I’m no Mark Zuckerberg, but I’m proud to say I killed my own meat today. Yep, I sent some bivalves to their death and the process was quick, easy, and delicious!
Mussels are inexpensive, tasty, and sustainable so follow the jump to see how I made them!
Here’s what I gathered to feed 2 people:
- 1 cup dry white wine (I used Chablis)
- ¼ cup minced shallots
- 4 medium garlic cloves, minced
- 1 small bay leaf
- ½ teaspoon Madras curry
- 2 pounds mussels, cleaned & debearded
- 2 tablespoons of Kerrygold butter
- 1 tablespoon of chopped fresh cilantro
- 1 tablespoon of chopped fresh mint
- 1 tablespoon of chopped fresh basil
Here’s how I cooked the dish:
I started out with a bag of super-fresh mussels from my seafood CSA, Siren SeaSa. I kept them on ice in the back of my fridge covered with a wet paper towel until I was ready to cook them.
(For bivalve-cooking virgins, check out this link and this one to learn how to care for and cook your mussels.)
I rinsed off the mussels…
and yanked off the beards.
Then, I minced the garlic and shallots…
…and dumped them in a 6-quart dutch oven with the wine, bay leaf, and curry powder. I brought the liquid to a boil and lowered the heat to low and simmered the broth for about 3 minutes.
Next, I increased the heat to high, dumped in the mussels and gave everything a stir before covering it and letting everything steam for 2 minutes.
After the initial two minutes of steaming, I stirred the mussels again and steamed them for 2-3 minutes more. (The mussels are finished cooking when the shells open.)
I used a slotted spoon to remove the steamed mussels to a large serving bowl and covered them with foil.
To finish off the sauce, I whisked the butter into the broth…
…and stirred in the chopped herbs.
I tasted the broth for seasoning but I didn’t need to add any salt or pepper.
I poured the broth over the mussels…
…and we dug in!
Super simple and versatile! Feel free to play with the aromatics, liquid, and seasoning!
