Steamed Mussels

In Garlic White Wine Cream Sauce

Servings: 4 | Prep Time: 10 mins | Cook Time: 20 mins

Make spectacular steamed mussels loaded with garlic. Ever ordered steamed mussels at an Italian restaurant and just couldn't get enough? Well, make it yourself at home and eat to your heart's content! Our recipe is simple but quite irresistable with butter, garlic, white wine, cream and Italian parsley. For the white wine, we use a chardonnay, but you may also choose a sauvignon blanc or any other dry white wine you enjoy drinking. For the mussels, we want soft barely cooked delicate meat, so we'll steam the mussels just until they start opening, then remove individuals as soon as they pop open to avoid overcooking them. The longer you cook them, the more solid, tough, and chewy they can become.

Get your mussels from a trusted source to ensure they're fresh, alive, and you won't get duds. Go to a fish market or a specialty market with fresh live seafood where there's good turnover. It's pretty defeating to find multiple shells that refuse to open (because they're probably already dead). Don't eat those, they are potentially dangerous to ingest because you don't know how long they've been dead. If you are allowed to select your own mussels, choose ones that are closed tightly, have no cracks or damage to their shell, and have some weight to them.

When you get them home, soak them in a tub of cold water (if your tap water is not very cold, add some ice cubes). Pull beards with your hands by getting a good grip and yanking them from side to side until they release. Then using a paring knife, scrape off barnacles and other growth from the shell. Finally, scrub each mussel clean with a stiff bristle brush, like a potato scrubber, and put it in a secondary tub of clean cold water. Rinse and drain mussels. Keep cleaned mussels chilled in the refrigerator until ready to cook (best if cooked quickly).

Get some crusty sourdough bread ready for sopping up all the delicious creamy sauce. You won't want to waste a single drop of it!

• 2 lbs mussels, debearded and scrubbed clean
• 2 TBSP butter
• 3 TBSP fresh minced garlic
• 1 cup Italian flat-leaf parsley, coarsely chopped
• 1 cup dry white wine
• 1 cup cream
• sea salt, to taste
• fresh ground black pepper, to taste

Using a large skillet with a glass lid, heat skillet on the stovetop uncovered. Turn heat down to low. Melt butter. Fry minced garlic and allow to cook for roughly 3 minutes.
Add cleaned mussels, parsley, wine and cream to skillet. Cover with glass lid. Turn heat to medium. Let steam, 4-6 minutes. When the mussels die, their muscles relax and the shells pop open. The beauty of using a glass lid is being able to see through the lid when the mussels open without uncovering and letting all the steam escape.
Uncover and remove individual mussels as they open with a slotted spoon and place in a covered bowl to keep warm while the rest of the mussels open. If it's been longer than 8 minutes and they still haven't opened, they're probably duds. Toss them. When all mussels have opened and been removed from skillet, there should only be sauce left. Turn heat down to low and allow to simmer 10 minutes uncovered to reduce the sauce and allow for alcohol evaporation and a more concentrated flavor. Taste your sauce and add salt and fresh ground black pepper as desired. Depending on how salty your mussels were to begin with, you may not even need salt at all.
Return mussels to skillet and reheat very briefly. Carefully pour all contents into a large serving bowl deep enough to hold the sauce. Garnish with a fresh sprig of parsley. Serve immediately with slices of sourdough bread. Enjoy!