Seth's Mussels

Scott and Maya took off for Indy this past weekend and I told Seth he could have whatever he wanted for dinner - he wanted us to cook something together.

He is SO my son. He got on Tastespotting and came upon a recipe for Mussel Curry. He thought about that and decided he would rather have mussels like he had when he was in France with his grandmother two summers ago. So - here it is:

Seth's Mussels

½ bottle dry white wine
chicken stock (in about the same quantity)
½ large white onion - chopped
3 cloves garlic - smashed through press
1 t olive oil

Saute the onion and garlic in the olive oil until nicely browned. While we did this we discussed:

* adding the garlic last so that it doesn't scorch
* how browned food equals flavor

Add in the liquids and simmer for at least an hour. Here we discussed how reducing liquids makes them have a more concentrated flavor. We debated adding some tomatoes but decided against it.

Add in 2 lbs* mussels (in the shell). We found some frozen ones at Schnuck's that turned out quite nicely. Cook for just about 5 minutes. Not too long!

Serve with slices of baguette, goat cheese and sliced tomatoes. Use the bread to sop up the juice. While in France Seth learned how to use an empty mussel shell as pincers to remove the mussels from the shell (hmmm - I feel a song coming on!)

* I forgot to check the weight of the mussels. These were vacuumed packed on one layer - about 10x5 inches?

This was a lovely spring meal with WONDERFUL company!