Thursday, August 14, 2008

Jazzy Watercolor Mussels - Painting by Numbers; Ones and Zeros

Come with me on a jazzy journey into colors, shapes, and sounds. Old broken footage has been filtered and folded, softened and slurped. The unusable made useable, and now playing. Watch tapping, bobbing, swaying to swimming spoon, and fresh fills.

Close your eyes and watch the magic. Smell the notes, smell the teen spirit, and smell the garlic. Come with me on a jazzy journey into open shells and closed fists. Go ahead, brush your shoulders off.



Ingredients:
2 pounds mussels
1 cup of wine
1/2 stick butter
lots of minced garlic
1/2 tsp salt
pepper flakes
1/2 cup Italian parsley
bread and lemons


Eddie Harris "Compared to What" Part 1

23 comments:

Anonymous said...

We eat a lot of mussels, once a week, usually on Fri nights. PEI is a long ways off, aren't there any Pacific Coast mussels?

Chef John said...

Haven't check in a while, but when I did this filming a LONG time ago, that's all they had. Sometimes you see green lip, but I don't recall a plentiful WC mussel.

Anonymous said...

My mouth is watering. Mussels and some bread for dipping. Maybe a beer or white wine. Oh boy, I can't wait to prepare this dish. Of course I hate cleaning mussels but the end result is worth it.
Loved the background music but missed hearing your voice.

Anonymous said...

I shared this video with someone I knew who would like it, now - they want to know who's music is in the background?

Chef John said...

It's "Compared to What" Eddie Harris & Les McCann

Chef John said...

The mussels we get are actually very clean and rarely have any beards.

Anonymous said...

Yummy! Looks nice. Here in Belgium, the "moules frites" is kind of a national dish. It translates to "mussels with chips" ... yes "chips" because I'm English (I believe you would say french fries)... although even in France they mockingly admit that the holy mecca of chips is Belgium, so I guess that would make them Belgian fries. This is confusing, i'm off to sleep. I guess my point was, it looks great but I'd go for a nice heap of fries instead of the bread.

Anonymous said...

thanks Chef, got this from youtube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OawoYrv9OUY

Chef John said...

Thanks Bill, I'll post.

Anonymous said...

I don't like jazz but that was cool. Jazz, nirvana, and jayZ referrences all in one post? Very eclectic tastes there chef.

milkshake said...

The commercial mussels are clean because they are farmed - grown on strings in fact. Richard Garwin who almost single-handedly drew the design for the first US thermonuclear bomb ("Mike", 10 megatonn) also later built an ingenious hand-cranked mussel washer that removed all sand from wild mussels perfectly. But the said invention never made him rich because farmed mussels have no sand, and no-one picks the wild ones.

Anonymous said...

This post is so sexy... you are such a tease! I want those mussels soooooooo bad. I want to est them listening to Eddie, and I want that sauce to dribble down my chin. Sigh.

Nate @ House of Annie said...

That's really great music to go along with a great meal. I feel really good watching this vid. Good job, Chef!

Anonymous said...

Hi John,
Those mussels sure look good! I have to agree with my "neighbour" from Belgium: serve those with big homemade chips!!!

PS: Maybe you could add a little warning not to cook mussels that are already open before cooking, and not to eat the mussels that stay closed afterwards... Believe me: you don't want to eat those!

Anonymous said...

wow that was pretty cool. good music and to the point, but I was surprised that you didn't say anything the entire video! haha. either way good video. I'll try some day if I can get some mussels. Maybe next time I can get out to SF.

Anonymous said...

...sittin here havin some hot salsa and organic blue corn chips for breakfast...i turn to Chef M like i do first thing every morning, and what's he doin? Throwin down some mussels with the the classic Eddie Harris and Les McCann cookin up their own dish in the background! Chef, you are off the chain!! Love your blog!

Anonymous said...

it was pretty easy for me to post the mussels video to another site where my friend hangs out but how do you post the videos directly from youtube, I can't get the hang of it? Thanks

Chef John said...

on the YT page to the right there is an "embed" code. But, of course, you could just send them here to watch...so I get the traffic, and they can read all the other brilliant posts!

Anonymous said...

thanks!! It's more about politics than food in this instance. But, several commented on the mussels recipe so I do hope you get a few more viewers, at least till 2012 when all this is going to go away.

Chargeorge said...

This post made me realize something, my wife and i both love mussels, mussels are cheap, and sustainable, and easy to make. Why aren't we eating more mussels?

Hey look, it's almost time to go shop for dinner, mussels and roasted corn (CSA was a bounty this week) it is!

Carolina deWitte said...

This is how I make them too, except during the last few minutes I throw in a cupful of fresh, ripe, chopped tomatoes. Yum. And, there are PLENTY of mussles in WA anyway.

irrational said...

oh no! the video of jazzy watercolor mussels has been removed by the user :( please chef john, re upload this delicious recipe & vid ... i don't remember how i did it the first time :(

Chef John said...

Here you go! http://video.about.com/frenchfood/How-to-Make-Drunken-Mussels.htm