Tag Archives: recipe

Mussels in Simple Red Wine Sauce Recipe (with pictures)

Posted on by
Reply
Three Ingredient Red Wine Sauce

Three Ingredient Red Wine Sauce

My wife is not fond of mussels.  If I want mussels it means cooking them on my own.  Normally I just steam up the mussels and have at it.  I was out at a local restaurant having mussels when I realized that I needed to add a bit of pizzaz to my mussel eating experience.   What I needed was a simple red wine sauce for my mussels.  By simple I mean really simple, something a bachelor could do with the ingredients he’d have on hand.  It need to have next to zero prep time.

At first I looked on the internet to see what recipes I could find.  There were a bunch of recipes but they all involved lots of prep and lots of ingredients.  What I’ve come up with a three ingredient red wine sauce recipe that’s ready in 15 mins.

Mussels in Red Wine Sauce

Mussels in Red Wine Sauce

Prep time – none, if you don’t count the shopping.
Cooking time – 15 min
Serving Size – enough for one pound of mussels

Simple Red Wine Sauce Ingredients

  • 200 ml (one full wine glass) of dry red wine
  • 125 ml (half a small bottle) of Kraft Sun Dried Tomato Oregano Dressing
  • 200 ml (half a tin) of stewed tomatoes
Simmering Red Wine Sauce

Simmering Red Wine Sauce

Equipment Required to cook red wine sauce

  • large sauce pan
  • big wooden spoon
  • measuring cup
  • wine glass (required to hold additional wine ;-)

Simple Red Wine Sauce Cooking Directions

  • pour the red wine into the sauce pan and bring to a boil
  • add dressing and stewed tomatoes
  • turn down heat to medium and simmer for 10 minutes
  • stir occasionally

How to Cook Mussels

Steamed Mussels

Steamed Mussels

The key for cooking mussels is to steam them not boil them.

  • place one inch of water in a large pot
  • bring the water to boil, can take 10 minutes depending on size of pot
  • add mussels to pot when the water is boiling vigorously
  • It will only take a few minutes to steam the mussels
  • the mussels are ready when they have opened wide
  • do not over cook the mussels as they get rubbery

Do not eat any mussel that remains closed.

Scottish Tablet Recipe (with pictures)

Posted on by
8

It was Robert Burn’s 250 birth day last week.  True he isn’t alive but us Scots like to keep his memory alive.  The celebrations got me thinking about a treat my mum used to make called tablet.  Most Canadians call it fudge but it isn’t fudge.  Tablet is basically and excuse for eating pure sugar.   You will not lose weight eating tablet!

Before you undertake to make tablet you must heed this:  It takes time and you must be vigilent!  It takes about an hour to make tablet or maybe a bit longer and it requires you to stir the pot the entire time.  You can’t make it in a hurry or you will spoil it.  Burnt tablet is not good.

One more warning:  you are boiling sugar.  It gets VERY hot.  No matter how good the tablet tastes during the cooking DO NOT stick your finger in the mixture.  The way my mum tested the tablet was to drop some in a glass or bowl of water.  Kids will love the treat but keep them away from the stove.  I can’t tell you how many times I did not heed this advice to my detriment.

Ingredients for Scottish Tablet

Ingredients for Scottish Tablet

Tablet Ingredients

  • 1kg white granulated sugar
  • 1 tin (appx. 400g) sweetened condensed milk
  • 100g unsalted butter (must be unsalted)
  • 1 cup of milk (you can substitute water but why bother?)
  • 1 teaspoon of vanila extract (optional)
Equipment Required to cook Tablet
  • large pan, not non-stick
  • big wooden spoon
  • large shallow baking tray
It doesn’t take much does it.

Tablet Cooking Directions

  • Grease the cookie sheet, do it now as you won’t have time when you need it
  • Add the sugar to the pot and damp it down with the cup of milk
  • Now add in the condensed milk and butter
  • Bring the mixture to a boil on medium high heat
  • Keep stirring, and don’t stop!
  • Everything starts out white, over time it will turn a carmel color.  It is this color that tells you when it is ready
  • If you get dark patches you have burnt the mixture.  You can tolerate a little of this but not much.
Scottish Tablet Color Change

Scottish Tablet Color Change

  • once the mixture boils, in about 10 mins, you can turn the heat down
  • keep stirring
  • watch for color changes
  • after about 15 minutes on low heat the color change should be readily apparent
  • somewhere around 20-30 minutes of stirring will get you close to cooked
  • you are looking for that all important carmel color
  • be careful not to burn it
  • If you’ve had tablet before now is the time to taste it, if you haven’t already
  • this is when I add the vanilla extract
  • If the color has changed and the taste is right pour it in to the greased cookie sheet
Finished Scottish Tablet

Finished Scottish Tablet

  • spread as evenly as you can
  • once it’s set a little bit you can mark the top
  • try marking one inch by one inch squares ( I tend to make my squares too big and regret it later)
  • let the tablet cool, if you can wait that long
  • put a tea towel over the cookie sheet and flip it upside down, hopefully the table will fall out
You now have delicious tablet like my mother used to make!