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Baked Mussels with Butter, Parsley, and Garlic
2017-Jul-24, Monday 19:45I have never cooked with fresh mussels before (I use smoked mussels regularly). I was lucky enough to find a couple of pounds of live mussels at the store cheap today, and decided to spoil myself tonight.
This is based on a few recipes I found online, I'm very satisfied with the results.
Yield: Serves 4 as a first course (serve with toasted bread rounds) or as a main course when served over rice. Serves two when just served with bread to mop up the last of the broth :)
Prep time: 5 minutes
Cook time: 12-15 minutes
Ingredients
900g live cultivated mussels, cleaned and beards removed.
1-2 tablespoons crushed garlic. One is nice, two is for garlic fiends like myself. Alternately, 2-3 cloves of crushed garlic.
1 cup fresh flat-leaf parsley
1/4 stick unsalted room-temperature butter, cut into pieces
a drizzle of olive oil (probably 3 tablespoons?)
1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper (I used 1/2 but I love black pepper. I would have used more, but it might have oppressed the mussels.
Optional: couple of tablespoons chopped bacon or fresh bacon bits (not the crunchy dried stuff).
Optional: 1/4 teaspoon salt (definitely skip if you use salted butter, or add bacon, or are watching your salt)
Preparation
Preheat oven to 450°F.
Sort through mussels, cleaning, debearding, and removing dead ones. This is a good guide, particularly on how to figure out which mussels are only "playing dead". Tip if you're suspicious about some of your "dead" mussels being fakers: make a bowl of modestly salty water (very cold) to toss the suspects into. Shake them around, then check them again.
Spread mussels in a 13- by 9-inch baking dish.
Drizzle with olive oil.
Chop parsley (~1cm), combine with remaining ingredients in middle-sized mixing bowl.
Using your hands, kneed and mash together until everything's mashed into the butter and mixed together pretty evenly.
Rub buttery parsley garlicy mess together between your hands to break up into little bits.
Sprinkle as evenly as possible over the mussels.
Cover tightly with foil and bake in middle of oven until mussels open, 12 to 15 minutes.
Serve immediately, while hot.
Notes: If you don't cover tightly with foil, the steam will escape and your mussels will be dry, rather than swimming in a lovely seafood broth.
The salt is probably unnecessary.
I have a cold house (18C), cold hands, and a chilly ceramic mixing bowl, so my butter mixture was pretty firm and therefore could be treated roughly without getting squidgy. If you have a warm house, warm hands, a plastic mixing bowl, or all three, or just don't like getting your hands messy, the alternative is to soften the butter and dump it all in a food processor and smash it to a paste.
Alternate versions use 1/2 stick of butter and no olive oil. Some people apparently are using a whole stick of butter and tons of garlic. So feel free to adjust your fats as you prefer (you can probably completely replace butter with olive oil).
This is based on a few recipes I found online, I'm very satisfied with the results.
Yield: Serves 4 as a first course (serve with toasted bread rounds) or as a main course when served over rice. Serves two when just served with bread to mop up the last of the broth :)
Prep time: 5 minutes
Cook time: 12-15 minutes
Ingredients
900g live cultivated mussels, cleaned and beards removed.
1-2 tablespoons crushed garlic. One is nice, two is for garlic fiends like myself. Alternately, 2-3 cloves of crushed garlic.
1 cup fresh flat-leaf parsley
1/4 stick unsalted room-temperature butter, cut into pieces
a drizzle of olive oil (probably 3 tablespoons?)
1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper (I used 1/2 but I love black pepper. I would have used more, but it might have oppressed the mussels.
Optional: couple of tablespoons chopped bacon or fresh bacon bits (not the crunchy dried stuff).
Optional: 1/4 teaspoon salt (definitely skip if you use salted butter, or add bacon, or are watching your salt)
Preparation
Preheat oven to 450°F.
Sort through mussels, cleaning, debearding, and removing dead ones. This is a good guide, particularly on how to figure out which mussels are only "playing dead". Tip if you're suspicious about some of your "dead" mussels being fakers: make a bowl of modestly salty water (very cold) to toss the suspects into. Shake them around, then check them again.
Spread mussels in a 13- by 9-inch baking dish.
Drizzle with olive oil.
Chop parsley (~1cm), combine with remaining ingredients in middle-sized mixing bowl.
Using your hands, kneed and mash together until everything's mashed into the butter and mixed together pretty evenly.
Rub buttery parsley garlicy mess together between your hands to break up into little bits.
Sprinkle as evenly as possible over the mussels.
Cover tightly with foil and bake in middle of oven until mussels open, 12 to 15 minutes.
Serve immediately, while hot.
Notes: If you don't cover tightly with foil, the steam will escape and your mussels will be dry, rather than swimming in a lovely seafood broth.
The salt is probably unnecessary.
I have a cold house (18C), cold hands, and a chilly ceramic mixing bowl, so my butter mixture was pretty firm and therefore could be treated roughly without getting squidgy. If you have a warm house, warm hands, a plastic mixing bowl, or all three, or just don't like getting your hands messy, the alternative is to soften the butter and dump it all in a food processor and smash it to a paste.
Alternate versions use 1/2 stick of butter and no olive oil. Some people apparently are using a whole stick of butter and tons of garlic. So feel free to adjust your fats as you prefer (you can probably completely replace butter with olive oil).
