Whisk Wednesday -- Billy Bi aux Paillettes

Somehow I have my Whisk Wednesdays weekly recipes all mixed up. Last week I was so busy with work and Easter prep I totally forgot to post my WW dish which was Frog Legs! I honestly did not even think about it until Saturday and with Easter being the following day, I did not have time to write up the post. The Frog Legs were wonderful and I will post that recipe another day.

I decided to do a recipe rewind for next weeks Whisk Wednesday dish with the Billy Bi, Mussel Soup, but I jumped ahead of myself and made it this week instead. Is this getting confusing? Eventually it will all work out, it's just that I'm a little bit out of sync with our weekly Whisk Schedule.

Any ways for this week I decided to surpass the Le Cordon Bleu recipe and made my own version of Billy Bi. We do enjoy the recipes in Le Cordn Bleu but seafood especially shellfish needs garlic...lots of garlic! And if I do say so myself, my version of Billy Bi was delicious and we thoroughly enjoyed it. I really wanted to make the Cheese Straws but again I was a bit pressed for time due to the upcoming holiday and so opted to serve the soup with my Fennel Seed Breadsticks which I bake every week so always have a fresh supply at the ready.









Billy Bi aux Paillettes
Recipe adapted from "Le Cordon Bleu at Home"

Cheese Straws:
1 1/2 flour
3/4 c. cake flour
1 tsp salt
2/3 -3/4 c. cold water
2 TBL butter, melted
14 TBL butter
1 egg
2 oz Parmesan Cheese, grated (1/2 c)

Mussel Soup:
2 lbs mussels
3 TBL butter
2 medium shallots, chopped fine
1 c. dry white wine
8 c. water
1 stalk celery
Freshly ground pepper
2 TBL flour
2/3 c. heavy cream
2 TBL coarse chopped chives


Billy Bi (Mussel Soup)
Recipe developed by Big-Black-Dog

2 lbs mussels
8 c. chicken stock
1/2 c. dry white wine
3 stalks of celery, chopped
6 green onion, sliced thin, including the green tops
3 cloves of garlic
2 TBL EVOO (Extra Virgin Olive Oil)
2 TBL butter
3 TBL flour
1/2 c. heavy cream
6-7 large fresh basil leaves, minced
Salt and Freshly ground black pepper to taste

Optional: Mushroom, sliced **See NOTE

In a heavy bottomed pot add EVOO and whole garlic cloves. Simmer the garlic until each clove is just soft and golden brown. Remove garlic and mash with a fork. Return garlic to pan and add butter. Add chopped celery and mushrooms and saute for abt 2 minutes.

Add the mussels and just simmer until all the mussels have opened. Remove the mussels with tongs and set aside to cool.

Sprinkle flour over the celery and make a rue. As soon as flour is well mixed, add the minced basil and wine blending the rue thoroughly. Add chicken stock and heat thoroughly. The mussels should be cool enough to handle and remove the mussels from their shells saving several in shell to garnish the soup. Add the cream and blend. Taste and season with salt and pepper.

Serve hot and garnish with the mussels in shell.

NOTE: I had about 8 mushrooms that needed to be used so I added them to the soup.







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