3 Times Thursday - Summer Mussels

Mussel /ˈməsəl/ : noun, any of a number of bivalve mollusks with a brown or purplish-black shell. 

For this week's 3 Times Thursday, we encourage you to try one of our recipes for mussels. A New England staple, mussels can be purchased relatively cheaply at your local seafood market or supermarket in two-pound mesh bags. Summer always means seafood to us, and mussels appear on our menu a few times throughout the season. Here are three flavorful ways to enjoy mussels - try them all with plenty of crusty bread. Don't forget to let us know your fave!


3. Mussels in White Wine Broth

Ingredients:

2 pounds mussels
1 large white onion, peeled and roughly chopped
6 whole garlic cloves
1/2 cup chopped green onions
1/2 cup chopped parsley
4 tomatoes, roughly chopped
1 stick butter, divided
kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
1/2 bottle dry white wine (like Pinot Grigio)

Put half of the mussels in the bottom of a large stock-pot. Top with the white onions, garlic cloves, green onions, parsley, tomatoes, 3/4 stick of the butter cut into quarters, some salt and pepper, and then put the other half of the mussels in. Add the white wine and the other 1/4 stick of butter and cover with a lid. Place over high heat and bring to a boil, then allow them to steam for about 10 minutes, until they are all open.

2. Cockles and Mussels

Ingredients:

2 pounds mussels
1 pound cockles or small clams
4 lemons, halved
1 bunch green onions, chopped into 2-inch pieces
1 handful fresh parsley

2-3 stems of fresh tarragon
1/2 stick butter
1/2 bottle white wine (like Pinot Grigio)
2 cups water

salt

Put all the ingredients in a large stockpot, cover the pot, set it over high heat and cook for 15-20 minutes, until all shells are open.

1. Curried Mussels with Lemongrass

Ingredients:

1/2 tablespoon olive oil

1 1/2 tablespoons red curry paste

1 cup hot water

1 stalk lemongrass, chopped

2 pieces dried galangal

1 tablespoon fish sauce

1 tablespoon liquid sugar (simple syrup)

1 can light coconut milk

2 pounds mussels

In a large pot, heat the olive oil. Add the curry paste and stir to fry for about a minute. Stir in the water, then add the lemongrass, galangal, fish sauce, sugar and coconut milk. Bring to a boil, then turn down to simmer for 10-15 minutes. Add the mussels, stir to coat, and put a lid on the pot. Cook, covered, over low heat until the mussels open, about five minutes. 

Moules Marinière for French Fridays With Dorie

We haven't been very good members of French Fridays with Dorie. In fact, the last time we participated was back in October of 2012. Mon Dieu!!! In case you don't know, FFwD is a group of food bloggers and cooks who, every Friday, post their experience making and eating a recipe from the amazing Dorie Greenspan's incredible book Around My French Table. So, with every intention of improving our FFwD participation for 2014, we give you a glimpse into this week's "assignment," mouth-watering Moules Marinière.

Moules Marinière is a classic dish from Normandy that is at the very basic level, mussels in an herby white wine broth. We are big fans of mussels, and recently won a Whole Food Market recipe contest for our Curried Mussels with Lemongrass. But we are also big fans of French cuisine, so we were definitely interested in this particular recipe. First and foremost, it looked so delicious, but also, it seemed very very simple to make. Actually, it only took us about 20 minutes, so it's a perfect weeknight meal, rounded out with a side salad and some bread.We could barely believe how flavorful the broth was, especially with the small number of ingredients and the sheer ease of it all.

Now, we can't give you the recipe, because that's part of FFwD rules. The group wants to encourage people to purchase the book and participate in FFwD along with us. To that end, the recipe for Moules Marinière can be found on page 312 (with a gorgeous accompanying photo on page 313!).

Nonetheless, you can see in our photos all the ingredients ready to go. You might notice that we took a couple of liberties. (When do we not?) First, we were only using two pounds of mussels, so we halved the amount of onions, shallots and garlic, but we kept the same measurements for the herbs and broth so we had plenty of it to dip our crusty bread into. Regarding those herbs, we bought fresh thyme because we will use that for other things, but we are tired of buying and throwing away parsley, so we tried a tablespoon of this parsley paste (which will last much, much longer in the fridge), and we felt it worked just as well. Just keep in mind that the mussels should be clean, that is, de-bearded (our favorite market carries them already cleaned, thankfully), and if they are unopened after cooking, don't eat them but discard them or you will pay the price. 

MMMMMmmmmm...Moules Marinière. Magnifique! 

You will be on our French table again very soon.

And just to prove our recommitment, here's a picture of Dorie and Amy (at Wesleyan U's Foodstock in May, 2012)!

Curried Mussels with Lemongrass *Award-Winning*

The lemongrass we planted in our garden grew very well. It is almost as tall as Amy! As it starts to get cooler out, we are trying hard to use up all the herbs and vegetables that are still growing abundantly in our front yard. So, we wondered...what would lemongrass be fabulous in? Then we spotted a 2-pound bag of Prince Edward Island mussels at our market for $4.99, and we had our answer.

When you are cooking with lemongrass, you are really only using the bottom part of the stalk. First you chop off the long grassy part and then peel away the outer layers of the bottom stalk, kind of like you do with fresh corn. Underneath should be a pale yellow fleshy stalk that is soft and fragrant. Cut off and discard the bulbous end, then slice thinly about 2/3 of the way up. The green and woody upper part can be used for infusing flavor into a broth, but is not very edible, so should be removed before serving.

This dish uses some random ingredients besides the lemongrass, that is true. But these are things we buy when we see them, often at Asian markets, and tend to keep around our pantry when we are looking to make something unusual or slightly exotic. For New Englanders anyway.

So this dish includes red curry paste and fish sauce which we can find in our normal grocery store, as well as dried galangal, which we bought in Boston's Chinatown, but can be replaced with some grated fresh ginger. Even lemongrass is hard to get around here (although if you need some, we have plenty!!!). If you can't find it, substituting some grated lemon zest would do the trick.

While the broth, with all these exciting ingredients, was smooth, sweet, spicy and citrusy, it turned out slightly thin and didn't seep into the mussel shells as well as we wanted it to. We just ate all the mussels then sopped that tasty broth up with some fresh crusty bread. To solve that problem in the future, we might leave the hot water out of the recipe. 

Curried Mussels with Lemongrass

Ingredients:

1/2 tablespoon olive oil

1 1/2 tablespoons red curry paste

1 cup hot water

1 stalk lemongrass, chopped

2 pieces dried galangal

1 tablespoon fish sauce

1 tablespoon liquid sugar (simple syrup)

1 can light coconut milk

2 pounds fresh PEI mussels

In a large pot, heat the olive oil. Add the curry paste and stir to fry for about a minute. Stir in the water, then add the lemongrass, galangal, fish sauce, sugar and coconut milk. Bring to a boil, then turn down to simmer for 10-15 minutes. Add the mussels, stir to coat, and put a lid on the pot. Cook, covered, over low heat until the mussels open, about five minutes. Serve with crusty bread.