Be Tasty. Be Ukrainian

Passport & Plate - Pilaf with mussels and herbs

Ukraine | Tuesday, March 11, 2014 | 5 photos

Ingredients
500gr. of long-grain white rice
500gr. of mussels
2 sliced onions
2 carrots
garlic
olive oil
100ml of white wine
50ml chicken stock
2 glasses of water
pinches of: salt, black pepper, cumin, paprika, saffron, barberry
bay leaves
Italian herbs
good mood :-)

 

How to prepare this recipe
Method in 5 steps:

1) Firstly, we need to heat the oil in a large cauldron pan with a lid. Add 1tsp of cumin, paprika, shaffron, barberry immediately. Then, add the 2 large onion (thinly sliced) and 2 chopped carrots and cook for 5-8 mins until soft and golden. Then cook until lightly browned.
2) That’s time to add garlic, which makes a special flavor. Fry over a medium heat for 3 mins, then add the rice, chicken stock, pinches of black pepper&salt and bay leaves. Stir everything together well and bring to the boil. Put the lid on and cook over a very low heat for 12 mins.
3) Now add mussels and a 100ml of white wine. Boil it for another two minutes.
4) Finally add long-grain white rice with Italian herbs and (after 10 min) mix alltogether in a pan with a couple glasses of water.
5) Turn off the heat and leave to sit and steam for 10-15 mins.

 

The story behind this recipe
“Love makes tasty food”, - that’s my own slogan during last year. I like food festivals, so I visited “Best Food Fest&Health Festival” in late 2012 and I fell in love there. During that days a cute girl noticed me at the Fest. Kate worked as a volunteer there. We made our day and after that we started dating.
I will never forget the day Kate’s parents met me for the first time. I should admit, that Kate’s mom is fond of cooking. Me and Kate presented culinary book of Juliya Vysotskaya on her birthday. She has already started to cook with this book.
What I learned spending time on her kitchen is that her home chef’s dish is pilaf. She told me the story: when she was a student (25 yrs ago), one of her group mate was from Uzbekistan, and he taught her how to cook pilaf in perfect way as in Uzbekistan chefs cook. I proposed my girlfriend to welcome her parents to our home. My aim was to impress my future mother-in-law with my variant of pilaf. I decided to cook pilaf with mussels for several reasons:
1) seafood is gaining popularity in Ukraine;
2) rice with mussels and a glass of good Italian wine is fantastic;
3) My girlfriend studied Italian and all her family loves Mediterranean cuisine, especially Italian ones.
4) I’ve never seen pilaf with mussels in Ukraine. Of course, lots of restaurants chefs do this, but personally I didn’t taste this kind of dish in restaurants;
5) I found rice with mussels to be magic as my love to Kate is.

What’s the result of my cooking and what was the impression of Kate’s mommy? Huh, I’ll tell you briefly and confidentially: I’m looking for a wedding soon ;-)
In conclusion, I’m confident that our love and friendship are unique. Me and Kate adore cooking every day. Sometimes we compete about who will do breakfast or supper. What is interesting, I heard about this scholarship from Kate. What a wonderful everyday life we have!
By and large, I would suggest to everybody: “Love makes tasty food, so don’t forget It{aly}. Bon Apetit!