Mussels Five Ways and other Superbowl Snacks

Everyone, I'm Chef Dennis Littley and welcome to Around the Kitchen Table. We're starting up on a new day and a new time this year, and I hope you enjoy the show today. Susan will not be with us, she's not feeling very well and she's up in snowy New York. I'm living the good life down here in Orlando where the skies are sunny, although it is about 60 degrees today. It is a little nippy. For Floridians, but I'll take that anytime over the snow and the cold that the Northeast has been battered with. Well, we're getting ready for the Super Bowl, and if not the Super Bowl, if you just want to have a get-together around your house, you need some snacks, I've got some ideas for you today about what you can serve at your next party. Now we're going to start with a really simple idea, and that's my mussels.. And I have mussels 5 ways today. So let me switch this over, and there you go. And I've already started some of them because I want to get them in the oven and I want to show them to you before we start, or before we end the show. So we'll get them for you today. Excuse me if I'm a little rusty, it's been a month since we've done these shows. But you can top these mussels with just about anything you want, and these are New Zealand mussels, alright, and that means they've got like a greenish shell— tip this over so it don't fall— a green shell on the back. There's a pretty hue to it, and they're a little bit meatier. They're a little bit bigger than typical mussels that you'll find in a black shell. Now you can find these in your grocery store pretty simply if you go to the frozen food section, the seafood section, that's generally over by the meats, and that's where you'll see these little boxes of New Zealand Frozen mussels. And you can buy these, you can just steam them if you want and put them over pasta, but they make really nice hors d'oeuvres. They make really nice things to pass around and put on a buffet. And I'm just looking at the comments right now, so guys, hope you can see it okay. Susan Kawai saying she can't access it. Let's hope she can. Elena's in the house. Let's put these up real quick and say hi to everyone before we go. Hi, Elena. MJ is in the house. Ray Miller's here. Michael Thomas is here and he's saying hi to everybody. We've got a few others coming in, so we'll hope you enjoy the show today and we'll get started again. Oh, there's Susan. Let's see if she's coming in. There she is.

Hi there.

Hey, Susan.

Hi, can you hear me?

I can't hear you though.

Oh no. Okay, just a minute. You go ahead. Just a minute.

Alright, I'm going to go ahead while Susan gets the sound started. So anyway, I've got mussels here and I wanted to top them with a bunch of different things so you could get an idea of what you can do with them. So we already told you they're the New Zealand, they're nice and plump. Now I have a pesto that I happen to make up ahead of time. I had— so I've topped one with pesto. Real simple. I just spread it on.

Can you hear me?

And bake it.

Okay, you can't hear me.

So that's one of them I did. Another I did has marinara sauce, real easy to do. Any spaghetti sauce or pizza sauce you might have and then top it with a little bit of shredded mozzarella. Now these are garlic mussels. And what I did with this was I melted some butter.

How about now? Can you hear me?

Switch over. Yeah, I melted some butter.

Okay, can you hear me?

And I sautéed some garlic in it, and then I'm just gonna mash this onto it. It's usually easier with the hand, kind of put it in. That's what we used to do in the restaurant because we'd make so many of these. And the trick is to get this butter to solidify some but enough not so wet that it's mushy. These are very simply Diablo mussels. What I did was I put a little olive oil on them, a little grated cheese.

How about now? You hear me now?

