Tags
Around My French Table, Chinese Five Spice, Chinese French Fusion, Dorie Greenspan, french fusion, harusame, mussels, mussels in tomato sauce, Shrimp & Cellophone Noodles, vermicelli noodles
So Friday kinda snuck up on me again.
Before you know it, it’s Friday and nope, still hadn’t made this week’s French Friday assignment.
This week I was actually pretty glad I didn’t make it before everyone else had started posting about it because there was a kilogram of fresh, organic and the largest mussels I have EVER made at home in my fridge that needed to be cooked up into, well… something… and with the odd pairing of tomato puree, the Chinese Five Spice, noodles and shrimp just seemed to lend itself well to a sauce base for mussels.
Why not?
Most of the Doristas didn’t like this one anyways and this could be a great sauce for mussels.
Turns out it wasn’t half bad.
Due to the lack of spice that was described by some of the others, I went ahead and doubled the amount of 5 Spice… a bit hasty I think… it was a little strong for me. Maybe that’s why my stomach is a bit upset now? Meh, Emily has had a little stomach bug in the past day so I’m not sure if it was the mussels or something else entirely but I find it somewhat coincidental.
Once the onions and mushrooms were done (I went with Shiitake, no Chinese Ear mushrooms to be found here), I dumped in the crushed tomatoes (instead of puree) and let it come to a “boil” before I tossed in the shrimp and mussels and covered it, letting the shrimp cook through and the mussels open up to soak up the Chinese – French “fusion” sauce.
For the noodles, although I had the vermicelli noodles, the only ones I have are a HUGE package that we usually boil for pho so I used Japanese harusame noodles instead and mixed with the tomato sauce they were pretty good!
I’m glad I tried this but this is certainly not going on my “make-again” list. It was full of flavor and surprise but just not amazing – and the tomato sauce with the sesame oil flavored noodles wasn’t weird at all either, I was actually pretty thrilled with it! This didn’t go over too well with the other Doristas, but to see how it went over for them, click here.
If you would like to join in our cooking adventures, check out the French Fridays website here! You just need some enthusiasm, an appetite and a copy of Dorie Greenspan’s “Around My French Table!”
Yeah, I’m one of the Doristas that this didn’t go over so well for. Your version looks like an improvement, but I’m not going to try this again. Too many other recipes in the world that need cooking. Have a great weekend.
LOL I hear ya Betsy!
You are quite adventurous! I loved the 5 spice & shrimp combination, but the sticky noodles threw me off.
If they were sticky you probably needed quite a bit more sesame oil. I wound up using quite a bit actually…
Glad it worked out for you. Maybe the tomatoes in England are magical?
LOL I think the balance between the tomatoes and the sesame oil made it perfect actually… it made sense once I ate it, but then again I’m Japanese and this combination wasn’t unfamiliar to my taste buds once I ate it but it did sound TERRIBLE….
Alice, I think that the addition of fresh mussels to this dish sounds so delicious – what a terrific idea. We do like to eat mussels a lot around here and they go amazingly well with tomatoes!
Hope you are all feeling much better today!
Have a wonderful weekend!
Yes, I am! and yes the mussels do go well with tomatoes
Yum to the mussels! I just started loving those in the last 5 years and I order them whenever we go to a restaurant that features them! Glad someone else liked this one too!
LOL : ) Mussels are pretty darn tasty!!
Very nice how you made this recipe your own. The mussels are a wonderful addition. You were wise to make the changes. Your dinner does look good! Sorry you’ve not been well at your house and hope you are all feeling better.
Thanks Krissy, we are feeling better today
This recipe just begged to be changed a bit I think!
Your dish looks so good with the mussels! I’m glad you enjoyed this one and that you were able to improvise with it. This is one of the recipes that benefited from tweaking.
Yes it certainly was!
I love the idea of adding mussels to this! I think that would make having all that sauce more worthwhile. Everything looks so terrific on the plate. I’m still disappointed about my noodles – I doubled the amount of sesame oil suggested for them, so I’m thinking I just overcooked them. Next time, I’ll stick with what I know I like! Nice work on this one, Alice!
Thanks Sara! I think I probably used 1/4 C of sesame oil in the end… but I also waited to cook them until I was ready for them too… oh well, yes the extra tomato sauce seemed to suit the mussels well! Otherwise it would have been too much for sure!
Yes, Yum to the mussels-they look pretty in the red sauce with a few shrimp tossed in for good measure!! I’m glad you enjoyed this dish;-)
Thanks Patty!
I didn’t mind this dish either. It wasn’t amazing, but it was ok.
Yeah it was, wasn’t it?
That dish is amazing and those mussels are huge. Great job.
YES! they were huge!!
I don’t eat mussels but I understand how they would work here. Nice one Alice!
Thanks Mardi! I think they were the saving grace..
I love the use of the mussels!
Thanks!
Your changes sound like they made the dish much more palatable. I decided to skip the tomato altogether! Hope that stomach bug has gone away now.
Yes the stomach bug didnt last long at all! Thank goodness! I dont blame you for leaving out the tomato!
I just made this myself a few weeks back (and blogged about it for the month of Dorie that my friend and I just blogged about). Thought the flavors were surprisingly delicious, but I added too many noodles and soaked up too much of that tasty sauce! Not sure if I’d make it again, so agreed with you on that one!
It’s weird that you added too many noodles… LOL oh well
how many of the recipes in the book did you wind up cooking?
Not a fav here. But I love that you added mussels to yours.
LOL, certainly not a fave here either but good enough to eat for one night!
The addition of fresh mussels sounds really good! Your dish looks quite delicious!
I had also made changes to this recipe. Just couldn’t add the tomato puree…didn’t appeal to me with the Chinese 5 spice.
Hope you are feeling better!