Let’s welcome August with a noteworthy appetizer recipe & some other foodie pictures! I’m completely behind on editing & uploading all the pictures I have on my SD cards, so one of these days there’ll just be a post with a bunch of pictures & guess what? YOU’RE GONNA ENJOY IT…maybe. So, let’s talk about my new recipe that I obnoxiously named “Sensational”. Look, I can feel your eyeballs rolling out of your orbital fossa, but bear with me – the catchier the title, the more likely someone will check out the recipe. What makes this recipe so sensational? KEWPIE MAYO, duh, obvi, like srsly how is dat even a q?? In all seriousness doe, the combination of Kewpie mayonnaise, sesame oil, masago, & imitation crabmeat really bakes well atop New Zealand green mussels. The umami is strong with this one & I think that if you love shellfish, this is a great recipe for you to try out. It’s actually not too expensive to make given that you have sesame oil, ponzu sauce, sesame seeds, & Kewpie already. Who would have that already? People who love to make Japanese food, gosh. If you love Japanese food, invest in those ingredients; you’ll find that they are used in many recipes.
Japanese
One of my favorite Japanese restaurants has these amazing baked green mussels that everyone can’t seem to get enough of. I’ve recreated their recipe with my own twist & I hope that you’ll enjoy them as much as my family does. They’re a wonderful appetizer dish you can bring to a small dinner or to enjoy at home whether you’re entertaining multiple guests or just yourself. If you love the heat, double up on that Sriracha!
PrintSensational Baked Green Mussels
- Total Time: 35
Ingredients
- 12 New Zealand green mussels, rinsed & thawed
- 6 sticks of imitation crabmeat
- 1 Tbsp Togarashi Ichimi (Japanese red pepper flakes)
- 1/4 cup Kewpie Mayonnaise
- 3 Tbsp masago
- 3 sprigs of scallions, rinsed & chopped
- 3 Tbsp black or white sesame seeds
- 1 Tbsp ponzu sauce
- 1 tsp sesame oil
- 1 tsp Sriracha (optional)
- 1 tsp paprika or cayenne pepper (optional)
Instructions
- Preheat oven at 350º F.
- Slice imitation crabmeat into 1/2 inch (1-ish cm) pieces. Press your finger against the white meat so that the crabmeat breaks apart into tiny strings. Place the crabmeat in a mixing bowl.
- Add the remainder of the ingredients & half of the scallions into the mixing bowl with the crabmeat. Mix well.
- Line a large cookie sheet with two sheets of parchment paper. Place the mussels on the sheet, making sure not to stack the mussels on top of one another.
- Spoon the crabmeat mixture on top of the mussels. Pack the crabmeat on well, but be sure not to pack too much on so that you’ll have enough for each mussel.
- Sprinkle on the remaining scallions. Extra sesame seeds won’t hurt either & they’re good for you! Bake for 10 minutes & then broil on high for about 3 minutes. When removing from the oven, let it cool down for a few minutes before enjoying!
- Prep Time: 20
- Cook Time: 15
- Category: Appetizers
- Method: Baked, Broiled
- Cuisine: Japanese
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 4
- Calories: 234
- Sugar: 1
- Fat: 17
- Saturated Fat: 3
- Unsaturated Fat: 13
- Trans Fat: 0
- Carbohydrates: 7
- Protein: 13
- Cholesterol: 33
Keywords: baked, green mussels, seafood, pescetarian, broiled, Japanese, appetizers, mussels
In the 4 years I’ve been a Pescetarian, I’ve gotten a lot of inquisitive looks & on the more extreme end, antagonized for choosing not to eat land creatures as if I’ve somehow insulted these individuals’ very being because I don’t eat cows. Since the social norm is to consume meat, those of us that have special diets often get harassed for not eating like the rest of society. Not only is it annoying to deal with, it’s incredibly disrespectful to those of us that choose not to eat the popular way society does. If you’re going to try to mock our way of living, you might as well do it intelligently instead of immaturely, e.g., “but meat is so tasty; lol you’re missing out lol more meat for me lol. lol. lol. lolol.” Choosing to cut meat out of my diet is not due to the tastiness of said land creatures, so don’t assume my tastebuds are dysfunctional. I can appreciate a fine plate of beef tartare as much as any bovine connoisseur, but why I choose not to is environmental, ethical, & political. This doesn’t mean that I think consuming seafood is exemplary because it isn’t – I see it as choosing the lesser of two evils, so to speak.
Without even asking me what it is I eat or how often I eat what I eat, people just plunge into the, “well, aren’t you just going to get mercury poisoning?” question as if their consumption of fast food isn’t going to kill them first. Although this post is going to have tons of pictures of fish, it doesn’t mean that I consume seafood everyday. I believe in eating a mostly vegetarian diet & do my best to consume seafood that has low mercury content such as catfish, clams, crab, tilapia, octopus, oysters, & scallops. If you’re considering becoming a Pescetarian or if you’re obsessed with seafood, please make sure you check the mercury levels of your favorite seafood before you think you can consume it all without consequences. As much as I love Chilean Seabass, it’s a fish that’s endangered, so try not to order it. If you want to consume it in the future, you have to make sure it doesn’t die out now. It’s good to mix up what you normally eat with something new. Try having a meat-free day & challenge your culinary skills. You may just delightfully surprise yourself! Okay, now for a huge food dump.
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[8tracks url=”http://8tracks.com/tiffanybee/cloudburst” width=”500″ height=”500″ flash=”yes” ]
Cloudburst
- “Never Gonna Change” by Broods
- “Mirrored Sea” by Passion Pit
- “Lazy Eye (Jason Bentley Remix)” by Silversun Pickups
- “Strangers In The Wind” by Cut Copy
- “Silk (Ianborg Remix)” by Giselle
- “Recover (Cid Rim Remix)” by Chvrches
- “Velvet Elvis (Crystal Fighters Remix)” by Alex Winston
- “Sometimes (Gloves Extended Mix)” by Miami Horror
- “Flashlight” by Ellie Goulding
- “Black Room Boy” by Above & Beyond
- “Into the Past” by Nero
- “Applause (Empire of the Sun Remix)” by Lady GaGa
Cloudburst is the second mix I put together for my ongoing filler series: Musical Mondays! This mix is much more upbeat than the last one, but not too progressive. This mix is great for background music while you search the internet, play video games, or walking to school. Each mix has its own theme & this mix’s theme is upbeat electro. I hope those that like the genres I drew from will like this mix. I’ve gotten some positive feedback from a few friends, so here’s to hoping it’s also your cup of tea. I annoyingly put it on “autoplay” since most people don’t click things I link like my videos, so now y’all can be annoyed with this mysterious palatable music seeping from your speakers until you figure out it’s because of me. Sorry, not sorry.
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You know how sometimes you want to update your website, but you really have no idea what to write about? No? Before I evolved TB to center around recipes, I used to post pictures everyday (sort of) without anything more than a simple caption of what your eyeballs were glancing at. Now that I’m forcing myself to write something witty & interesting with every post, I can no longer do food photo dumps without some purpose. This has led to a bunch of my photos sitting on my computer from last year & beyond, unseen by my regular visitors. Well, one of my solutions is to simply create a new series that will be more specific to an all encompassing theme. Foodie Fridays will be my food dump days, so I guess there might not be a real point to any of these future posts other than to tell you about some restaurants, grocery stores, or how good/bad/mediocre the food I consumed was. Since not too many people visit a food blog to read anything, Foodie Fridays will fully appreciate the, “wow, this post is making me hungry & my desk has accumulated some drool from my mouth,” comments more than ever!