I've decided to have a seafood feast during a Sunday afternoon. There are times that life gets so fast pace, we take for granted all that our home provides. It not just a place for shelter and rest, but it's also a place of gathering together sharing unforgettable memories. I've been wanting to do this for so long. Just buy tons of seafood, cook them up, drink tons of wine, and have cigars by the balcony with a glass of Hibiki 17.
I got these lovely Pacific oysters from the Asian market at 89 cents each. I wanted to get these, because they bake extremely well which is what I wanted to do with them. I just give them a quick scrub to remove any dirt and lay them to drain in a basket. I covered the counter with butcher block before shucking these bad boys to make clean up hassle free (totally recommended).
For my seafood feast, I made some compound butter the night before. Just 2 sticks of butter (8oz) set at room temperature so it can soften. I minced up a whole bunch of garlic and parsley to mix into the butter followed with salt to taste. I rolled this back up in saran wrap and left it in the fridge overnight for the flavors to marry. I used this to bake with my oysters and to cook into my black mussels.
Sliced baguette with olive oil for mussels.
Shrimp seasoned with salt and pepper
These were the black mussels. In the same pan where the shrimp was cooking, I added a big pad of my compound butter to deglaze the pan. Mussels are added along with a lot more compound butter (trust me, it's good). When everything is started to get all bubbly and beautiful, I poured in about 1/2-3/4 cup of white wine. Season the broth to taste as you go. The crostini will be used to dip into this sauce.
The beautiful seafood platter. Oysters had a heaping teaspoon of compound butter. Lay a foil on top of the tray and bake on the top rack at 400 for about 20 minutes.
My brother and his fiance prepped some Geoduck Sashimi
Mussels topped with parsley.
The 2 wines paired for the seafood. Stag's Leap has a more complex, dry, flavor - a bit herbaceous with hits of apple/pear. The Groth was sweeter and smoother with stronger notes of apple/pear. These 2 were great pairings, and I honestly recommend you trying both of these Sauvignon Blancs to figure out which one you liked the most. I say, it really depends on your mood.
There were a total of 6 of us. Everything went to plan and ended with some comforting flavors such as coconut pineapple with berries.
Our night day didn't end there. We decided to head over to Costco to pick up some steaks for dinner. Cooked that up with some asparagus and guzzled on some red wine... and the boys went out to get more cigars.. OH and we had a coffee cake for dinner.
That's all we did I promise. So.. on that note, I recommend all of you to visit your butcher and the man at the seafood market. Grab fun ingredients. Doesn't have to be fancy. Keep it simple, but get an abundance of seafood because the satisfaction it comes with it is unforgettable.