A little crushed red pepper, and they're good to go. Last but not least, I thought why not do a buffalo mussel. So I'm going to pour some hot sauce on this, get a little bit of blue cheese, top it with that, and then they're going in the oven. Alright, so let me pop these in the oven and then we'll move on to something else. So they're really easy to make. Hopefully Susan will come back. Really easy to make. You can use any kind of topping that you like and make them your own. You can make all one kind if you want. You can make different kinds. You can just season them up with different things. Anything that you can put on top of it. And this works really well with either clams or oysters. So think about those toppings if you want to do anything else seasonal seafood that you might have. You want to do some clams on a half shell and then bake them. You can bake them a variety of ways just like I did with the different toppings. So remember, we had a pesto, marinara with some cheese, a diablo, which is really just oil, hot pepper, and some grated cheese. I did a buffalo sauce one, and I did— that's about it— and a garlic butter one. And that was really one of my favorites, especially when working with oysters. I love garlic oysters. Actually, the first time I had garlic oysters was down in Florida. At a place that they used to have, a dockside place in Disney. I can't remember the name of it right now, but it was a great place to go sit by the water over by the marketplace and have these garlic oysters. Love them. I always made them for people. Alright, so you could hear Susan, guys? I couldn't hear her. I wonder why. Must be me then. It's not Susan. Okay, so hopefully Susan will join us back. Usually I have my sound off and that's why, but looks like everything's good today. Let me check one last setting. Hopefully we'll be good to go. Susan, can you come back in? Please, you're not disrupting it. Come on back in and we'll go on with it. Alright, so that is my mussels, and that was mussels 5 ways. But feel free to make them any way you'd like. Alright, now another really simple treat, and I like to make these pretty much all the time, is roasted chickpeas. And these are great because they're really low in calories depending on what you put in them. But what you want with the chickpeas is you want to drain them really well, and that's a garbanzo bean. Then you want to towel dry them because you'll see there's not almost any moisture in this at all. So I did take some paper towels and I dried them off with the paper towels and let them sit for a while. So now all I'm going to do is I'm going to season them up. Today what I did was I just took some brown sugar. I want a sweet and spicy chickpea. So I took some brown sugar and I mixed it up actually with just some very simple Montreal steak seasoning. I've got a peppery, salty, sweet seasoning here. I'm just going to put this in with the chickpeas. I'm going to mix it around, get a nice coating on it. These are nice and dry except for that. Then I'm going to spread them out on my sheet pan like so. You'll see, I'll switch cameras so you can see. And there they are. Alright, so you can see they just spread out. You could do a couple pans, you could do them different, you can put any kind of seasoning, but really they're just kind of a little dry. A little room so they have room to breathe here. I've coated them fairly well with the seasoning, and I may toss them in a little bit more when it's done, but that's it. Now, you could use Old Bay, You could just use sea salt. You could use a little garlic powder. You can use pretty much anything that you want on there. So just add stuff into the seasonings and the chickpeas, and then they're going to go in the oven. Now the trick with these in the oven is you want them to roast, and they're going to get a little brown and a little crispy. You just don't want them to burn. So I'm usually in there for between 30 minutes and 45 minutes depending upon how hot your oven is or how your oven is. So let's put these in the oven and we'll move on. And those are really— you'll be surprised, people will have no idea what they are when they're eating them, especially guys, because it's a healthy thing. And you know, most guys, you're not even going to want to think about eating chickpeas. So they're gonna eat these and don't tell them what they are until after they've decided they like them. But it's a really nice snack. Alright, so moving on, we have some wings to make. It really wouldn't be Super Bowl without wings. And you know, I was gonna make my buffalo wings. I've made them before, I've done different sauces, and I've been making them for years. But today I wanted to make something a little different, and I thought about a marinade, and I remembered someone had made a different marinade with vodka at one point, and I wanted to try something a little different. And I have Mexican roots, so I thought, why not try some tequila? And what goes better with tequila than lime? So what I did was I had my wings and I cut them up, and I did separate them. You know, I saved the little wing part of it for soup, for sauces, to make something with them later, threw them in the freezer. Then all I did was I put my wings in the Ziploc bag. Now I'm very simply going to add in my different seasonings. I have a couple of tablespoons of sugar for the marinade. I'm going to put in some sea salt. We're going to put in some cracked— or no, some pepper flakes. Sorry. A little more salt in there. Maybe a little pinch of black pepper. Okay, and then I'm going to add in the liquid. Now first I have some tequila, Jose Cuervo Gold. Add that in. I have some lime juice, and all the recipes for this one are on the page, you can see. And we're going to add in a