Mussels in White Wine Sauce

My life has been quite chaotic recently, traveling between Hungary, Slovenia, Croatia, and Germany since I last posted. Now that I am back in New York, I should find myself with plenty of time for activities such as digital communication and blogging. w00t w00t! So here is a recipe from my travels. Rovinj, Croatia enchanted me thoroughly with its island views, seafood and truffle laced cuisine, and Venetian architecture. On one fine day we made a trip to the fish market to scout the bounty.


After much deliberation, we settled on mussels for our dinner. And the results were phenomenal.

1.5 kilo of mussels
3 cups white wine
3 big cloves garlic (chopped)
3 large tomatoes (chopped)
Olive oil
Pepper
Fresh herbs (parsley, rosemary, sage)
1 box linguine

Be sure to wash each mussel thoroughly. These guys can be full of bacteria, so it's worth the effort to scrub. Also, only use mussels that are closed. If it is open, poke it to see if it closes its shell in reaction. If it doesn't, it is dead, and you do not want to eat it.

Pour the wine into a large pot with a lid. Add garlic, tomato (keep some aside for topping the final dish), fresh herbs, pepper, and a small amount of olive oil to the pot. Let cook over high heat until boiling. Add mussels to pot and cover. When steaming, reduce heat. After about 5 minutes, mussels should begin to open up. Remove each mussel immediately after it opens so as not to over cook it and cause it to be rubbery. Some mussels may take much longer than others to open.


Once all the mussels are open, serve over some al dente linguine and cover with the sauce that the mussels cooked in. The shellfish will release all sorts of juices into this broth, so it will be salty and flavorful and amazing. Be sure to have some bread on hand for sopping it up. Top your linguine and mussels and sauce with some fresh tomatoes and herbs. Adriatic ecstasy.

Chicken Parmigiana

My kitchen has been a demolition zone for the last few weeks, so I have spent as little time in there as possible. Finally things are back to a state of serenity (at least we have a floor again), so I hit up the market and made something else delicious that we miss from the states: the chicken parm sub! w00t w00t! We actually found a place here in Budapest that does a decent job at this, but I knew I could do it better.

2 boneless chicken breasts, sliced thin
1 cup flour, season with salt and pepper
3 eggs, beaten and combined with water, salt, and pepper
1 cup bread crumbs, seasoned with salt and pepper
3/4 cup Olive oil
Tomato sauce
100 grams Fresh Mozzarella cheese
100 grams Scamorza cheese
1/2 cup Parmesean cheese, grated
Good bread rolls
Parsley

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

First, prepare the flour, egg, and bread crumb combinations in separate bowls. Take thinly sliced chicken breasts and coat them in flour, being sure to knock off any excess. Next, dip the chicken in the egg to cover it and finally roll it in the bread crumbs so the entire piece is coated in the batter. Do this for all chicken pieces. Next, heat the olive oil over high heat. Add the chicken pieces and cook in oil for about 2 minutes of each side, or until the chicken in cooked through and the outside is golden.

Spread good tomato sauce inside the sandwich rolls and cover with thin slices of mozzarella cheese. Generously arranged chicken pieces on top of the cheese. Cover the chicken with more tomato sauce and thin slices of scamorza chesse. Sprinkle entire sandwich with grated parmesean cheese and chopped parsley. Pop the sandwiches in the oven for a few minutes until cheese is melted and bread is toasted.

Heck yea!

Sausage and Peppers

This is another Hungarian-inspired dish. Here it is called Lecsó (pronounced Letch-oh), which is basically a vegetable stew composed of peppers, onions, and tomatoes. There seem to be a million variations on Lecsó, but here is my rendition.

1 large onion (cut into pieces)
2 cloves garlic (cut into small pieces)
5 banana peppers - or bell peppers (cored, seeded, cut into strips)
2 tomatoes (cut into small wedges)
1 tablespoon sweet paprika powder
1 tablespoon tomato paste
Salt
1/2 pound Hungarian sausage (cut into rounds)
Bread
Spicy mustard

Heat oil and sauté onions and garlic until the onion is translucent. Add the peppers and continue sautéing for 5 to 10 minutes, until peppers are soft. Next, add tomatoes, paprika powder, and tomato paste. Stir well. Salt to taste. Cover the saucepan and let it cook over low heat for 15 minutes. Add the sausages and cook for another 10 minutes or until sausages are hot. Serve on toasted bread or rolls with some spicy mustard.