Food Orgy; Mussel Beach

Michael has been out of town on business for a few  days. Although I don't relish the thought of cooking for myself and dining alone, I do enjoy plunging myself into a self indulgent food orgy when he is gone.  We have widely different  tastes  in food, so when he is away I get to eat everything I crave.

The cravings usually involve seafood and are always spice driven. I have posted on mussels before during  Lent and the seemingly endless weeks of meatless Fridays.  The batch I made for both of us during Lent was very tame and quite straightforward.

Not this time around. Nope. Nada.  I adore mussels.  Any preperation.  Any sauce.  Anytime.

I drove to Charlies Fresh Seafood shop after work to secure fresh mussels.  While waiting  for the mussels to be bagged, iced, and tallied, I ordered Jalapeno Hush Puppies from the restaurant side of the shop, home of "the Biggest Fish Sandwich" in town. On the way home with my shellfish nestled on ice, I ate hot spiced hush puppies from my lap with squirts of carryout commercial tarter sauce drizzled over the top.  Messy, but oh so good.  Hot sweet fried corn puppies with specks of jalapeno popping through. The tang of fake tart tarter sauce  soothed my tongue. My drive home amuse bouche.

The food orgy was on.

Whetted and wanting more, I dove right  into dinner prep.

Mise en Place.

I pulled out the big guns for the sweet plump mussels.  While they rested in the refrigerator on ice, I thinly sliced Vidalia onions, jalapenos, garlic, roma tomatoes, and green peppers as aromatics.  Once the vegetables sauteed until caralmelized and tender, I added Korean red chile paste, Chinese black bean sauce, oyster sauce, sesame oil, fish stock, and white wine.  After the sauce reduced and simmered, I threw in  rice noodles ( lazily uncooked) and torn cilantro.  Once the sauce came back to a boil, I scattered the mussels in the pot, sealed the lid, and let them steam open  The aroma was killer.

When all the mussels had opened with shell arms reaching out, I dumped the entire pot into a very large serving bowl and squeezed several fresh limes over the top to brighten the sauce.  I added a splash of rice wine vinegar, ponzu soy, and  fresh minced cilantro to finish.

The huge bowl of sauce covered steamed mussels was all mine. Draped in my Heddy Lamar silk pajamas, I sat down in front of the television and devoured it. I learned as a kid to eat mussels with my fingers, using the empty part of the shell as a spoon to scoop the meat from the other shell side.  The ideal utensil. One swift scoop, lick, slurp, and the shell was clean. Plenty more. One after another. The mussel zone. Scoop and suck. Over and over with noodles slapping and sticking to my cheeks.  Some of them were thick with sauce.  Some wrapped with rice noodles and peppers. Some were left empty when the mussel meat fell  into the sauce, making perfect sauce spoons. Each one plump, briny, and sweet, cutting through the blazing fire of the sauce.  Firey hot. Aromatically spicy.  My hair follicles tingled from the heat. My nose ran. The fresh lime juice and rice wine vinegar balanced the rich tomato soy chili paste sauce, cooling it a bit. Just a bit. It was perfect.

They were perfect. I was happy.

I was happy and covered with all of it.  I couldn't and didn't stop eating until they were gone.  I drank the remaining sauce from the bowl and used a slice of skanky plain white Baby Bunny bread to wipe the bowl clean.

I finished the meal  with a pint of Ben & Jerry's Peanut Brittle Ice Cream.

Epic food orgy.