| Somehow when you do a little research on the | | | | 24 live muscles |
| cuisine of an individual country it is quite easy to | | | | 2 tablespoons of olive oil |
| come up almost with a common theme, a common | | | | 1 large onion, chopped |
| name for the food for that country. Such as English | | | | 3 garlic clove is called a chopped |
| food, German food but when you consider Spanish | | | | 1 small dried red chilli (chilli pepper), crushed |
| food or if you wish to be a bit more accurate about | | | | 1 teaspoon all sweet or hot paprika, depending on |
| how you look at it, food and recipes that originate | | | | how hot you like your mussels. |
| from Spain there is a very convincing argument that | | | | 4 ripe tomatoes peeled and diced |
| would say it's not that simple. | | | | 4 canned anchovy fillets, diced |
| The reason for this is that you could quite easily | | | | 150 ml dry white wine |
| argue that technically there is no such thing as | | | | Salt and freshly ground black pepper |
| Spanish food and the reason being for this is that | | | | Fresh crusty bread to serve with the mussels |
| Spain is an amalgam of its constituent parts that is to | | | | The important thing at the start of this recipe and |
| say it could be described as a political construct which | | | | the key to all such recipes is preparation. Clean the |
| is made up of disparate groups with their own | | | | muscles properly, scrub them carefully and discard |
| languages, cultures, cuisines etc. These autonomous | | | | anything that you don't like the look of. Remember, |
| regions have been slowly amalgamated through a | | | | don't use any mussels that have remained open or |
| number of different processes throughout history | | | | have damaged shells. These are probably dead on |
| but have all kept their own distinctive features. | | | | probably the only thing that you would get from |
| The number of autonomous different regions that | | | | these would be a nasty does of food poisoning. |
| form what we would nowadays refer to as Spain is | | | | Bring the war to the boil in a large saucepan and then |
| 17; they all have their own linguistic variations of the | | | | add the mussels and securely cover with a tight lid. |
| language, in some cases it's a different sub language | | | | Remember to shake the saucepan every few |
| entirely and as well as their own cultures most | | | | minutes and then the moment you see the mussels |
| definitely have their own individual cuisines. | | | | opened fully turn off the heat as soon as possible. |
| One of those autonomous regions comprises the | | | | Remove the mussels from the pan and leave to cool |
| north-western province of Galicia. Galicia is surrounded | | | | and when you've done this remove the lids |
| on two sides by the Atlantic Ocean and it is pretty | | | | remembering to leave the nice juicy flesh in the |
| understandable to think that for a region that has | | | | remaining shells. |
| such an involvement with the sea, its cuisine would | | | | Now comes the interesting bit. Heat olive oil in a |
| also be heavily influenced by the sea. | | | | frying pan or skillet. Add the onion and fry until the |
| The above having been said not all of Galicia's finest | | | | onion is soft and golden. At this point add the garlic, |
| recipes are all seafood based and the region can lay | | | | the chilli (or chilli pepper) and paprika and stir until the |
| claim to quite a variety of dishes all of which are | | | | aroma really hits you and starts to make your eyes |
| most definitely worth investigating further. | | | | water. At this point take the tomatoes the anchovies |
| Lets top talking about the food and get down to | | | | and wine and add to the mixture then bring this to |
| business. Let's eat! | | | | the boil to reduce the sauce slightly. Season this |
| As mentioned before the dish we are going to look | | | | sauce to taste if necessary. |
| at today is "Tigres Rabiosos" or "Spicy Mussels" | | | | Once you feel you have the sauce just right then |
| For our purposes we will be putting together | | | | add the mussels to the sauce and cook them |
| ingredients enough for four people and as such the | | | | together briefly and heat them through but do not |
| ingredients that we would need and the amounts | | | | boil. |
| would be as follows: | | | | When everything is finally ready so with crusty bread |
| About 150 ml of water | | | | and it makes a delicious starter. |