To start your mise en place, first mince the shallots and garlic. Roughly chop the parsley and set it aside, along with the butter and white wine.
To prepare the mussels, scrub them clean and remove any beards. Place into a bowl and cover with a damp cloth. Store the mussels in the refrigerator while you make the sauce.
To make the sauce, heat a large, wide pan (with a lid) over medium heat. Add the butter. Once melted, add the shallots. Sweat for about 3 minutes or until translucent, but not browned. Next, add the garlic and cook for about 30 seconds. Add the white wine, turn up the heat to medium-high, and let the mixture reduce for a few minutes. Once the sauce has reduced and almost all of the liquid has evaporated, add a pinch of salt and pepper.
Now that the sauce has reduced, add the mussels. Cover immediately with a lid and turn the heat down to medium. Let cook for about 6 to 8 minutes or until the mussels open. Once done, sprinkle the chopped parsley over top.
To serve, pour the mussels into a large bowl and serve with fresh bread to soak up all of the delicious sauce.
Mussels only need to be steamed in a tiny amount of liquid. When they open during cooking, they release their own liquid which adds a lot of liquid to the base sauce. If there is too much liquid in the sauce before adding the mussels, the liquid from the mussels will dilute the sauce. Take care when seasoning the sauce. The liquid from the mussels tends to be quite salty and will season the sauce on its own.
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I made this yesterday as a special dinner for my boyfriend. I had never cooked mussels before and was scared to handle them. But the drill down video and the recipe itself were so clear that I had no trouble at all. And Keith (my boyfriend) stopped between mouthfuls of it only to tell me how terrific it turned out. Thank you Dawn!
Place a half shell of mussell at the tip of your fork, thus creating both a spoon and a knife to cut mussells. You will not have to get your right in the sauce anymore!
Hi! I would love to make this dish tomorrow (Valentine's Day). I'm looking for some suggestions for what else I could serve with the mussels and fresh bread.
Thanks!
A very classic paring with mussels are French fries (moules et frites is a classic Belgian combo). We just so happen to have a recipe for yummy fries - http://rouxbe.com/recipes/271/preview
If that seems like too much then even a nice watercress and orange salad would be nice - http://rouxbe.com/recipes/1416/preview
However if this is just an appetizer why not try the Beef Tenderloin with Red Wine Sauce - http://rouxbe.com/recipes/1527/preview
Or for a chicken dish the Chicken Marsala would be a nice one - http://rouxbe.com/recipes/1544/preview
Hope this helps...good luck!
It's fun watching the videos, but we have here in Belgium a much simpler and faster way of preparing the mussels.
Here we go:
First, prepare the vegatables: onions - roughly sliced, celery sticks - roughly chopped, parsley - roughly chopped, a few twigs of thyme - chopped, and my personal touch: some chopped de-seeded red chillies.
Wash the mussels in fresh water. You will need 800 grams to 1 kg per person.
In Belgium, we use special black cooking pots for cooking mussels, but any casserole will do.
Just start filling the casserole with a layer of mussels, a layer of the mixed vegetables and so on. Note that during the cooking process the mussels will open up and it's important not to fill up your casserole too much. Finally end with a last layer of vegetables. Season with salt and pepper.
Put the lid on and cook over intense heat for 6-8 minutes, or until all mussels are open.
Remove lid, shake up the casserole a few times to mix vegetables and mussels well, and serve right in the pot with some home made Belgian fries or plain bread if you like as a side.
Some people like to dip the mussels in a special mussels sauce - which you can find ready made - but if you mix mayonnaise, "soft" mustard and a little bit of water, you have exactly the same sauce.
Only thing left is a nice fresh pint of belgian beer to go with it and enjoy!
I have never heard of oysters mariniere, but I am sure the flavors of this dish would go well with oysters. Cheers!
I haven't yet tried this recipe, however I cannot wait to! It looks absolutely delicous! I have never cooked mussels before and it looks really easy. I was wondering if anyone could tell me when mussels are in season, however. I live in Ohio (therefor I generally don't have easy access to mussels) so I am not sure when the best time is to use them. Does anybody know?
You might want to talk to your local fish monger to see what and when they have certain things available.
I've been making this dish for a while...delicious. I've recently started adding a dozen littlenecks to the 2 pounds of mussels. The dish really works equally well with them in my opinion.
Hi Arianna, almost any type of white wine would work here as there are plently of other bold flavours going on. What I may suggest, is use the same wine you may be drinking along side the Moules as the recipe calls for only 1/2 cup, there'll be plently left for the table.
If you're really stuck, here are a few suggestions:
Sauvignon Blanc or Sancerre
Chenin Blanc or Vouvray
Unoaked or lightly oaked Chardonnay
Drier style Riesling (Alcasian)
and of course, Bubbles!
Hope this helps,
Cheers!
What is a good white wine to use? If you could give me a brand name that would be great. I am very new to cooking so I don't want to make any assumptions at this stage yet:) Thanks in advance! Laura
Any drinkable chardonnay or sauvignon blanc will pair well with mussels. It's up to you on your budget - don't get hung up on the brand. Your wine store will be happy to help you choose. If it tastes good to you, that's all that matters. Cheers!
i recently had the most delicious mussles and believe they added
annisette liquor...any suggestions?
If you like this flavor, feel free to substitute the white wine for annisette. Cheers!
Attached to Step 2 of this video recipe, there is a technique video called "How to Buy, Store and Clean Mussels". This allows us to attach this technique to other related recipes and content. Cheers!
Just be sure you use a large enough pan for the amount you are cooking. If you don't have a pan big enough you may want to do it in two batches. Cheers!
It came out wonderful. I have never been a huge fan of mussels but I decided to make this. It came out perfect. The mussels were super tender, not gritty or rubbery. The soupy sauce was divine, so simple and so delicious. This makes me realize all the times I have eaten mussels before they have not been cooked correctly. The dish was so good I'm placing it among the top 10 dishes I have ever eaten; and I'm amazed I cooked it!
Having never cooked mussels before, we daringly invited 8 people over for this meal and bought 6 kilos of mussels from our local weekend market. The recipe was very simple, the videos are great, the technique video was especially useful for us. We had all 4 burners on the stove going and all pots in service. I have had mussels a number of times in restaurants, and this was still better than most. Everyone ate their fill and couldn't say enough good things about the meal. Incredible success!
Dawn, I have a quesiton about cleaning the fresh mussels please.
I am OK on everything you advise in the videos about cleaning and de-bearding and so on, but I sometimes find it very difficult indeed to scrape off the white barnacle deposits we sometimes encounter.
In the end I just leave these on the mussel shells and ignore them, seemingly with no ill effects.
Is this OK or might it cause problems?
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