Now this is a dish that may well be considered an acquired taste; it is in fact the outcome of my longing for both ‘moules marinieres’ & ‘spaghetti vongole’ on an autumn afternoon in New Delhi, where neither of the two is available, and thus in an attempt to satisfy my cravings, I jumped into the kitchen and knocked this little beauty up for myself.
The principal ingredient i.e. imported tinned smoked mussels, brand John West, is fortunately widely available in New Delhi, and so I began by running off to the market and buying myself a tin … the rest of the recipe unfolds below.
Ingredients
First and foremost gather all of your ingredients (IMAGE 1) for the shellfish cream sauce … below are the measurements for 2 portions. The shellfish bones I have used are those left over from filleting trout, in addition to some of the unused claws from my soft shell crab recipe. But please note, you simply have to go to INA market and ask for a heap of fish & seafood bones, shell and other scraps … the more, the merrier the flavour.
YIELD: 2 Main Course Portions as part of a 4 course menu
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 350 to 500g fish & shell fish bones, shell & scraps
- 2 tablespoons butter
- 6 garlic cloves finely chopped
- ½ teaspoon chili flakes
- 2 teaspoons lemon juice
- ½ cup white wine
- 1 cup double cream
- 1 tablespoon finely chopped parsley
- 10 smoked mussels
- 150g spaghetti (in this case I decided to use gluten free pasta, (white corn flour, yellow corn flour & rice flour), brand Anmara, available at Nature’s Soul store, 27, Defence Colony Market, New Delhi … but you can use any pasta you like)
Method
Since I have the restaurant habit of pre-cooking pasta, I tend to do it at home too. Anmara gluten free pasta needs to be boiled for 12 minutes to be the right consistency (STEP 1), i.e. just over al dente, (make sure to take out a couple of teaspoons of the water and reserve them – STEP2), then drained (STEP 3), plunged into cold water (STEP 4), drained again (STEP 5), and tossed in a bit of olive oil – best using your fingers – (STEPS 6 & 7) to prevent sticking. It is now ready to be added to, and reheated in the sauce before serving.
And onto the sauce we go. Place the olive oil in a pot over medium heat (STEP 1), add the fishes bones, shells etc (STEP 2) and saute until browned (STEP 3). Then remove with a slotted spoon (STEP 4), turn the heat down to low, add the butter, then the garlic (STEP 5) and chili flakes (STEP 6), saute briefly, then the lemon juice (STEP 7) and wine (STEP 8), raise heat and bring to a boil, then lower to a simmer and let it reduce by half (STEP 9). Then add the cream (STEP 10) and let it simmer until the sauce is thick enough to coat the back of a spoon (STEPS 11 TO 13) … 10 minutes approximately.
And now onto the final part … what I like to do is to place some of the pasta sauce directly onto my plate once it has cooled down, so that is exactly what I have done, using an open round mould (3.15 inch diameter x 2 inch height) (STEP 1). Then using a slightly bigger one, (4 inch diameter) drizzle the chive oil inside the gap between the two (STEPS 2 & 3) (please refer to the carrot tartare recipe, for the sub-recipe of Chive oil).
Then open your tin of mussels, and finely chop your parsley (STEPS 4 & 5).
Reheat the sauce on low heat, add the pasta water (STEP 6) and stir in with a wooden spoon, then add the parsley and mix in (STEPS 7 & 8), then add the pasta (STEP 9 – please note, the images are of 1 portion), raise the heat to medium and toss through vigorously using a fork (STEP 10).
Then place half the pasta inside the mould (STEP 11 – I removed the mould earlier, only for the purpose of demonstration), top with 3 smoked mussels (STEP 12) add the rest of the pasta and crown with two more mussels (STEP 13) and garnish with some pretty microgreens … as the heat of the pasta heats the base of sauce, it will flow into the chive oil, creating a beautiful design, for an absolutely delicious dish (FINAL IMAGE).
Above: Final Image