Studying pastry means that I've been less inclined to spend time in the kitchen after hours. That's the thing with studying a hobby, it can take away from ones passion initially (another blog post all together). Luckily, I've had a little rest from the kitchen and I've been inspired to combine my pastry and bread skills with time cooking in the "hot kitchen". I love cooking as it allows me to experiment with ingredients, flavours, and textures without being too precise.The opposite applies to pastry, cakes, confectionary and bread making. Dont get me wrong, I love pastry and baking but its nice to find a balance between the two completely contrasting approaches to food.

The other night I made a mussel pot with crusty home made Kitka bread. I was in my element as it was the perfect combination of playing around with flavour and baking!

Mussel pot with homemade crusty kitka bread — Mussel pot with homemade crusty kitka bread

Sam my husband was seriously blown away by the end result and reckons it was the best mussel pot he has ever had ("even better than Den Anker" were his words) . Of course he is bias but I'm so appreciative of his love of food, his support of my culinary endeavours and weird experiments.

I looked at a few recipes and came up with my own concoction of heart warming ingredients. My recipe goes something like this but you can play around with herbs if you like. For example use thyme instead of bay leaf (or use both), leave out the celery or add spring onion. The Dijon mustard adds another layer to the flavours which I feel gives the recipe a unique finish.

Keri's Mussel Pot with Kitka bread ( serves 4)

Ingredients

1kg fresh mussels if possible (Woolworths Cavendish sometimes have)
2 small onions finely diced
2 celery sticks finely chopped
2 garlic cloves finely chopped
1 tablespoon butter
A handful of chives
A handful of parsley
1 bay leaf
10ml dijon mustard
350ml cream
150ml white wine
Salt and pepper to taste

Method

Wash mussels and discard any open ones. Saute the garlic, celery and onion in butter until softened. Add the bayleaf and wine and bring to the boil. Add mussels to wine and cover lid. Allow to steam for 5 minutes. Once steamed stir in the cream and add the chopped chives, parsley, dijon mustard, salt and pepper. Stir and leave to simmer for a minute.

Serve: with a sprinkle of fresh parsley and chives and serve with crusty home made bread, Ciabatta or Kitka. Kitka recipe to follow!