You'll think I'm kidding when I say mussels for an everyday dinner, but let me tell you, mussels are the easiest thing in the universe to get right. Once you've made them once, and had a cozy dinner in front of a fire, or adult swim, picking glistening fleshy bits of briny heaven our of their shells and dunking a fresh baguette into the murky juices left behind, you'll make them frequently. Like, every night frequently.
You'll find mussels in plastic or net bags, nestled in ice in front of the fish case at your grocery store. They should be shiny, black, and have a good fresh seawater smell. Take them home no more than a couple of days before you're going to eat them; they store best in a colander sitting on a plate in the fridge, with a couple of ice cubes tossed in for good measure.
Right before you're going to cook them, rinse them thoroughly and go through them by hand, tossing out any that are cracked, or partially open. The key thing here is to make sure that every mussel you put into the pot (and therefore into your mouth) is glistening alive and kicking before you steam it to death - and that means tightly closed. If a mussel is open, you can give it a couple of taps and see if it begins to close. Toss any that sit lazily and refuse to respond! A mussel that fails to recognize your authority as a cook is a mussel that's already dead and doesn't deserve culinary greatness.
Average a pound of mussels per person. This recipe is perfect for two as supper.
- 2-3 lbs mussels, fresh
- 1/2 stick of butter
- 2 shallots, sliced
- 2 cups white wine
- parsley
Rinse and inspect the mussels, tossing any open mussels or mussels with broken shells.
Heat the butter in a large saucepan over medium heat. When melter, add your shallots and saute, stirring occasionally, for about 2 minutes until the shallots are soft and slightly golden.
Throw in the wine, and turn up the heat to high to bring the wine to a boil. Give it a couple of cranks with the peppermill at this point too.
Gently tip the mussels into the pot, then lid it and let the whole operation steam over high heat for ten minutes or until mussels are 100% open and gaping. Throw in some chopped parley (or any other fresh herbs you happen to have around; tarragon would be good too), put the lid back on, and, holding the lid down tightly, give the whole plan a good shake to disperse the juices and herbs.
Dump into a serving bowl to serve, or just eat out of the pan, with lots of crusty baguette. Drink some of whatever wine you used in the recipe with it. This also works really well with a nice inexpensive Cava sparking wine from Spain.
For the Belgian version, use witbeir or Hefeweizen instead of wine. Still good with a baguette, though some might prefer some frites with the Belgian version... and who's to say they're wrong? Not me.
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