There is a first time for everything...mussels, pesto and cupcakes, oh my

It's been a busy weekend and a weekend of firsts - the first time I've cooked mussels, the first time I've made pesto and the first time I found a cupcake recipe I liked!

I've always enjoyed shellfish, must be a West coast thing - scallops, langoustines and mussels are favourites of mine. I've cooked scallops hundreds of times, barbecued langoustines in the Western Isles but I've never tried to cook a mussel. I think I have been put off by the idea of eating a bad mussel or eating them in the wrong month! We went to the Living Food festival at Cawdor Castle and I got some live mussels from Dry Island Seafood. Watching them give a demonstration of how to cook mussels I thought "how hard can it be?"..and do you know what? It is easy!

The only difficult part of cooking mussels is the cleaning - remove all the hairy threads or 'the beard' and try to clean off any barnacles (good luck with that by the way). Once they are clean and bald (!) follow this recipe:

Moules Marinière

Pile of mussels

1 garlic clove, finely chopped

1 onion, finely chopped

15g butter

Sprigs of fresh thyme

1 bay leaves

200ml  dry white wine 

Handful of chopped parlsey

Serve with Crusty bread 

Add your wine, garlic, onion and herbs to a pan. Bring to the boil. Add the mussels. Steam with the lid on for 4 -5 mins until all the mussels are open...then serve! Easy!

The other culinary challenge this weekend was set by our out-of-control Basil plant which was threatening to take over the kitchen. I've always been a little afraid of trying to make Pesto but faced with the triffid in our kitchen I thought it was worth a shot.

I am a huge Jamie Oliver fan, I've decided I want to have a collection of his cook books and have been buying the older books from Ebay or Green Metropolis. I dipped into one of his older books and found this wonderful Pesto recipe which I can highly recommend. It is really simple and I can't explain how wonderful fresh pesto is. I don't think I will be able to go back to shop-bought pesto. It doesn't have a very long shelf-life but that won't be a problem because it's too good to not eat! Incredible with just plain pasta...yum.

Ok, so that brings me to the cupcakes. Regulars of this blog and anyone who knows me will know that I have a real problem with cupcakes in this country. We don't make cupcakes, we make fairycakes. Cupcakes taste utterly different - the only way to explain is the sponge isn't sweet and the icing is light, fluffy and pure sugar. Anyone who wants a true cupcake should head to Magnolia Bakery, Bleeker St, New York. Then you will never look back. So, in my quest to find a real cupcake recipe I was delighted to find this genuine recipe from the Magnolia Bakery. It works! It's the best cupcake recipe I have tried. The sponge is light and not too sweet - I think the difference is unsalted butter. Try it and tell me what you think...
I'm going to stock up on cupcake cases and decorations and keep practicing until I get it right!

So, what did you get up to this weekend?