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For Good Friday, I decided to have some friends over and cook up a fun meal. The menu was as follows:

• Tuscan-Style Artichokes
• Cast Iron Mussels
• Teriyaki Chicken Wings and Drums
• Garlic Roasted Potatoes on Rosemary Skewers
• Grilled Asparagus
• Double Cut Lamb Chops and Cucumber sauce

Shopping

We bought most of the ingredients at Costco. The mussels came in 5# sacks at the special kiosks they set out Fridays and Saturdays. I asked the lady about it and typically the seafood is flown in on Friday and most of it is sold out by Saturday mid-afternoon. Pretty neat, and makes me feel that their stuff is really fresh. I took a look at the lot tag on the mussels and it said that they were harvested the day before which only impressed me further. The wings we got from the fridge section and they were in 6 packs ready to be frozen. I got both a pack of wings and drumsticks thinking we’d need both. Lamb was the usual racks. Got three of em.

Preperation

Back at home, I took the mussels out of the bag and put them in a mixing bowl and put a moistened towel over it and placed a bag of ice over that. You never want to submerge shellfish in water as that will kill them very quickly. While prepping the chicken, I learned that the wing actually contains three sections — the tip, winglet and drumlet. I prepped them for marinating by separating them into the wings and drums and discarding the tips. The marinade recipe came from the Weber book and sat in the fridge for about 1.5hours.  The rest of the prep work was fairly straight forward and consisted of cleaning and mixing together other marinades.

Cooking/Grilling

For the mussels, I fired up the gas burner and put the cast iron skillet on it to heat up on high for about 5 min. After giving the mussels a quick rinse under water, I put a decent portion in a wok and tossed in chopped garlic, kosher salt and a good portion of oil. Tossed it a couple of times and put it on the smoking hot skillet. I then used the wok to cover the skillet and let the mussels cook and steam in their own juices. About 2-3 min later, they were opened up and the flavors succulently concentrated. IMO this was the best dish of the night. I got this idea from the cast iron mussels appetizer that was at a local Italian restaurant. They served it on a cast iron plate similar to a fajita plate. The chicken and potatoes I handed over to a friend to cook on the grill while I was doing the 3 batches of mussels. Later, I cooked up the lamb which were double cut portions. First time around they were undercooked (which is better than overcooked as you can always cook more but not cook less). And underseasoned. So the second round, I added some kosher salt and turned up the heat. After a couple of minutes I opened the lid and saw a flame on the catch pan underneath. Apparently the drippings from previous sessions combined with the fat of the lamb caused a fire to spew forth. I finished the lamb and poured the salt over the fire to put it out. Lesson learned — don’t neglect the catch pan. It should be cleaned every 5 times or so. Totally my fault.

Evaluation

As I said earlier, the mussels were probably my favorite. I suspect my guests liked it the most too. Next time I’ll have to find a way to keep the skillet clean for the subsequent batches as it was difficult to clean the juices that burned onto the pan and keep it from adding a stronger and stronger char to the next batches. I might add shallots next time and hit it with a shot of clarified butter just as i’m taking it off the pan to impart some more flavor.

The artichokes were a good idea, however it turned out to be undercooked and tougher than I wanted. I think parboiling then marinating then grilling would be a better route next time.

The chicken marinade was great and it turned out really well. No complaints here. The potatoes however, might benefit from a par boiling to make them moister or perhaps cooking at a lower temperature next time.

The lamb meat itself was good, but I spoiled it by not salting it enough. Probably going to utilize a meat thermometer next time until I can get the doneness down by feeling the meat (like I can with a steak). Gonna stay away from marinades and just go with garlic, salt, pepper, rosemary/other herb. And maybe try a leg of lamb instead.

Asparagus was ruined by a bad recipe. Way too much acidity. The reviews all gave it 5. Perhaps they have different tastes.

When I was planning out the menu, I didn’t want to just have everything be salt/pepper, but after the meal, I think it would’ve been a good way to go as each ingredient still has it’s own flavor that the salt and pepper merely enhance instead of homoginize. All in all, i’d give myself a C+/B- rating as nothing was burned or overcooked.

Postscript:

I added a link in the food reference section on mussels. The way I cooked the mussels is referred to as La Cagouille style. A very versatile ingredient with lots of flavor.