Sunday, June 01, 2008

Baked Tahong (Mussels)

Simple Filipino Meal, Dish #4



[ts]
This is another one of those chidhood dishes that we reminisce about. See, here below is the recipe that our yaya typed up for me. This is from 18 years ago.


Baked tahong are half-shells of mussels topped with garlic, butter and cheese. Then, of course, baked. We didn't have an oven in the Philippines before, so this dish was made using the toaster oven.

We haven't made this dish ourselves EVER. That is, I've never had occasion to use Yaya's recipe above. I think it's the opening of the mussels that deterred us. As JS mentioned, we do tend to suffer from lack of industry. It's a chronic condition.

I confess, we didn't cook this the same day as the chicken tinola, oyster torta and adobo kangkong. But, we planned to. It was just that the frozen mussels we bought didn't thaw completely.

Why frozen mussels, you ask with disdain?

Because! They're green shell mussels!

Just like the ones we had in the Philippines. When I first saw the plain black mussels here in Vancouver, I thought they were quite ugly. ;)

These green shells are nice and iridescent, with a gradation of colors from green to silver to orange. A little stupid that I didn't think to take a picture of the GREEN SHELL nature of these mussels.

Another bonus and a solution to our lack of industry problem, they came already on half-shells!



I whizzed together some garlic cloves and butter. Then onto the mussels they went. Into the oven until the topping melted and browned a little. Some chopped green onions served as garnish.

Pre-oven


Ah yes, as you can see from above, we omitted the cheese. We didn't have any kind of cheese in the house and JS also said she didn't want any cheese.

Post-oven


This was so good. We should bottle that mussel juice and sell it! This didn't even make it until dinner. We just stood around the counter eating them from the sheet pan.




Simple Filipino Meal

Dish #1: Chicken Tinola
Dish #2: Oyster Torta
Dish #3: Adobo Kangkong
Dish #4: Baked Tahong



[eatingclub] vancouver Filipino food
Bibingka
Mama's Ampalaya (Bitter Melon)
Faux Kamote-Que
Philippine-Style Chicken "BBQ"
Fried Hasa Hasa (Mackerel)
"Savory" Chicken Wings
Sinamak (Chile-infused Vinegar)
Pan-roasted Halibut w/ Fava Beans, Potato-Onion Cakes & Bagoong Butter Sauce
Bulalo & Bangus: an even simpler Filipino meal
Baked Tahong (Mussels)
Adobo Kangkong (Adobo Water Spinach)
Oyster Torta (Oyster Omelette)
Chicken Tinola (Chicken Soup w/ Green Papaya & Pepper Leaves)
(Chinese) Roast Pork Belly / Lechon
Tilapia wrapped in Banana Leaves
Pork Belly, Two Ways
Chicken Adobo
Embutido
Salabat (Ginger Tea)
Lechon Manok (Philippine Roast Chicken) & Lechon Sauce
"Chinese Adobo" Clams and Oysters
Bistek (Citrus Beef with Caramelized Onions)
Beef Kaldereta (Beef Stew with Bell Peppers)
Atsara (Green Papaya Pickle)
Sardinas na Bangus (Milkfish in the style of Sardines) and Pressure Cooker Fear

5 comments:

  1. TS,

    So good looking, there are no bad greenshells. This brand is served cold on oriental buffet here in Florida, right out of the box. A drop of lemon and a spritz of salt........

    Wonderful photos too. Im not a 'stop at a half-dozen' kinda guy, so the pile looks great. Who needs cheese?

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  2. We finally have a source of greenshell mussels!

    Haha, I believe those were 3 boxes of mussels. I didn't bother trying to separate them into 2 sheet pans. I just tried to cram them all in. And yes, besides the lack of industry, lack of control is also a problem of ours. We didn't stop until we finished it all standing at the counter. =D

    ReplyDelete
  3. I would eat about a dozen of these mussels....great photo too!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Wow... I'd stand around and eat them right when they came out of the oven too. I love these recipes! What I love the most is the typewriter-typed recipe. Is it weird that I kind of miss the idea of a typewriter?

    ReplyDelete
  5. Those look DREAMY! I got here looking at the Chicken Tinola. I'll be coming back :)!

    ReplyDelete

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