Mussels A La Creme

I knew from the beginning that when it comes to my mussels, I'll be going for a simple recipe. Decided on a variation of a classic, French Mussels Marinara. And it was a real jackpot! They were sooooo delicious, fragrant and delicate. All you could expect mussels to be. And here it is:

Mussels A La Creme

(serves 2)

-1 kg fresh mussels
-100g butter
-2 shallots (which I replaced with 1 sweet onion)
-garlic (the amount of cloves depends on which level of garlic freakness you are, I added 4)
-glass of dry, white wine
-2 bay leaves
-fresh chopped parsley
-200ml double cream
-black pepper

-crusty bread to serve (I went with garlic baguette)



Prepare the mussels (tips- previous post), chop the onions and garlic.
In a large pan heat the butter, add onion, let it sweat for a 1-2 min, add garlic, leave for a minute.
Add bay leaves, wine and mussels. Cover the pan and cook on a high heat for 3-4 min, shaking the pan several times.
Remove the pan from the heat and transfer the mussels to a serving bowl leaving the sauce in the pan.
Put the pan back on the heat, add double cream, parsley and pepper, whisk for 2-3 min and pour over the mussels.
Serve with bread.

Bon Appetit!


Oh and I've already found Thai version of this dish- mussels cooked in coconut milk. Can't wait to cook it. Yummy!

Monika

You can't go wrong on mussels - preparation tips

Going to start fancy, why not? London's Borough Market which I visited few days ago was amazing but that going to be a subject of another post. The main reason why I decided to visit it was to put my hands on some fresh sea food. Had a real dilemma what to choose as all the fish was big, fresh and beautiful. After sniffing around the stall for couple of minutes the first choice was made: mussels.

On the way back home I started panicking a bit- what on earth I'm going to do with them. Have never cooked them before and they definitely do not look like a piece of cake (ok that wasn't the best comparison as I find cakes to be much more difficult to prepare than dinners but you know what I mean). I hit Google and supprisingly everyone around has some simple and magic ways to prepare them. And I must say that they're right. Mussels are easy and relaxed dish yet very fancy and original. Oh and I think thay're an afrodisiac :)

Now look at those:






















Did all my research and that's what I've learned..

Cleaning tips:

-if you don't cook mussels on the day of purchase, store them in a bowl covered with damp cloth in a fridge
-do not keep them in water for a long periods of time
-before you start washing them, check for any open ones
-if there're any open mussels, tap them on a hard surface- if they close- you can use them, if not, make sure you discard them as they are dead and may cause food poisoning
-if you stored them in a fridge, give them a minute to close after tapping as they reaction time is slower. I would put some open ones aside to throw as they wouldn't really move after tapping them couple of times ( was trying really hard, didn't want to waste any of those little treasures) and then after couple of minutes found them almost all closed. Now thats retarded!
-clean them properly under running water, you can use a sponge to scrub the dirt
-make sure all the mud on the shells is gone
-discard all the broken ones


Simple as that. To minimize the chance of food poisoning by eating dead mussels just follow this simple rule:

Discard all the open ones before cooking and the closed ones after.

Enjoy!