French seafood dinner - 1/9/10

Since I had a wonderful dish of steamed mussels at the Fig Cafe late December, I couldn't get it out of my head and I've been wanting to replicate it since. Uly and I decided to go to Marina Food, our local Asian supermarket but unfortunately, they were all out of mussels. Good thing we decided to check out 99 Ranch, which was a slightly farther drive, but they happened to have some black mussels in stock!

Uly didn't really want to have just the mussels for dinner, so we also decided to also get some fish at the market. Having just watched Julie and Julia the day before, I was inspired to make some Sole Meunière, the dish that started Julia Child's love of French Food. Having looked at several recipes online, the technique seems pretty similar among all of them: dredge the fish in flour, cook them in butter, then after the fish is done, add more butter and brown it in the pan, finishing with some lemon juice. Pour the sauce over the fillets and garnish with chopped parsley and lemon slices, and voila, Sole Meunière! It was super good, maybe 'cause it tastes like buttah... :)

Continuing on the Julia Child theme, I decided to make a lighter version of Moules Marinière, based on her recipe in Mastering the Art of French Cooking, all I did was remove the butter (Ah, the sacrilege! Julia probably rolled over in her grave) However, since I'm on a diet and the butter wasn't central to this dish as it was on the Sole Meunière, I figured we could go without it this time. After all, some of the other internet recipes I saw don't have it, and I don't think the Fig Cafe had it for their dish and that was still good. Anyway, it was the wine that was the main flavor component of this dish. This dish still wound up really tasty, and I did not miss the butter at all. Good thing we bought a whole bunch of mussels...I wound up eating a sh*tload of them (so much for diet), but at least I finally satisfied my craving!

For our sides, we had some steamed jasmine rice with scallions, and some sauteed Brussels sprouts. The Brussels sprouts were also inspired by our meal in Sonoma, and I have to say it's turning out to be one of my favorite vegetables. I just like the slight bitterness that it has, and it's a very hearty and filling vegetable.

For the wine, we figure keep going with the French theme and opened a bottle of La doucette Pouilly-Fumé 2005 that Uly got from work (Thank you Keith Richards for your always excellent taste in French wines!) This wine is from the Loire region of France, just across the river from Sancerre. The grape used is Sauvignon Blanc, so it is a great match for fish and shellfish.



Here are some more pictures from our seafood dinner:


Moules Marinière


Sole Meunière


Brussels sprouts