Mexican Salsa

This recipe for Mexican Salsa brings together 4 large tomatoes or 8 small romane tomatoes, 1 large red onion, 2 limes in a practical dish for home cooking. It takes about 10 min to prepare and cook. It makes approximately 8 servings.

Moule Frites (Mussels With Chips)

This is served everywhere you go in France & Belgium, particularly on the coast. However I most recently ate this at ‘La Grande Braderie’ in Lille where it is the specialty dish, it was fantastic! For the chips I have used my own recipe for chips as I a) prefer them and b) they are much healthier! Traditionally the ‘frites’ would be deep fried. I hope you enjoy the recipe!

Moules Frites – French/Belgian Bistro Style Mussels and Chips

I adore Moules Frites – for me it is quintessential French and Belgian Bistro food at its best – plus I love tactile eating! You can treat yourself to Moules Frites anywhere in France and Belgium, and for most of the year. I often make the “Moules” part at home – Moules Marinière – but now and then, for a treat I also do the “Frites” bit as well……chips or French fries! Serve these with lots of paper towels or napkins, and a glass of chilled white wine would be the perfect accompaniment! I bought special Moules Frites dishes, as shown in the photos, but a couple of bowls would be fine – and don’t forget a large bowl for the shells. If you really want to be 100% authentic, it is de rigueur to serve the frites with mayonnaise my dear…..sinfully good! Vive la France! Historical Note: Did you know that French Fries are really Belgian? Deep-fried chipped potatoes (“fries” in American English; “chips” in British English) are a very popular food item – and one which the Belgians claim to have invented. They are called frieten in Dutch and frites in French, whatever the name, they are my guilty pleasure!

Greatest Chips (French Fries) on Earth

I saw this technique in the series Kitchen Chemistry by Heston Blumenthal and thought I’d share it here. Obviously the quantities don’t matter just do as many as you want. You’ll need a thermometer to do this recipe properly, but for the pre-cook you can just use a meat thermometer and could probably get away with guessing the warm versus hot oil temperature. I personally used bran oil but I think peanut oil would be another good choice but nothing wrong with just using regular vegetable oil either. I used a wok, Chinese scoop and infrared thermometer for the deep frying which is a neat way to deep fry using the more expensive oils because you need less oil in total and don’t feel so bad using fresh oil every time. Anyway back to the recipe, the title came from the series and after trying them I think I’d have to agree with Heston. Not as much effort as it sounds and really worthwhile.

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