Monday, August 30, 2010

Super fresh seafood goodness

Our latest batch of market freshness arrived over the weekend, and it was a real seafood special. On top of a pretty excellent veg selection and a tonne of blood oranges, it included fresh whole snapper and about well over two dozen mussels.

Our mussels disappeared in a frenzy on Saturday night, and then we had the fish and more mussels (courtesy of some Feedbag friends who felt compelled to share, bless 'em) again on Sunday night.

It was a big seafood weekend!

Mussels in white wine and tomato
I've never cooked mussels before. To be honest, I really don't care for them that much - I tend to find them a bit too seafoody, and often rather too chewy. But these mussels were sublime. I've never seen fresher, and these were a true pleasure to prepare and cook with. When it comes to seafood, you really want the freshest you can get.

ingredients
Two dozen mussels
Brown onion
Garlic clove
Bacon
Two tomatoes
Continental parsley
Two bay leaves
Sea salt
Olive oil
Butter
White wine
Spaghetti

Ingredients o' the sea!

You'll also want some fresh crusty bread for this one - trust me.

First order of the day - get your water on to boil. This dish requires tight timing and you'll want to let the pasta be nearly done before you get the mussels going. While waiting for the water to boil, though, you'll need to get to cleaning them, though.

Scrubbed, clean and ready to cook
Mussels, pre-cleaning.

We were lucky - our mussels were mostly beardless and not to encrusted, but your mileage may vary. Debearding is simply a matter of taking the hair-like fringe some mussels have tearing it off; removing any barnacle-type beasties requires a bit more scrubbing. Be careful during the cleaning - mussel shells have been used by coastal peoples as cutting and scraping tools since the dawn of cutting and scraping, and you can easily discover just why when you're scrubbing them clean.

And this learning will sting like a motherfucker. At this stage you also want to get rid of any mussels with broken shells, and any dead, open ones. Do check the deadness, though - rap the shell against a hard surface (without breaking it!) and see if the shell closes. If it does, the tasty mollusc is still good. If it stays open, bin it.

At the end of the process, you should have a bowl of shiny, clean soon-to-be-noms.

Your water should be well and truly boiling, now, so add about a third of a pack of spaghetti. Finely chop the onion, garlic and parsley, and heat up some oil in a large heavy bottomed pot. With the oil hot, melt some butter in it, and add the chopped ingredients and a pinch of salt. Sauté until the onion is soft and translucent, and add roughly chopped tomatos, bay leaves, and bacon.

Timed right, as the tomato is just starting to soften, your pasta should be just about ready. At this point, toss the mussels into the pot, and splash in the wine - about a glass or two, depending on how boozy you like your food. Put a lid on the pot, check the pasta, and - if ready - drain it.

Now, peer at the pot. You are, effectively, waiting for the literal watched heating device to boil. When you get that first gout of steam from around the lid you want to wait maybe a minute or so - what you're doing is steaming the mussels, and being tiny delicate little things it won't take long to cook them. Take the lid off, and if they're ready to go, they'll have all opened up invitingly.

Open sesame!

Toss the pasta into the pot and stir through, then plate up as you wish. Butter some fresh crusty bread, top up your wine (we had a lovely pinot grigio), and get ready to slurp and make a mighty mess.

Mussels in white wine

Like I said - I'm not usually a fan of mussels. However, after these mussels... all bets are off. These were practically falling out of the shell during serving, and were not at all rubbery; instead of being overpoweringly seafoody in flavour, were simply rich and full of freshness. And for all that it's a little tricky in the timing department, and takes a bit of time when it comes to the cleaning, it's another quick meal - a real good one to do for a crowd, too.

And boy, oh boy, is that sauce tasty - you will go through a whole loaf or baguette, and you will stand greedily over the pot sopping up all the juices you can...

Bready noms

... and you'll be happy. In your mouth.

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