Bacon Dashi with Mussels and Potatoes

"Man, you go through a lot of bacon!" Significant Eater exclaimed the other day as she watched me simmering half a pound of the good stuff to make the recipe for Bacon Dashi from Momofuku. 

"Don't worry, it's just a broth that contains the essence of bacon," I reassured her.  "I skim off all the bacon fat at the end, so it's actually not that bad for you.  Kind of like the idea behind Snackwells, but with much better flavor."

"Hmm, well that's a ton of bacon you have simmering.  Skim it well."

With the most persuasive tone I could muster, I said, "Don't worry.  And we're having mussels with it.  See? Healthy!"

"Wait... what's that?" She said skeptically.

"Just a little crispy bacon to top off the dish,"  I calmly answered.

She shrieked, "What! More bacon?"

"Oh yeah...sorry.  But trust me, it'll be worth it."

Tasting a mussel with a spoonful of broth, she said, "Wow...that's amazing."

"Bacon just makes everything better, doesn't it?"

Bacon Dashi with Mussels and Potatoes
Adapted from a recipe for Bacon Dashi with Clams and Potatoes from Momofuku

For the Bacon Dashi:

• 2 sheets konbu (dried kelp, available at Japanese markets) 
• 8 cups water
• 1/2 lb smoky bacon

For the mussels:

• 1 lb small fingerling potatoes, scrubbed
• 2 lbs mussels, thoroughly scrubbed and debearded
• 1/4 lb bacon, cut into 1-inch pieces
• soy sauce, to taste
• mirin, to taste
• 1/4 cups scallion greens, thinly sliced

Make the dashi one day ahead of time to allow the fat to bacon solidify so it can easily be spooned off:

1. Rinse the kelp under cold running water.  
2. Place the kelp in a large pot with the water and bring it to a simmer.  Turn off the heat, and let the kelp steep for 10 minutes.  
3. Remove the kelp from the pot and add the bacon.  Bring the water to a boil, then reduce the heat to a simmer.  Simmer for 30 minutes.  Remove the bacon and discard it.  
4. Let the dashi come to room temparature, then chill it in the refrigerator.  Once the dashi is chilled, spoon off the layer of solidified fat that will have risen to the top of the liquid.  Proceed with the rest of the recipe.

To cook the potatoes and mussels:

1. Cook the bacon in a large skillet over medium heat until it is crispy.  Remove the bacon with a slotted spoon and drain on it paper towels.
   
2. Bring the dashi to a boil, then reduce the heat to a simmer.  Place the potatoes in the dashi and simmer them until they are fork tender, 15 to 20 minutes.  Remove the potatoes with a slotted spoon and reserve. 
3. Bring the dashi to a boil and add the mussels. Cover the pot and cook until nearly all of the mussels are open, 8 to 10 minutes.  Remove the pot from the heat, and discard any mussels that do not open. 
4. Add the potatoes to the dashi to heat them through.  Taste the dashi for seasoning.  If it needs salt, add a splash of soy sauce.  If it needs sweetness, add a splash of mirin. 
5. Ladle the dashi into large bowls.  Place a few mussels and potatoes in each bowl and top each dish with the bacon and scallions.  Serve immediately. 

Mussels with White Wine, Shallots, and Pancetta

Cooking dinner in my apartment in the summer is always a challenge. No matter whether I use the oven or the stove, my studio will remain about ten degrees warmer for the rest of the night. I can only enjoy so many cold suppers, so I have a few favorite dishes for the summer that are studio-apartment friendly. One of those dishes is steamed mussels. The dish can come together in less than half an hour, and the most time consuming part is scrubbing and debearding the mussels. Making the dish does fill my apartment with the aroma of mussels and butter, but that is much more tolerable in my opinion than a hot apartment.

Feel free to experiment with the ingredients in the recipe. As long as you keep the ratios the same, there is an endless number of possibilities. Substitute Belgian beer for the wine, cream for the butter, or add a mix of herbs to the broth. So long as you serve the mussels with a crusty baguette (heated in the toaster oven, not the oven), you'll have an easy and enjoyable meal in the comforts of your cool apartment.

