Moules frites

We had mussels the other day, and they were delicious.  We ate them with a modified version of french fries - I cut the potatoes into sticks, and pan fried them in bacon grease until they were crispy and brown on all sides.  This has got to be one of the most delicious ways to eat potatoes.  Ed tried making an aioli for dipping the fries, but I wasn't a huge fan of it.  Even the one made with beer (he tried three different kinds) wasn't all that great - I just don't like mayo.  The mussels, however, were awesome.  We cooked them with a whole bunch of delicious stuff, and the broth was awesome.



The mussels started with a piece or two of bacon, chopped up, and with the fat rendered out.  We used that to cook the potatoes.  Then we sweated an onion, toasted some garlic, and added a diced fresh tomato and a whole bunch of kale.  Into that went two pale ales, and some salt.  Once that was boiling, we added the mussels, put on the lid, and cooked for 5 minutes.  Pull from the heat and enjoy!  The broth was quite good when soaked up with toasty bread.



The "fries" were pretty easy, just cut up the potatoes and fry on all sides until they're crispy golden brown.  Salt as they come out of the pan.  For the three kinds of aioli, Ed did this in the food processor. I think it was just an egg yolk, and then he drizzled in olive oil while the processor was running, but I could be wrong.  He ended up putting it into three separate bowls to make a tarragon one, a spicy one (red pepper flakes and grains of paradise), and a beer-flavored one, which obviously got a lot runnier.

I gotta remember that mussels are a cheap and delicious way to feed myself protein!  yum.