Here’s a fancy and easy, yet restaurant-quality recipe that you can make at home, for a nice, romantic NYE dinner to share with your honey.
I first had mussels at my favorite tapas place. I didn’t grow up eating a lot of seafood, but my adventurous adult palate has me trying things out, many of which I end up enjoying. This is totally true for mussels. They are at the top of my seafood list, right behind sea scallops.
This is my first attempt at making mussels at home. To be honest, once I got them home, I was a little intimidated by them, knowing that they were still alive, and I’d be cooking them. The fact of eating meat/seafood is that yes, the food was once a living creature. I like these aspects of the eating local movement: respecting the food, knowing where it is coming from, and being grateful for the privilege of feeding our bodies. Being in New England, we have the opportunity to eat a lot of great, fresh seafood. I hope you have the opportunity to eat fresh and local, wherever you live.
Lime Coconut Curry Mussels
By rls
Lime coconut curry mussels are an authentic culturally positive meal. I hope you have the opportunity to eat fresh and local, wherever you live.
Prep Time: 10 minutes
Cook Time: 10 minutes
Total Time: 20 minutes
Yield: 2 servings
Ingredients
- 2 pounds mussels
- 1 tablespoon butter
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1/2 sweet onion, diced
- 1 bell pepper, red or orange, chopped
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 tablespoon finely chopped ginger
- 1 tablespoon cumin
- 1/2 teaspoon curry powder
- 1/2 teaspoon paprika
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1/4 teaspoon pepper
- 1 cup chicken or vegetable stock
- 1 14-oz can coconut milk
- juice of 1 lime
- handful of noodles (I used udon)
- 3 green onions, sliced for topping
Instructions
- Place mussels in large bowl of cold water. Scrub the outsides of the mussels using a brush to clean them. Using a towel, remove the string (or “beard”) of the mussels. Discard any mussels that have opened already. Keep the mussels in the water and set aside.
- In a large skillet, melt the butter and heat the olive oil over medium heat. Add the diced onion and pepper and sauté for ~10 minutes, until the onions are translucent.
- Add the garlic and the ginger and cook for another minute.
- Add the spices, salt, and pepper and stir to incorporate.
- Add the stock and the coconut milk. Stir to combine and bring to a simmer. Simmer for ~5 minutes to thicken.
- Meanwhile, cook the noodles according to package directions. (I used udon noodles, which only take ~5 minutes to cook.)
- Add the lime juice and the mussels. Cover and cook for ~5 minutes, until the mussels have opened. Discard any mussels that have not opened.
- Serve the broth and mussels over the noodles in a bowl. Garnish with green onions.
- Enjoy!
3 Responses
D
Great recipe, I had to substitute carrots for bell peppers and fish stock for veggie stock. I used all the bread in the house to use up all of the sauce. Simply amazing. One thing to add, I purchased the frozen mussels that did not come in a sauce, they worked out very well and I did not have to clean them.
Alissa K Scharf
Made this tonight and loved it!! I cut the pepper, onion, ginger ahead of time and when we were ready to eat, it was quick to cook. Definitely a keeper!
Rod
We enjoyed these, but I was looking more for a Thai flavour. The curry overpowered the recipe making it more of an Indian dish. I definitely will make them again adding a Tbs or more of Red or Green Curry Paste instead of the Curry.
Thanks for sharing!