Mussels with White Wine, Pancetta and Shallots
Serves 2

Ingredients:

• 2 lbs. mussels, scrubbed and debearded
• 2 cups white wine
• 2 large shallots, finely minced
• 4 garlic cloves, smashed with the side of a knife
• 2 tbsp. olive oil
  
• 1/8 lb. of pancetta, diced
• 2 tbsp. butter
• Salt and pepper, to taste

Directions:

1. Heat olive oil in a large pot over medium heat. Add pancetta and cook until fat is rendered and pancetta begins to brown, about 3 minutes.
2. Add garlic and shallots and cook until shallots are soft, about 2 minutes. Season with salt and pepper.
3. Add wine to pot and bring to a boil.
4. Add mussels to pot and cover. Cook until most of the mussels have opened, about 6 minutes. Remove mussels from the pot and set aside in a large serving bowl, discarding any mussels that have not opened.
5. Bring liquid in pot to a simmer. Whisk in butter and taste for salt and pepper.
6. Pour broth over mussels and serve with a crusty baguette.

Flex Mussels

I recently made a trip to Flex Mussels, a recently opened Upper East Side (E.82nd St. b/w 3rd and Lex) outpost of a popular Prince Edward Island restaurant that specializes in what else but Prince Edward Island mussels. Being a Floridian, I am somewhat of a seafood snob and am all too often unimpressed by the seafood options in the Northeast. Nonetheless, Flex Mussels won me over on my visit.

The restaurant was packed when my girlfriend and I visited on a recent Saturday night. The the main room was booked for those with reservations, but the hostess sat us at the ledge in the bar room. The bar room is not particularly conducive to conversation as it is a fairly awkward arrangement in a loud room. Imagine being surrounded by other diners eating large pots of steaming mussels on a fairly narrow ledge, and you get the idea. It does not help that a mirror lines the wall behind the ledge, forcing you to stare at yourself during your meal. Not a particularly bad thing if you are a narcissist, but a little creepy if you're not.

Fortunately, the meal that my girlfriend and I shared was better than the surroundings. As a starter, we shared the "Burnt Fingers," a plate of fried calamari, shrimp, and oysters served with a spicy aioli for dipping. Being the fried oyster fiend that I am, I would have preferred a few more oysters than the two that were served and not so much calamari, but seafood proportions aside, this dish was an excellent execution of fried seafood. Each piece was perfectly cooked and the breading was crispy and well-seasoned. The fried seafood could have stood on its own without the spicy aioli which was still a nice complement.

As good as the fried seafood platter was, we were at the restaurant to try its mussels, the various preparations of which made up most of the menu. The menu reads like a global tour of the mussel industry, with preparations ranging from "Geisha Girl" (sake, green onions, pickled ginger, garlic, bird's eye peppers) to "Dubliner" (Guinness, toasted walnuts, caramelized onions). My girlfriend and I chose the Thai mussels (curry coconut broth, lemongrass, coriander, lime, garlic, ginger). The mussels were very meaty for PEI mussels, which I find can sometimes be so small that they are not worth the mess of eating them. The broth was well seasoned, although slightly too sweet; we would have preferred slightly less coconut milk and more spices. Sweetness aside, my girlfriend and I were still sopping up every last drop of the sauce with the crusty bread that came with our meal.

With the exception of the rare excellent key lime pie at a Florida seafood shack, dessert tends to be an afterthought at seafood restaurants. At Flex Mussels, at least one dessert is not to be missed: the fried dougnuts, which come in several flavors. My girlfriend and I ordered the chocolate doughnuts and meyer lemon doughnuts, and four hot doughnuts (two of each flavor) soon arrived. The doughnuts were superb: perfectly golden on the outside and light and doughy (in a good way) on the inside. The fillings were great, with the chocolate being our favorite. They were served with a vanilla bean custard sauce, which paired much better with the chocolate doughnut than with the vanilla. Our only complaint was that one of the chocolate doughnuts had very little chocolate filling, but the doughnut dough was so delicious that this was a minor issue.

Flex Mussels has a nice beer list comprised of bottles of domestic microbrews and Belgian beers. I would have preferred a selection of draft beers, but I was quite pleased with my choice of the Rogue Mocha Porter, a creamy beer with a nice hint of coffee. I will definitely seek out this beer for home consumption.

My only other complaint about the restaurant is an issue that every restaurant that specializes in steaming seafood dishes faces: the stinkyness factor. The restaurant itself does not smell bad, but after leaving, my girlfriend and I both noticed that our clothes smelled heavily of the onions, garlic, and spices that were in the mussel broth steam that was surely circulating throughout the restaurant. While Flex Mussels is not a very expensive restaurant, you must factor in the additional cost of dry cleaning your outfit when calculating the overall cost of the meal.

Overall, this Floridian was impressed with the seafood at Flex Mussels. It is not only a welcome addition to my neighborhood, but a welcome addition to the New York City restaurant arena.