May 1st. Eggplant with pomegranate molasses, mussels in spicy coconut sauce.

To welcome Randi home, celebrate her birthday, and commemorate our own travels in Vietnam, Lisa and I prepared a grand dinner.  We'd both taken note of a recipe for mussels with coconut milk and lemon grass in last week's New York Times, and decided it was the perfect combination of exotic, familiar and Asian for our menu.   Bringing in another culture (if not a different continent), we'd start the meal with eggplants with pomegranate sauce, and finish (this would be from another continent) with Julia Child's Gateau a l'orange et aux amandes, (orange and almond cake)  made by Lisa and topped with her excellent stewed ginger apricots.  

I prepared the eggplant at home in the morning, leaving it to marinate or macerate for hours while I went to yoga and did my grocery rounds.
First stop was Santa Monica Seafood for four pounds of mussels,  farmed in pristine conditions off of Prince Edwards Island.  Santa Monica Seafood in its new Wilshire store is like a temple to the highest priced gods of the sea.  Next stop--the Teheran market, also bursting with delicious items, but without the sparkle and glow.  I wanted to replenish my dwindling supply of pomegranate molasses, and since I was there bought a bit of French feta cheese, a nibble of halvah, a bunch of cilantro (for the mussels) and a box of medjool dates for my next encounter with brussels sprouts.  Last stop--Trader Joe's for assorted staples--then home--packed up the eggplant, organized other ingredients, and after a brief stop at Andalusia to help Lisa and Gar move a couch (I wasn't much help, but six hands seemed to be essential to the project), we began the final stages of meal preparation.  Everything was ready to go but for the mussels--which were almost too easy to prepare.  We doubled the Times recipe and did some great four-handed chopping.
SPICY MUSSELS WITH COCONUT MILK AND LEMON GRASS
4 tablespoons coconut or safflower oil
2 shallots, finely chopped
6 garlic cloves, finely chopped
2 stalks lemon grass, outer layers removed, finely chopped
1 or 2 small hot chiles (like serrano or jalapeno), seeded and finely chopped
2 cups unsweetened coconut milk
4 pounds fresh mussels, rinsed well
Zest of 1 lemon

2 teaspoon lemon juice, or to taste

1 teaspoon Asian fish sauce, or to taste

1 cup whole cilantro leaves

plenty of good crusty bread

Heat oil in a large pot.  Add finely chopped shallots, garlic, lemon grass and chiles.  Cook over medium heat until soft.   Add the coconut milk and mussels. Cover with a tight-fitting lid and cook until mussels opened, 5 to 7 minutes (discard any mussels that remained closed). Remove from heat, and stir in the lemon zest and juice, fish sauce and cilantro.While the mussels are cooking, pop the bread, sliced in whatever fashion you desire into the oven.  Place bread in bowls, top with mussels and sauce and serve.  We had extra bread on the table which we happily used to sop up every bit of sauce. 

Oh--it was indeed one delicious meal.