Dinner with Gui - The Beginning

A really good friend decided he wants to learn more about cooking, so we came up with the idea of cooking dinner together every night this week. (except for tuesday night cuz we have a party to go to)

I thought it would be fun to document the dinners and post the recipes we used. So here's menu #1. I hope you enjoy it as much as we did. (pictures coming soon...)

Roasted Garlic and Triple-Cream Brie on Golden French Bread Slices
Steamed Mussels in a White Wine Sauce
Gigantic Steamed Artichokes with various dipping sauces

I got the Brie and white wine from an amazing cheese shop on Cole St. called "Say Cheese"

Roasted Garlic Recipe:
INGREDIENTS:
1 head of garlic (nice and firm)
2 tablespoons olive oil

DIRECTIONS:
1. Prehead oven to 425F.
2. Remove the outer papery covering of the garlic. With a sharp knife slice off the top of the head so most of the cloves are exposed.
3. Place on a square of aluminum foil for easy cleanup, or select the smallest baking dish you have.
4. Drizzle the oil over the cloves then fold the foil over the head to completely enclose it, or cover the baking dish with foil.
5. Roast for about 45 minutes, until the garlic is completely soft and lightly browned
6. Allow to cool a bit, and then squeeze the butter goodness on to toasted bread.


Steamed Mussels in White Wine Sauce
INGREDIENTS
2 tablespoons butter
1/4 cup shallots, minced
3/4 cup dry white wine
3 pounds mussels, cleaned and debearded
1/2 cup chopped fresh parsley
ground black pepper to taste

DIRECTIONS
1. In a medium stock pot, heat butter over medium heat. Add shallots and saute until translucent.
2. Pour in wine and mussels. Raise heat to medium/high and steam mussels until shells open, about 5 minutes.
3. Pour mussels and cooking liquid into a serving bowl, sprinkle with parsley and freshly ground black pepper to taste. Serve immediately with toasted bread for soaking up the sauce.


Steamed Artichokes
We have a pressure cooker which makes steaming artichokes really easy. I just rinse, trim the stem, cut them in half, stick them in with water up to the trivet and then cook over high heat for about 8-10 minutes depending on the size of the artichoke.

If you dont have a pressure cooker you can place them in a vegetable steamer, covered, over boiling waterand steam for 35 to 45 minutes, depending on size. The artichokes are ready when one of outer leaves can easily be removed.

I love to dip my artichoke leaves in Veganaise (vegan mayonaise). Gui introduced me to a new dip that he grew up with. I'm not sure what the exact portions are, but its basically a bit of olive oil, white vinegar and salt. I'm sure you could mix till it tastes right to you.