Pasquale's Mussels and Spaghetti with Mussels

Not my recipe this time, but rejigged and reblogged from Ιστομαγειρέματα. Thanks to postbabylon for this.

How to clean and prepare live mussels
Take the mussels and pull gently but firmly the little 'beard' they have. When you do this, the mussel closes.
DISCARD the ones that haven't closed after a few minutes. Give them a good wash, cleaning them of barnacles and whatever dirt they may have. Ready to cook.

For Pasquale's Mussels (serves -in our case 2 +2 next day)
1 kilo of mussels
1 large onion or 2 small ones, chopped
2-3 cloves of garlic, chopped
1 can of tomato + 1 carton of passata (if you have nice and over-ripe tomatoes it's clearly better)
2 whole dried chili peppers (or chilli flakes)
Salt & pepper
The original said sugar, but I didn't put because I used...
...1/3 of a bottle of medium white wine
Fresh parsley if you have it, chopped

In a large saucepan sauté onions, garlic and chili peppers in some olive oil. Add the tomatoes with a drop of water (if you're using passata) and allow to simmer for about 10 minutes, or until it's reduced. Add the mussels, wine and salt & pepper, and allow to cook for about 15 minutes (they say 5 for mussels but I'm not taking any chances). All mussels should have opened by now. DISCARD any that haven't opened-getting food poisoning isn't worth it :-)

Serve with some rice and sprinkle your freshly chopped parsley on top.

Spaghetti with mussels (or mussel sauce)
You will have either a fair quantity of mussels left, or maybe just the sauce.

Re-heat the mussels. In another saucepan boil some spaghetti. Drain the spaghetti and return to the saucepan. Using a soup ladle, take the mussel sauce and mix it with the spaghetti, until you're happy it's enough. Serve the spaghetti with the mussels on top. Italians in general don't go for grated cheese with seafood, but Mrs M. grated some parmesan none the less.

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Hamsili Pilav (Rice with Black Sea anchovies)

A lovely Black Sea dish, lovingly prepared by Mrs Blackbeard. Κυπριακά δαμαί.

Ingredients
500 gr hamsi/fresh anchovies
We find these in a Kurdish shop round the corner. I guess you could use sprats or small sardines even...
2 cups of rice (I used paella rice-anything will do)
Mint
1 onion, diced
2 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
Fish stock if you have
Olive oil

Execution
In a saucepan, lightly fry the garlic and onion in olive oil. Add the rice and give it a stir. Add plenty of mint. You can use dill instead, and even pine nuts-we just didn't want little Blackbeard choking on them. Add 2 cups of water/fish stock for every cup of rice, add salt and allow to cook slowly until all the water is absorbed.

If the hamsi are not cleaned, clean them and open them up, removing the central bone. Lightly oil an oven dish and make a layer of hamsi with the skin side down. Also cover the sides of the dish, creating basically a lining of hamsi. Fill it with the cooked rice and seal the thing with another layer of hamsi at the top. Drizzle the top with olive oil. Bake in the oven for 20 minutes at 200 degrees. Eat.

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Fish Chowder

This my take on what is a lovely, wholesome dish. I tried a lovely version in Saratoga Springs in 2007, but wanted to make a version without the bacon rind. I hate mixing seafood and meat.

Ingredients (serves 4)

For the stock

Heads of 4 sea bass

2 carrots, chopped

2 celery stalks, chopped

2 cloves of garlic

(if you have more fish off-cuts and heads, use them)

For the soup

400gr of white fish, I used coley, cut in large chunks

1 onion, cut in strips

2 cloves of garlic, finely chopped

parsley, chopped (separate the harder stalks from the leaves)

some sweetcorn

prawns (shelled)

mushrooms (quartered if small)

[shelled mussells if you have them-I didn't]

3-4 medium-sized potatoes, cut in cubes

In a saucepan, boil the ingredients for the stock for about 30 minutes. In the meantime, heat some olive oil and butter in a different saucepan, shallow fry the garlic and onions for a few minutes. Add the potatoes and parsley stalks and stir for a few more minutes.

Remove the fish heads from the stock and pure it in with the potatoes, adding hot water if necessary. Add salt and pepper. Boil for about 15 minutes or so. When the potatoes are cooked, take some out, mash them and leave them aside. Add the mushrooms, prawns and sweet corn and cook for another 10 minutes. Add the chunks of coley and simmer very gently for about 10 minutes (or until you're happy with it). Return the mashed potato in the mix, stir gently, turn off and allow to stand for about 10 minutes. Serve with a sprinkle of the fresh parsley and crusty bread.

(note: I chose not to use milk or cream as I find it culturally challenging to mix dairy and fish. Soups don't always have to be cloudy.)

Octopus stew

This is a dish suitable for the Greek lent, since seafood is allowed. Serves 3-4

Ingredients
2 octopuses
5-6 onions, thickly cut
2-3 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
4-5 bay leaves
black peppercorns
2 cans of tomato (or plenty of ripe tomatoes)
Olive oil
1/3 glass white wine
1/2 glass red wine vinegar (approx.)
Salt

To soften the octopus, cut into pieces and boil in a pan for 30 minutes and drain (keep the broth, we need it later). In the meantime...

Lightly fry the garlic and onions in a large, deep pan (which has a lid). Add the boiled octopus and the bay leaves and stir for 3-4 minutes. Add the wine and let it cook for 3-4 minutes more on low heat.

Add the tomatoes, peppercorns, vinegar and some salt, and some of that broth you had from boiling the octopus. Put the lid on and let it simmer for 90 minutes, or until the octopus is really tender. Check every now and then so that the liquid doesn't run out, add some more water if it does. If you don't like vinegar much, use less.

Serve it with rice. You can use the octopus broth to make the rice, it makes it yummy.

Sea bream in white wine

Marinate your sea bream (the longer the better) in lemon juice and salt. Have chopped mushrooms, onions and a couple of cloves of garlic. Use white wine, any really, as long as it's not too sweet. Heat a little olive oil in frying pan and put your fish in, shallow frying for about 5 mins either side. Throw in the chopped mushrooms, onions & garlic, and with the fire low cook for another 4-5 minutes. Throw in a couple of large glasses of wine, or until the food is almost covered. Bring the fire back up until it starts simmering and then put on low again. Let it simmer with the lid on for about 20 minutes. Serve with rice, a tomato & rocket salad and a nice Pinot Grigio. You can usually find that what's available on the market is from farms and probably a bit fatty, so don't use much oil in frying it. If you have too much oil, empty it out before you add your veg.

Sea bream is also called durade and is very similar to sea bass in flavour. Italian: orata, Greek: τσιπούρα (tsipoura), Turkish: Çipura.

Ingredients:
1 sea bream per person
chopped mushrooms
chopped onions
chopped garlic
Dry or medium white wine
Olive oil
Lemons
Salt