Cooking Mussels: Here Are 10 Crucial Steps To A Perfect Dinner!

In our home, cook­ing mus­sels have proven to be a group pleaser each and every time I’ve made them.  They not only help make a tasty and impres­sive entrée, but are sim­i­larly well-liked as an appe­tizer. If you’re search­ing for a menu item that is sim­ple to pre­pare, pop­u­lar with most every­one, and isn’t too for­mal, then mus­sels might be a good selection.

My incli­na­tion is to pre­pare sauteed mus­sels, and offer them along with a green olive sauce. 

This is exactly how I accom­plish it:

Cook­ing mus­sels Step #1:  I like to start with 1 lb of  mus­sels, and also the ingre­di­ents for a deli­cious green olive sauce.  Later on I will need the fol­low­ing: 1/4 cup white wine, one tea­spoon chopped gar­lic, and 1 table­spoon butter.

Cook­ing mus­sels Step #2:  Rinse the mus­sels and dis­pose of any that do not shut when tapped.

Cook­ing mus­sels Step #3:  To make the green olive sauce, place olives, capers, pars­ley, cilantro, 3 table­spoons of olive oil, sherry vine­gar, lemon juice, salt and pep­per in to a food proces­sor.  Include salt and pep­per as pre­ferred.  Blend as deired.  

Cook­ing mus­sels Step #4:  Pre­heat a pan over medium heat. Process your favored quan­tity of gar­lic. Place gar­lic along with but­ter into your pre­heated skil­let and mix.  Pre­pare the gar­lic in the pan until it becomes a tan shade.

Cook­ing mus­sels Step #5:  As a choice, you can con­sider adding chile, shal­lots, and/or lemon at this time. 

Cook­ing mus­sels Step #6:  At this point it’s time to include the mus­sels, while being care­ful not to add too many at one moment.  You want the mus­sels to open up, which may be a chal­lenge for the poor unfor­tu­nates at the base of the heap. You should only cook suf­fi­cient mus­sels to make one layer in the pan.

Cook­ing mus­sels Step #7:  Stir the mus­sels in the gar­lic but­ter though being watch­ful not to become too rough.  Remem­ber that the shells are rel­a­tively frag­ile and might crack and chip if you are not careful.

Cook­ing mus­sels Step #8:  Now add the wine. Adding the wine will pro­duce the impor­tant steam needed to open the shells while at the same time low­er­ing the over­all tem­per­a­ture in the skillet.

Cook­ing mus­sels Step #9:  Cover the mus­sels with a top and let it stand for 4 minutes.

Cook­ing mus­sels Step #10:  Remove the lid. If all goes well, most if not all of the mus­sels will have opened. Mus­sels, unlike clams, will open before they are com­pletely cooked.

The mus­sels are at this point ready for the coup de gras. Include the green olive sauce and mix together.

Bön Appetit!

This arti­cle, and many other timely cook­ing tips, can be found here: The Cook­ing Network