Ooh mussels!
Not that kind of muscle.
Hey guys! Welcome back to my channel Rack of Lam.
Don't know about you, but something that I truly miss during this pandemic is dining out.
Being seated by friendly staff, presented with a warm bread basket and starting off a wonderful
meal with some tasty appetizers, such as a pot of mussels. If that sounds like something you miss,
keep watching because I'm about to show you how to clean and prepare mussels for cooking. I'll also be
sharing a quick and easy recipe for steamed mussels in a white wine garlic butter broth.
Make sure you have some crusty bread to pair this dish with.
Believe it or not, my three-year-old cannot have enough of these mussels, so this is definitely a
dish that your whole family will love. If you enjoyed my video, make sure you like, subscribe,
share and hit the bell icon below to be notified of all my future uploads.
Alright, let's get to work! So I usually pick up these two pound bags of fresh black mussels
from the fish market. Unlike many other shellfish, mussels are fairly affordable.
Cooking mussels is a breeze, but you have to be really diligent in getting them cleaned.
To do this, first place the mussels into a large bowl and run them under some cold water.
Examine each of them individually and discard any that are open, chipped or damaged. You may want to take out a
separate large bowl to store the fresh mussels in and a bag to dispose of the open or damaged ones.
Here's how a dead muscle will look. To identify them, simply press on them with your fingers.
Mussel shells should close quickly when you press on them, so if they remain open, they are dead.
Here's a cracked one that I'm going to get rid of as well.
It is absolutely critical to discard any dead mussels because you don't want
one bad one to ruin the entire pot. Mussels are a great source of protein and iron.
What I love most about them are their unique textures, flavors and ocean tastes.
Within just a few minutes of soaking, you will find a great deal of sand on the bottom of the bowl.
Mussels expel sand from their shells as they breathe,
so I like to keep them soaking in water as I'm cleaning them.
Now, we're going to grab a brush to clean off any debris as well as debeard the mussels.
If you come across any mussels with a beard, simply hold onto it with your thumb and forefinger
then yank it off. If you're wondering whether these beards serve the same purpose as human beards,
no they don't. They don't exactly keep mussels' chins warm. In fact, I don't even think they have chins.
Mussels actually rely on these beards to anchor themselves onto rocks in the ocean.
It may look like a lot of work debearding and cleaning out mussels one by one,
but the recipe that follows will take you less than 10 minutes to cook.
So hold on to your horses because you have something amazing coming ahead!
Ah, we're on our last one! Within just a few minutes, we've got another bowlful of sandy water.
Dead mussels have been discarded and beards have been removed.
Now I'm going to soak the mussels in some clean water for another 15 minutes.
This is a good time to clean up your station.
After 15 minutes of soaking, I like to do a quick quality control to make sure I've removed all
the beards and dead mussels. Thank goodness for quality checks, because I did miss a dead one.
This one's kind of cool!
There was still a bit of sand that was expelled during soaking.
Seems like a never-ending process doesn't it? But I am happy to tell you that cleaning is complete.
You will know when you run water on the mussels and the water comes out clean.
It's now time to prep some ingredients and get to cooking!
For this dish, you will need one and a half pound to two pounds of clean mussels,
two shallots, four cloves, three tablespoons of room temperature unsalted butter, a handful of parsley,
some crusty bread or toasted baguette, cooking white wine, olive oil, salt and pepper.
Mince the four cloves of garlic,
chop two shallots
and roughly chop a handful of parsley.
On medium heat, heat one tablespoon of oil on a skillet or pan, swirling to coat evenly.
Add your minced garlic
and your chopped shallots and stir for about 30 seconds when you start smelling their aromas.
Now add 3/4 cup of cooking white wine,
an eighth of a teaspoon of salt, or to taste, a dash of black pepper or more if you'd like,
then mix everything together until the ingredients are well combined.
Now turn the heat to medium-high then add the mussels.
Cover the pan with a lid and steam the mussels for four minutes.
After 4 minutes, remove the lid, turn the fire back down,
then immediately add three tablespoons of room temperature unsalted butter.
Allow the butter to melt, then mix it in with the sauce.
Top the dish off with some chopped parsley and give it
a few stirs to ensure the butter is melted and flavors are infused.
Garnish with more fresh parsley, squeeze in some lemon juice or sprinkle a generous
amounts of parmesan cheese for enhanced flavors. Can you believe this dish required
less than 10 minutes of total cooking time? Not including cleaning of course.
Just be sure not to omit the crusty bread or toasted baguette because
you will need it to soak up some of that delicious sauce.
If you enjoyed my video, don't forget to like, share and subscribe. Thank you so much for watching!