Travelogue - Perth, Western Australia February 2013 (5)

I'm not dead yet! This is shit, I am still at my previous Perth travelogues when I am already heading there again this Thursday night! Bah.

And yes! I am back with my Chilli Mussels recipe! My virgin taste of Chilli Mussels was at Ciao Italia in Perth and every time I go to Perth, I would insist on Tex bringing me to satisfy my craving! This time round, I thought I have tasted enough to attempt to cook it on my own.

Ingredients:

• Fresh mussels (Singapore, if I am not wrong, only sell packaged mussels and they are normally small in size)
• Two whole onions (big ones)
• Garlic (Lotsa!)
• Chilli AND Chilli Padi
• Diced tomatoes (I used canned ones, again)
• Chicken stock
• Salsa chilli (if you'd like the stew to turn out a little sour)
• Red wine (Any sort, I tend to buy the cheapest, which is about AUD$4 a bottle in Perth, haha!)
• Dash of white vinegar
• Salt and pepper

Preparation:

1. De-beard the mussels. Refer to this post on getting who to do the dirty job. Throw away any mussel that is opened at this moment.
2. Dice the onions and chop the garlic finely.
3. Slice the chilli and chilli padi. I only used two small chilli padis for the entire pot for three. You can reduce if you want, I just like my soup strong-flavoured. I don't like my soups to taste limp.
4. And we're ready to cook.

Cooking:

1. Oil the pan with olive oil generously over medium fire.
2. When oil is hot, throw in the diced onions.
3. Stir fry till it is brown and add chopped garlic, sliced chilli and salsa chilli. Be careful not to tear when frying the chilli!
4. Add in the diced tomatoes, chicken stock, red wine (just a little to taste ang-moh enough) and white vinegar. Bring the mixture to a boil.
5. When the concoction is boiling, throw in the mussels and cover lid tightly for 10 minutes.
6. Add salt and pepper to taste. Check that all mussels are opened, if not, throw away any that is not after simmering it for another 3 minutes!
7. Garnish with celery leaves or coriander leaves. (Again, the garnish was from my $1 celery bunch, hurhur.)
8. Ready to serve!!!

Made some salad to go with the main course, which isn't filling like a main course.

Later that week, we went to move some stuff into Tex's new room in his college! Quite a big room, I would say. Say yay to ensuites!

That night, we 飙菜! He likes his salmon poached while I like mine pan-seared. So we decided to cook our own type. Hehehehe.

Mine.

His.

Okay, I still like mine, while he maintains that his was nicer. Whatever.

Tagged along Tex to go to his uni to settle some admin stuff. His campus is only a short five minutes' walk away from his college. However, five minutes under 40 degrees weather can mean a lot of difference..

Then on one of the weekday nights, we went over to Ciao Italia.



Prices have gone up. :(

I just did a comparison with their old menu I found online - most of the dishes have their prices marked up by more than $6 to $10! That's crazy.

Very hearty tomato salad!

TADAH.

This was where I had my first bowl of Chilli Mussels ever.

Tortellini Buongastaia

Now that was too filling for my liking. We couldn't finish both and doggy-bagged them!

Trays and trays of goodness.

Their tiramisu is to die for..

Boss on photo

Boss in real life

Thank you Tex for such a wonderful meal, as always! I seriously think we need to go new places already. Hahaha.

Yummm

I'll try to speed up my posts and I hope I will have more time to blog in Perth when Tex goes to work and school during the day!

Take care all! :)