Mussels with garlic white wine broth

if you're intimidated by shellfish mussels are the perfect entry-level bivalve they were for me mussels are generally cooked unlike oysters they're sweet and generally free of any sand or other internal grossness unlike clams it's possible to make good food with frozen mussels but if you can get them fresh and live on ice that's the real deal you got to leave the bag open or they'll suffocate they're alive these are from prince edward island in canada pei mussels are famous because they're abundantly farmed they're pretty much always very good and you can get them all over the world via the miracle of modern shipping i bought these in my normal grocery store here in tennessee and the whole bag was just seven bucks they hardly required any cleaning i'm looking for beards and finally there's one those are the filaments with which the mussel anchored itself to the dangling rope on which it was farmed it's gross you just pull it out other than that i found one tiny little bit of beard on this one and that was it now i'll wash these to me the best thing about a bowl of mussels is the exquisite broth that they generate so it would be sad if that broth was polluted with sand or little shards of shell on the surface of these just wash them off in a strainer this is a two pound bag of mussels just under a kilo remember that most of the weight is shell so i'd say you want one pound per person if this is the only thing you're eating for dinner that's a generous full meal for two right there and really all we need with it are a few flavorings i'ma want a whole head of garlic in this go big or go home i'll chop that up pretty finely mussels cook in a flash so anything you put in with them has to be able to cook really fast as well hence shallots the classic muscle allium i like to cut those into very thin long strips that way you can kind of slurp them if you mince them they basically just disappear when cooked for a fresh herb my favorite with mussels is fennel fronds the bulb itself i'll use in something else that takes way too long to cook with mussels so many other herbs could work really anything you got tarragon would be awesome plain old parsley and that's it that's all the prep this meal takes it's almost as quick and easy as popping open a bag of ramen from the sponsor of this video eemi let me tell you about them real quick eemi is cool stuff instant ramen that isn't terrible for you check the ingredients the noodles are chiefly made of pumpkin seed protein they're still bound with gluten from grains so they've got terrific chew but check this pack 21 grams of protein just five net carbs moderate sodium tons of fiber and note that beef is in quote marks eemi has no animal products in it the soup base gets its delicious meaty flavor from yeast extract which is my new favorite thing you may have seen my recent video about it you don't have to be a vegan to love yeast extract i'm not it's awesome there's airsoft shrimp and chicken flavors too order yourself a variety box like mine here hit my link in the description and use code rogucia at checkout for five dollars off your order eemieets.com regucia use code ragusia for five dollars off a variety pack today you can make them in the microwave too but that was just seven minutes on the stovetop about the same time it'll take to actually cook these mussels i had a big pot heating over medium low while i chopped up my veg and in goes at least a tablespoon of butter per full dinner portion of mussels you could use olive oil instead i'm making an effort to not brown this butter or these shallots and garlic that i'm cooking in it today i want bright fresh sweet flavors not toasty brown ones just shake that around you really don't even need a utensil to make mussels in goes maybe a cup of white wine per full dinner portion so like two cups there this is not just ragucia being ragucia white wine is one of the most common bases for muscle broth it's incredible if you don't do wine i'd suggest water or seafood stock with a big splash of white balsamic vinegar to taste at the end if i had a fresh red chili i would have minced that up fine and put it in with the other veg but dried chili flakes are just fine too grind in some black pepper no salt yet because the mussels are salty they came from the ocean it's certainly not necessary but lemon zest is lovely in muscle broth it really freshens things up while everything in there softens i can quickly cut this lemon into wedges i might squeeze one of those in the pot but the others are for the table all right veg has been cooking for just 90 seconds that's all the head start it needs swirl that around we could cook our own shoes in this broth right now and they would taste good i like a little olive oil with the butter but i'm adding it toward the end to preserve its fruity flavors some people use a big splash of cream instead of oil or butter that's very nice too and it's time for the mussels when they hit the heat you may hear tiny squealing sounds the mussels are not screaming they do not have brains it's just steam squeezing out of their shells cover up the pot to trap the steam and then i plan to check on them in about two minutes we're looking to see them all opening up that's how you know they're cooked the denaturing of the proteins pulls the shell open how do you know if you're overcooking them if you see the meats inside starting to shrink a lot then they get rubbery you want to pull them out when they're still really big and plump i cooked these five minutes total you could just dump them out but i like to lift them out a few at a time with a slotted spoon for three reasons one if you drop them with too much force the shells will shatter or chip your plate two this gives you an opportunity to inspect a few muscles at a time people say that you should discard the ones that don't open during cooking supposedly if they don't open that means they were dead before you cooked them and may therefore be spoiled that's not totally true you can pry those open and if they look and smell good on the inside they're probably just fine third reason i like to lift these out of the broth is now it's really easy for me to taste the broth and make last minute adjustments yeah i think that just needs a tiny pinch more salt and i think i do want one wedge of lemon squeezed i'll keep the others on the side last thing is the fennel or whatever herb you're using add it at the last second to keep it green and then you just shower that angel juice over the mussels and let it collect at the bottom of the bowl how do you actually eat these some people pick out the meats with a teeny fork to me this is the far superior method grab a mussel and pull off the top shell the one that the meat is not connected to discard that on what my mom always calls the dead soldier plate that's kind of messed up i now realize then dip the meaty shell into the broth get it all filled up the adductor muscle holding the meat to the shell is cooked and very weak all you have to do is slurp gently and out it comes with all that broth you collected yes i appear to have a piece of garlic in my beard that's a thing that happened and i have to make my piece with it also very popular is dipping some crusty bread into the broth when i was a kid i was too grossed out to eat the mussels but i ate the sop and that was my gateway drug into bivalves among the most sustainable seafood you can eat and a mussel with garlicky white wine broth is easily one of my top five favorite bites of food in existence plus it's a perfect weeknight meal literally 15 minutes start to finish truly one of the best things on this planet imho

Channel: Adam Ragusea

Views: 851,957

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Id: DpqBfrq4sq8

Length: 6min 39sec (399 seconds)

Published: Thu Dec 23 2021