How to Make a Mass of Trendy Mussels
Mussels are one of those sexy, evocative dishes that seem to be best prepared by the trendy chef in the corner bistro, but a large bowl of clams is one of the nicest night-time meals you can make on weekdays. If you’ve ever been wary of cooking clams at home, mussels are a great place to start.
Part of the Skillet The Grown-Up Kitchen series , designed to answer your most basic cooking questions and fill in any gaps that may be missing from your home chef education.
Not only are they pleasant to eat, but they cook very quickly, and the accompanying broth is the most gentle and adaptable liquid you will ever use. We’ll start with a very simple recipe, but first, a few tips for buying mussels:
- Be fresh, always without exception. Frozen mussels have an odd mealy texture.
- Don’t buy them more than a day or two ahead of schedule. You can leave them alive in the fridge quite easily overnight, but for more than a couple of days it is nudging (they will start to die).
- Don’t buy cracked or open mussels. These mussels are dead and will taste bad.
Store the mussels in a bowl covered with a damp paper towel in the refrigerator. Keep them there until you start cooking. While they are cooling, collect the rest of the ingredients and cook everything. For half a kilogram of mussels (enough for two or one very hungry) you will need:
- 1 tablespoon butter
- 1 shallots, thinly sliced or diced
- 3 cloves of garlic
- 1/2 glass of white wine
- 1/2 cup broth or broth, the taste of which is entirely up to you
- One or two sprigs of thyme
- A little cream if you want a creamy broth
- Pair of lemon wedges
- Fresh parsley, finely chopped
You will notice that there is no salt in this recipe. This is because mussels are from the ocean and have their own salinity, and any additional sodium chloride will make your broth too salty.
The very first thing you need to do is wash the little guys, rinse them with cold water and remove beards from them. (This is one of the few cases where I am in favor of removing the beard.) The beard is removed quite easily; just yank it firmly. If you encounter cracked or wide open mussels, discard them. If you are only faced with a kind of open mussel, give them a tap and see what they do. If they close, they are still alive and well. After you clean them, put them back in the refrigerator while you cook the broth.
Melt the butter in a medium saucepan over medium to high heat, then add the shallots and cook until tender. Add garlic and cook until light golden brown.
Get good frosting action by adding wine and stirring everything a little. (You don’t have to be picky about wine unless you’re going to drink the rest, and even so, you might not need to be picky depending on your lifestyle.) Add your thyme and let the alcohol burn for a while, turning the volume down roughly half. If you are not sure if it has decreased enough, try; he should not bite hard.
Add broth or broth, bring everything to a boil and pour the mussels into a saucepan.
Let them simmer for three minutes, stirring every minute. After this time, remove the opened guys and continue to cook those who have not yet opened. If the others don’t open after six minutes, discard them because they weren’t meant to be.
Spoon salty, sweet and plump treasures into a bowl and add some cream to the broth if desired. Bathe the little ones in the broth, squeeze out some lemon and sprinkle with finely chopped parsley. Serve with slices of roughly torn bread to absorb the aromatic liquid. That’s all. Dinner is ready and good.
After you master this simple mussel recipe, get creative with your cooking and start drawing riffs madly. Ginger and lemongrass are great additions, as are bacon, and I’ve even seen mussels served in tomato broth with mini meatballs. The world is your mussel, do what you want with it.
One option I don’t like, however, is cooking them in the Instant Pot. I mean, you can if you really want to, but these things already take three minutes to prepare, and waiting for the Instant Pot to go into a state of pressure actually makes the process more time consuming. You’re also more likely to digest tender little guys, making them rubbery and sad. Very few things in this world are as elegant and simple as a beautiful pot of mussels; don’t complicate it.