This page will be devoted to COOKING, particularly, grilling. It will have some tasty receipes, and will welcome yours. It will be up-dated soon. Please check back.

Clay pot cooking, a technique perfected by the Chinese, is well suited to seafood. In this simple Thai dish, mussels, layered with fragrant herbs, are steamed open to remain briny, succulent, and sweet. Finally, sparked with a garlic-chile condiment (there are six garlic cloves and eight chiles in the paste!) they are truely set afire. Thai basil and kaffir lime leaves are available in Asian food markets.

• 2 1/2 pounds mussels (debearded and scrubbed)
• 1 cup fish broth
• 4 stalks lemongrass, cut into 2-inch pieces
• 8 medium shallots, thinly sliced
• 1/2 cup fresh Thai basil
• 9 fresh kaffir lime leaves, center vein of each removed
• 8 garlic cloves, chopped
• 3 to 4 small red chile peppers, chopped
• 3 to 4 small green chile peppers, chopped
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon sugar
• 3 to 4 tablespoons lemon juice
• 2 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro

Rinse the mussels in several changes of cold water. Discard any that have opened. Drain.

Pour the fish broth into a 2 1/2-quart clay pot. In alternate layers in the pot, arrange roughly 1/3 of the mussels, 1/3 of the lemongrass, 1/3 of the shallots, 1/3 of the Thai basil, and 1/3 of the Kaffir lime leaves. Continue to make layers with the remaining mussels and herbs. Cover the pot and bring to a boil over low heat, for 2 to 3 minutes. Increase the heat to high for 5 to 6 minutes, until the mussels have fully opened. Discard any that do not open.

In a mortar with pestle, pound the garlic, chile peppers, salt and sugar until they form a paste. Stir in the lemon juice and sprinkle with the cilantro. Spoon a dab of the paste on each mussel or serve the paste alongside the mussels.

Serves 4

For many more ideas check out some of my favorite sites: The Food Network and Grilled Foods

Also try:
MarthaStewart.com
For good things for the holidays.

Wine.com
Wine for the holidays, or anytime.

Music: "Stir it up" Bob Marley

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