little bit of olive oil, and that's it. So now what I'm going to do is I'm going to Ziploc it back up, and you can do this in a bowl if you don't want to take a chance on the Ziploc. We're going to do this, and then we're just going to mix it around a little bit. And I'm holding it so it doesn't open because knowing my luck— see, there's another bit scoot out anyway. But knowing my luck, I would have it all over the place, and I don't want to waste that. So anyway, we're just going to massage it a little, mix it up a little, let everything get tossed and mixed And you can mix everything up in a bowl first and then pour it over it, or you can just do it really simply like this. And you can like put it right back in a bowl and then refrigerate it. You want to refrigerate it for 4 to 6 hours. Now I put it in a bowl just in case it tips over or leaks, that way we don't have a mess in the fridge that I have to clean up. So this I'm just going to leave out while we're doing it, but that'll go in the fridge and it'll sit and it will be dinner tonight. It's about 12:12 right now, so I've got plenty of time for it to sit and marinate. Now, actually, you can let them marinate overnight if you have the time, and they'll come out a little bit better. Alright, great. So now we're moving right on. The show is running a little too fast, and that's because Susan's not in here to help with some nice comments and everything, and it's just me kind of talking to everybody. We have here some comments. Real— Aslan Bloor, yay tequila! Yeah, thanks, Lynn. I know that everybody's wishing Susan to feel better. Michael Thomas, thanks. Aslan said garbanzo equals chickpeas. That's right, Nazim. Chickpeas, garbanzo beans, you name them any way you want to talk about them. Lena, mamma mia, che buon Bonta? All right, I will go with that one. So thank you all. Nazim's here again. They look like garbanzo beans. That's correct. Michael Thomas is talking about Montreal seasoning. It is my favorite too, Michael. I love it. And Susan, she's taking a hit for the team here, watching food and just in the midst of a stomach bug. Oh, I know how that can feel. Well, feel better, Susan. And Let's move on. Alright, so right now I'm going to make some hummus. Now hummus is really easy to make, and one way to really get some different flavors into the hummus is to add a little bit of another item into it. Plain hummus is wonderful, and I will tell you the secret to making a really good hummus, and I don't have it today. I went to get it in my cupboard and I am all out of it. It's lemon pepper. I generally use lemon pepper instead of lemon juice, and depending upon the brand that you get, you know, it can be a really nice addition to your hummus and really add a little zing to it. So today we're going to make some hummus, and it's really very simple. I've again got some garbanzo beans, chickpeas, and they're going into my food processor. I have 2 cloves of garlic, and I'm just going to puree these up a little bit. With a little bit of tahini paste. Tahini paste is sesame tahini, this one is. One thing about this, let me show you with this camera. When I get this can, this is like a solid block in here and the liquid separates. You might find that. Now you can just pour a little liquid in. I like to try and get it into some semblance back to what it's supposed to look like, but I'm not going to spend all day with it. So at this point, I'm just going to add some in. You can eyeball it, you can measure it. I do have some specifications there for what you like. I've been making this so long that I kind of know the flavor that I like. All right, I'm going to mix this up. Squeeze a lemon since I don't have my lemon pepper. Let me mute it while I'm mixing. Okay, it's coming along nice. It's a little dry, so I'm going to put in a little bit of oil. Actually, I'm going to do it while it's running. This is almost like when you make pesto, you add oil in to get enough moisture. Sometimes I use the juice from it. Now I'm not going to get it real, real loose because I'm going to add some more moisture in with these roasted red peppers. So now I'm going to put in my roasted peppers. And pulse. Now we're going to add a little bit of oil in, nice consistency, the peppers all mixed up. Mm, wonderful. Needs a little salt, a little bit of salt in here, and we're in good shape. And that, my friends, is how easy it is to to make hummus. So if you've never made it, this is how you do it. Real simple in a food processor. Get a nice consistency to it. And then all you need to do is get yourself some pita and cut them up into squares, oil them up a little, little salt and pepper, throw them in the oven and make some nice pita chips to go with it. Or you can buy some store-bought crackers or pita chips to go with it. Susan has got a kitchen tip here. Meanwhile, a few kitchen tips: do as much make-ahead as possible, design your foods to the colors of the team. My son-in-law is a Syracuse fan, and for one game I got him all blue and orange colored foods. Add some spirit. That really does— good idea, Susan. Plain hummus is good enough with lemon and our garlic works for me. But a few different types of hummus. And one of my other favorite hummuses is to add a little pesto into it. Pesto makes a really tasty hummus. Roasted garlic is really a nice flavor. You want to hit it with a little more garlic and do roasted garlic, and you'll really be enjoying that. So that's pretty much it for my hummus. So I'm just going to move this aside. And we'll bowl that up later. Move everything over. And what do we have? We've done our wings, we've done our mussels, we've done our hummus, and we've done our roasted chickpeas. And really, you've seen how easy it is to make all those different things that