Mussels in White Wine Sauce

I don’t know about you, but there have always been meals that I have been scared to prepare. I either think that a recipe is so complicated that I would spend hours making the dish, or that the ingredients are too difficult to handle. One meal that consistently scared me was cooking mussels.

However, one day I decided to finally face my fears and bought those mussels. And I realized that they aren’t as difficult as I thought! Though it takes some time to get the mussels ready, the method is not hard at all. So, how to clean mussels? First, they have to be rinsed. The opened ones should be tapped on the kitchen surface, and if they close then they can be used; if they stay open it means they are dead, and should be thrown away with the damaged mussels. Next, all of the closed mussels should be cleaned and rinsed again. Once the mussels are ready to use, it takes only several minutes to cook this delicious meal.

INGREDIENTS (for 2 portions):
1 kg mussels,

1 tbs butter,

2 shallots, finely chopped,

125ml white wine,

1 bay leaf,

1 tbsp chopped parsley.

METHOD:

1. Prepare the mussels:                                                                               * rinse them very well in cold water.
   * take a mussel: if it is damaged, discard it straight away and if it is open, give it a vigorous tap. If it stays open, discard.
   * if a mussel is closed (or closes after tapping), wash it and scrape off with a knife any barnacles; remove “beard” that may be between the two shells.
   * repeat the above with all the mussels.
   * rinse all of them again.
2. In a big pan (big enough for all the mussels) melt the butter, add the shallots and cook over low heat for 3-5 minutes until translucent.
3. Pour in the wine, add the bay leaf and bring to boil.
4. Add the mussels, cover the pan tightly with a lid and steam on a high heat for 5 minutes, shake the pan vigorously 1-2 times in between.
5. Remove the bay leaf and any unopened mussels; add the chopped parsley, stir and serve straight away with baguette to mop up the sauce.

The recipe was adapted from “The New Fish Cooking Encyclopedia” by Kate Whiteman.