In July we spent a week in Vancouver, BC for a family event. It was a whirlwind trip, and the highlight for sure was the proximity to the ocean. I love living near the prairies and the mountains, but every time I get near the ocean I get this yearning to spend more time there. It has some kind of magic that you can’t put into words.
We spent one of the days at the beach and Little Chef and I waded through the water and collected shells in his little bucket. He was really intrigued with what ones were alive, and what ones were dead. It was fun watching him try to pry them open to see inside. I have wonderful memories from my childhood of collecting shells at the ocean. Isn’t it funny how as parents we do all of this extravagant work (take time off work, pack 4 people into a car, drive for 14 hours, haul half our house in the back of the car, spend half a mortgage payment on snacks and colouring books… ) to give our kids the same memories we had as children? I wonder if the kids will even remember this trip, or if they do if it will be the perfect little moments we hope they will remember. In reality they will most likely end up remembering the truck stop McDonalds where we had to mop spilled juice and pee out of car seats …
But I enjoyed our beach combing, and how excited he was to find some little crabs and haul them to show his sister. I also got a serious kick out of watching him jump into the water to swim and get a mouthful of sea water and spit it out in confused horror. Prairie boy is used to river water. We found some mussels that were still closed, and he ran like crazy to try and get daddy to open them up with his knife. He told me that we HAD to make alive shells noodles that night. And of course, that seemed like the perfect idea. So that is what we did.
We stayed with “Ocean Grandpa & Grandma” aka Jamie’s aunt and uncle and on our way home from the beach we picked up mussels, prawns, scallops and fresh pasta. We chopped shallots, fennel, and garlic and made them into a beautiful creamy sauce that we steamed the mussels in. Then we added prawns and seared some scallops to top it and it was heaven a bowl.
Creamy Seafood Linguine Recipe:
4 shallots
2 fennel bulbs
4 cloves garlic
1 leek
1 litre cream
2 Tablespoons butter
2 cups white wine
6 servings fresh linguine (Fresh pasta recipe here)
1lb fresh prawns
1lb fresh mussels
6 scallops
Clean the mussels by soaking them in warm salty water, scrub off any junk and de-beard them. De-beard by slowly pulling any seaweed looking junk from the seam of the mussel. (This does not mean shaving their tiny seafood beards). Once they have been cleaned and soaked, put them into cold fresh water. The mussels absorb the warm salt water in the soak, then when they hit the cold water, they spit out the warm salty water and and sand or ocean junk they have in them. Remove the tails from the prawns, and clean the scallops. This is a great job for kids to help with. And remember, if the mussels sink they are alive, if they float they are dead and should not be eaten.
Shave or thinly slice the shallots, garlic and fennel and finely dice the leek. Saute the fennel, shallots and garlic in the butter, and then add the wine and half the cream slowly, stirring constantly. Add the mussels and cover with a large lid to allow the mussels to steam for 5 – 6 minutes until all of the shells have opened. In a separate pan cook the fresh pasta until al-dente. In another pan, quickly sear the prawns off until they are 3/4 cooked. Add the prawns and leeks to the pan with the sauce and mussels as well as the remaining cream and mix well. Sear the scallops in another pan and set aside.
Plate the pasta in your bowl, then top with the seafood and sauce, finally add the seared scallop and serve with fresh baguette and some delicious wine or beer.
This dish has few simple ingredients, but tastes like summer at the ocean. The kids devoured it. And it felt so nice to all eat together and enjoy something that grew right out of that big salty ocean we had just played in.
DId you know we wrote a cookbook to help you cook with your kids? Buy it here!
