West Coast mussel pot
When it comes to fresh seafood, simple is best, as this recipe demonstrates.
Mussels can be gathered from the rocks if you are at the coast, or purchased alive and well from good fish shops. We’re talking black mussels here, not because of affirmative action but because those white mussels you dig out of the sand don’t appeal to my taste buds at all.
A bit of preparation:
1. Scrub them. Before attempting to cook these things there is a bit of elbow grease involved. Take your mussels and, using a nail brush, scrub them thoroughly under running water. Grip that little beard between the two shells and rip it off .
2. The cleaner the better. Now place the mussels in a bowl of fresh water for about an hour so they can spit out the sand and grit they harbour within those shells. Discard the water and rinse again. Now we shall cook them the way French fishermen do it, because no one does it better.
You’ll need (4 portions):
• 5 kg cleaned, live mussels
• 2 tablespoons butter
• 1 large onion, finely chopped
• 2 sticks celery, chopped
• 4 cloves garlic, chopped
• 2 handfuls of fresh parsley, finely chopped
• 1 bottle of dry white wine
Here’s how:
1. Think big. Place a huge heavy-bottomed pot over your fire, coals or gas. You need heat, and lots of it. Add the butter and fry the onions, celery and garlic until the onion is translucent and the celery soft. Add the parsley.
2. Souse the mussels. Add the mussels to the pot and stir them through the buttery mixture. Pour in the wine - you must have enough heat to bring the wine to a boil quickly. Put the lid on at an angle.
3. Open, sesame! Once the wine starts to simmer, the mussels will open. Ideally, the heat under the pot should be even so that the mussels all open within a minute or two. Remove the mussels from the pot as soon as they’ve done so and place them in a deep dish. Discard the ones that didn’t open.
4. Now, for the sauce. You can pour the sauce over the mussels straight from the pot, but I prefer to strain it through a sieve or a stocking to remove any remaining grit. (Use a clean stocking, and first ask its owner’s permission to use it. - Ed.) Dish up the mussels with lots of bread to mop up the sauce.
Go! says: Never eat a mussel if the shell didn’t open during the cooking process. Food poisoning is no laughing matter, not on the West or any other coast.
Other recipes to try out:
Smoked mussel soup
Tuna noodlebake
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