Family Dinner with JP

Mussels. Let me tell you a little bit about mussels. See, when you grow up in Maryland, and spend your summers down Ocean City, mussels are inevitable. Of course, we're talking rough and tumble, steamed in water, served with a wedge of lemon and a ramekin of melted butter, no frills mussels. And they are delicious! For the uninitiated, I think of mussels as the textural middle ground between clams (more chewy) and oysters (more viscous). Mussels are perfect: cheap, easy to make, poppable, fun to share, and can look absolutely beautiful! What follows is a bit of a primer on making mussels. This is clearly a food that should be demystified, so that everyone can eat mussels all of the time. Once you know a few things, like how to sort out the bad from the good, and how to ensure the mussels are clean and without grit, this becomes a fast meal that you can adapt to any flavor profile you want. So of course, following the Tao of Julia, I made mussels in the French fashion - steam...

As usual, it tends to go back to Anthony Bourdain or Julia Child. In this case both. Bourdain informed me of the ease and utility of making your own stock from your scraps of vegetables and bones, and of keeping the stock around in the freezer, pre-measured in one cup containers. Julia provided extensive notations and descriptions of making the perfect stock out of just about anything. Such a simple thing to make, but when done right, a stock is a delicate, flavorful base from which you will build your recipe. Thankfully, the stock in this recipe is fast, cheap, and easy.  Many thanks to Laura (and her recipe blog  ) for the recommendation and base recipe from which I worked. This jam is vegan, which I am surprised to write as you are to read, and it is absolutely delicious, which surprised me even more. My dinner guest, one who has tried several of my recipes now, for the first time ever went back for seconds! I found the soup to be hearty (see: old rustic joke...