Mussels always remind me of the hammam. When we'd go there I'd hear the elders open their souls as mussels do when steamed.
Fanis Iakovides, A Touch of Spice
This week for French Friday with Dorie, we revisited mussels, this time as Curried Mussels. The mussels are presented in a simple but delicious sauce of curry powder, onions, thyme, chilli, shallots and cream:
This is my favourite mussel recipe out of Around My French Table so far, and I delightedly soaked up the sauce with bread.
I also did a make-up recipe in the form of Mussels with Chorizo:
I had to do this because I had accidentally made Moules Mariniere twice - here and here. While the Mussels in Chorizo, with its spicy sausage and tomato sauce, was tasty, it did not have a patch on the curried mussels for me:
At least after all this practice with mussels, I am now an old hand at de-bearding them (which I hate doing). Sometimes, I just can't yank the whole beard out, so I have learned how to get rid of it after cooking. I tell you, after biting into a gobful of beards the first time I cooked mussels, I learned fast.
To see what the other Doristas thought of yet another fishy week, visit the LYL section of the FFWD website.
19 comments:
Good for you - I always make sure to buy de-breaded mussels. This was Neil's favourite recipe in the book for mussels I think too!
I love how you relish your mussels :D
Glad you enjoyed them, so gourmet!
Cheers
Choc Chip Uru
Okay that just looks too good for words. Delish
Oh those look fabulous...we love mussels! Gorgeous photos of it all. I think they call them mussels because it takes muscles to get those beards out at times! :-)
Next time I have mussels I going to dig up my curry sauce recipe for them! You've reminded me how good it is! :D
I am not good with shell seafood cooking, I am always afraid of accidentally poisoning people: not remembering whether things should open or shut before being discarded. I had some chilli mussels last year and they were soooo good. Yours look to be their equal. So scrumptious.
Oooh, great idea to do both of these at once! I usually find debearded mussels, too, but had to wrestle with a few this time around!
Kayte, agreed - and I just don't have the muscles!
Fully agreed, I loved the curry version. I think of the three the chorizo version was actually my least favorite. Just seemed to be too many things going on in the pot.
Your photos are lovely!! And I totally agree, this was a wonderful recipe! I made mine sans curry…but that was the only change! Loved the sauce!
I hate to debeard the mussels as well, but I did chuckle when you mentioned learning fast after eating one. Blech! Your mussels look great and it's good to hear this is your favorite in the book!
I would agree this is the most original recipe. I am surprise at the mussel lover/hater divide in the group. Coming from an Italian background I never knew they could be so controversial.
Happy New Year!
Great make up - we loved both recipes, but particularly loved the curry mussels!
The ones I buy are usually pretty much debearded. Now I feel lucky. I really enjoyed the curried mussels too, so delicious. Glad you liked them too.
What does "mussel beard" taste like, Gaye? Can you put that in words? I agree with you and Rose, of all the mussel recipes in AMFT, this is my favorite. I even like this better than the classic preparation. Don't beat yourself up too much about the leftovers issue. It's far easier now that I have more time to myself to put together decent meals and create leftover menus than when I was working and caring for Michael. Popcorn was dinner sometimes. Not so easy for you.
Gaye, beautiful presentation of your Curried Mussels as well as the Mussels with Chorizo! We loved this week´s recipe as well!
Debearding mussels is very low on my list of things to do - the fact that they are tough to pull of combined with how stinking cold the mussels are does not endear me to the task.
Both your versions look delicious.
Double mussels. Glad you enjoyed your dishes. Looks like they came out great.
I've been lucky with mussels in the past and haven't had any debearding troubles. I didn't use mussels for this one as Gary doesn't like them so I used shrimp. I think this sauce was much tastier than the chorizo one. I like the dish you served your mussels in.
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