Friday, January 16, 2015

FFWD - Curried Mussels and Mussels with Chorizo make-up

 

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:

  1. 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!

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  2. I love how you relish your mussels :D
    Glad you enjoyed them, so gourmet!

    Cheers
    Choc Chip Uru

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  3. Okay that just looks too good for words. Delish

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  4. 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! :-)

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  5. 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

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  6. 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.

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  7. 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!

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  8. Kayte, agreed - and I just don't have the muscles!

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  9. 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.

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  10. 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!

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  11. 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!

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  12. 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.

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  13. Happy New Year!

    Great make up - we loved both recipes, but particularly loved the curry mussels!

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  14. 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.

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  15. 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.

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  16. Gaye, beautiful presentation of your Curried Mussels as well as the Mussels with Chorizo! We loved this week´s recipe as well!

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  17. 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.

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  18. Double mussels. Glad you enjoyed your dishes. Looks like they came out great.

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  19. 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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