Thai Mussels

Mussels really are one of my lifelong favourites. I must have cooked them over 50 times, and simply adore the way those juicy critters mop up pretty much any flavour you throw at them. Whilst I am a strong advocate of the more traditional French inspired recipes, I am also a huge fan of a more oriental approach to them.

I can fully understand why some people may be a little apprehensive about the risk associated with them – to date, and following a few simple steps, I have never given myself, or anyone else food poisoning. Yet! ;o)

My simple rules are:

1. buy as fresh as possible
2. store refrigerated as soon as you get them home, and eat as soon as possible
3. fill a bowl with cold water, and carefully tip mussels into it. stir around a bit for any grit etc to leave the shell. The water will look quite cloudy.
4. carefully debeard mussels
5. discard any mussels with a broken/cracked shell
6. ditch water and refresh again, stir mussels until no more grit remains.
7. drain mussels thoroughly just before cooking

The following recipe was found on Jamie Oliver’s website, with a couple of minor tweaks made to it. Whilst I first followed the original verbatim, and loved it, I wanted to adapt it to be a little zestier.

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Thai Mussels

Course Starter

Cuisine Thai

Prep Time 15 minutes

Cook Time 10 minutes

Total Time 25 minutes

Servings 4

Author Richard Bewley

Ingredients

• 2 kg mussels, washed and debearded
• 1 tbsp Groundnut oil
• 4 spring onions, finely sliced
• 6 kaffir lime leaves
• zest of a lime
• 2 garlic cloves, grated
• 1 thumb sized piece of fresh root ginger or galangal, peeled and grated.
• Small bunch of coriander, stalks finely chopped, leaves picked
• 1 lemongrass stick, outer layer peeled
• 1 red chilli, finely sliced
• 400 ml coconut milk, half fat if you can find it
• 2 tbsp fish sauce
• 2 limes, 1 x juiced, 1 x quartered for garnish

Instructions

• In a large saucepan (I use a large stockpot as the mussels certainly expand when steaming), heat a little groundnut oil and soften the spring onions, garlic, coriander stalks, lemongrass, most of the chilli for around 5 minutes.
• Add the coconut milk, kaffir lime leaves, fish sauce and juice of 1 lime and bring to the boil.
• Carefully add the mussels and cover pan. Steam for 5 minutes, until the mussels are open and cooked. A couple of minutes through, mix the mussels through the stock so that the flavour is evenly distributed. Give 'em a good old stir.
• Discard any mussels which are clammed shut and would take a power tool to get those shells apart. Those which are partially opened (and clearly cooked through) are absolutely fine. If in doubt, leave them out.
• Sprinkle coriander leaves and chilli, and serve with lime wedges to squeeze over.
• Enjoy.