quickly. Things you can make ahead of time, things that you can serve your guests, and you know, they'll really enjoy them. Let's see how our mussels are doing. They are just about ready. Need just a little bit more time. And, um, I would say we'll take some questions from Susan, but she's out there in the audience. So if you do have any questions for me or Susan, now's the time. Tell you what, maybe I can bring Lynn in here for a few minutes, see if we can get her in. Or Susan, would you like to try and come back in, or are you still not feeling good? I'd like to say hi also— Richard Clarkson's in the house. He likes the Ziploc bag method. Stan Bush, are you using deflated freezer bags? Stan, yes, I am using deflated freezer bags. Thanks. My favorite was I saw a picture of— who's their big lineman for New England? I can't think of him right now, but they said they had a deflated him because he was so big, but he looked a little smaller. And Ray says it sounds like a great wing mix. Thanks, Ray. It is pretty, pretty tasty. Getting different flavors. And again, you know, everybody loves buffalo wings, and they're my favorite, but to make something a little bit different, a little bit more flavorful, make people sit up and take notice a little bit more. Ray's saying, "Those are some excellent snack foods for the Super Bowl." Well, thank you, Ray. Let me see if we can get out my wings— or not my wings, I'm sorry, my muscles. Give you a peek. They don't take very long because the mussels are cooked already. There we go. Wrong way. That's right, one way or the other. And there we have our mussels 5 ways. We have a Diablo mussel which has olive oil, little Parmesan cheese, and some red pepper flakes. We have a garlic mussel which just has garlic sautéed up in some butter, and you could throw a little parsley in there for color if you have it. And here we have a marinara, an Italian mussel, Italiano let's call it, since it's got spaghetti sauce and cheese on it. This is a pesto mussel, and if that looks like a little bit too much pesto for you, if you think it's going to be a little too strong, you can always dilute it with a little olive oil and make it a thinner base, and then it will be a little more— it won't be quite as heavy. And then of course, I think this is going to be my favorite, and that's the buffalo mussel. Buffalo mussel has hot sauce on it, and actually I used Frank's RedHot wing sauce. You know, if I'm making buffalo, I do have a recipe for that, but for the mussels, I thought that was fine. You don't have to go to a lot of trouble. And then just some blue cheese on top, let it melt, and you have a really tasty combination. And Susan is saying, don't forget the paper goods for the team colors. Very good suggestion. And more— some more kitchen tips from Susan: keep it simple, don't get overwhelmed, since after all, Super Bowl is much a food holiday as others. There's always the big-ass hero sandwich. I love that, 6-foot long. That's perfect with my snacks to be the all-stars. So, you know, yeah, I do enjoy those. And we actually have a Wawa right down the road from us, and I didn't look to see if they had their 6-foot hoagie. That's one of the things that they were always famous for up in my neck of the woods when I lived in the Philadelphia area. And Nazim says, muscles look amazing. Tell Lisa I'm dropping by for dinner. Wait, I'm in Italy, forgot. I wish you could You could, let me tell you. We do have an extra room for you here. "Showing the mussels without being able to share is just pure torture." Well, I wish I could share them with you, Ray. Like I said, these mussels are easy to make. "Mussels look fantastic. The pesto mussel is mine," says Susan. Thank you. They are easy to make. Just look for those New Zealand mussels in your grocery store. I know I got them at Wegmans before when I was up north. Most supermarkets have a pretty good seafood section now where they have some different items, and generally you can find the New Zealand mussels, and they're cooked already. They're on the half shell, so there's a lot of things you can do with them. Even if you just want to serve them steamed, you know, in a sauté pan with some garlic butter, that's fine. Whatever is easy for you. But this is something you can actually set this up ahead of time, put it in your refrigerator, you know, do a sheet pan of them. And just pop them in the oven. And they really only take 10-15 minutes to get nice and hot and to serve because they're cooked already. So it's a wonderful way to put some food on the table really quickly and have a good time doing it. Well, friends, that's about it for today. I think I ran through things quicker than I thought they would go. Please enjoy your weekend, whether you're watching American football or not. The Super Bowl will be on, but if you just have a party over, want to have some friends over, these are great snacks. The hummus is really healthy and tasty. The roasted chickpeas are really a wonderful treat, and believe me, the first time I tried them, I had no idea they were going to be that good, and they really are addictive, and they're better for you than eating potato chips. So try some of those in your house, and if. You may be a convert to chickpeas like I was. Have a great week. Enjoy the weekend. I'll be back on Friday with Good Day Google+. Susan will be back with us next week as we start to get ready for Valentine's Day. We're either going to do Valentine's Day or the Mardi Gras. I'm not sure yet, but we'll be back for that. Aslan is asking, "Would this work with oysters?" Yes, Lynn, they work wonderfully with oysters and with clams. So if you want to do clams or oysters instead, they're great that way. So have a great week, and I'll see you soon around your kitchen table.