starch breaks down with boiling and acts as a thickening/binding agent. ½ cup of short grain or Arborio rice works well, also.

• Soup is the ideal way to use up end-of-week vegetables that have become a little tired-looking. Unless a vegetable is terribly wilted and rundown, it is still a storehouse of vitamins and minerals. Don’t waste food when you can make soup!

• Add any bits and piece of two or three-day old leftovers to the soup pot. Just be sure the pot comes to a good boil again, and for a few minutes, after adding. (Adding left-overs to a warm pot without re-boiling is not good kitchen practice. Bad bugs breed in warm damp places.)