Does anyone else have that one food that they are just a little afraid of? I am not referring to being afraid of eating it because I will eat anything, at least once, that someone puts in front of me. I am talking about cooking it. So for me, mussels have been one of those foods.



It was a beautiful fall day here in the Mitten and I let the man head to Costco on his own. Yes, I know that is a completely different mistake. Anyway I am running my errands and I miss a phone call from him and seeing as he isn't a chatty phone kind of guy when my phone rings it is usually some form of crisis. Little did I know that the crisis would be mine. By the way I missed his call because I was getting a spray tan. On a side note, another little thing I have learned about beautiful Michigan is that you become VERY pale very quickly. You may find the need for artificial tanning so that you don't resemble Casper the friendly ghost for 8 months out of the year and not just on Halloween.

Anyway I digress....so by the time I called him back he excitedly told me he had purchased....4 lbs of mussels. Um what? I don't know how to cook mussels, I don't know what to do with mussels, um what the hell!! And not just 1 lb of mussels or even 2 lbs of mussels, but we are talking about 4 lbs of mussels. However, I did not want to kill his enthusiasm and so I promptly told him I would google how to cook mussels and promptly got off the phone so I could freak out on my own.


The mussels came home...all 4 lbs of them...and during that period of time I learned just how to cook them. The first thing you need to know about mussels is how to clean them. So thanks to YouTube I learned that you scrub them with a brush and then debeard them. No, that is not a typo, just must debeard a mussel. There is strands of tissue attached to the shell of mussel and you must pull the strands off. To make matters worse cleaning mussels comes with a time crunch as they spoil quickly after debearding and so you must cook them immediately.

Therefore, I quickly got to work scrubbing and scrubbing some more all 4 lbs of mussels and then individually pulling off their beards. By the time I finished I had soaked through an entire set of clothes from the amount of water utilized and I had partially moistened another apron. I pretty much felt and looked the part of a fish monger.

However, once they are clean and I am not diminishing the chore of cleaning them, they are super easy to cook. I found a recipe in Cooking Light for Steamed Mussels with Garlic, Wine and Cilantro and I decided to give it a go.

To begin, heat olive oil in a large pot (very large pot if you have 4 lbs of mussels) and sauté the garlic. Add water and wine and bring to a boil. I was sold on this recipe as soon as I saw the wine part because that justified me having a glass of wine while I cooked.


Next add the mussels to the pot and cover and cook for 6 minutes. Remove from the heat. Any mussels that did not open in the cooking process you should throw away as those are not recommended for human consumption. My understanding is that if they remain closed that is an indication that they were either deceased prior to the cooking process or there is something wrong with them and you don't want to pry them open and eat them.


Sprinkle the mussels with pepper and cilantro and eat!! We ate them with some baguette bread and a glass of Chardonnay and it was absolutely perfect. I have to admit that I was pretty dang proud and I would totally make them again. My only critique of this recipe is that I missed the butter. Yes, I know this was a Cooking Light recipe, but sometimes you just want some good old fashioned fattening butter and I do have to admit I missed it.

Ingredients

1 1/2 teaspoons olive oil
8 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
1 1/2 cups water
3/4 cup dry white wine
4 pounds small mussels, scrubbed and debearded
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1/2 cup chopped fresh cilantro

Preparation

1. Heat oil in a large stockpot over medium-high heat. Add garlic; sauté 3 minutes. Add water and wine; bring to a boil. Add mussels; cover and cook over medium-high heat 6 minutes or until shells open, stirring well after 3 minutes. Remove from heat; discard any unopened shells. Sprinkle with pepper and cilantro.

2. Remove mussels with a slotted spoon, and arrange in each of 8 shallow bowls.


Slight confession though...last week we were back at Costco...together...and he says oh look mussels do you want to get some more? I promptly thought of being soaked in mussel liquid and my raw battered hands from the cleaning brush and I said how about some shrimp instead? Cheers!