Friday 22 June 2012

Making Mussels


Yep I did it, I prepared Mussels this week for challenge 2 of my Fortnightly Fish Challenge! I had a great recipe from the Countdown website...Spicy Mussels, all I needed to buy was the Mussels I had everything else in the cupboards already, my kinda recipe!
 Lovely Hubby and I picked out our select few from the Little Mussel Shower in our local Pack 'n' Save.  Actually I got Lovely Hubby to do it because I was terrified of breaking the machine or dropping them or doing something stupid!  Great that he did it but it meant I didn't take much notice of what they looked like close up.  So when I chatted to my fish expert Mummysknee on Skype about what I was doing with them and she asked me if they were de-bearded I had no idea what she was talking about!  I'm not a researcher you see, I am a fly by the seat of your pants, blagger kind of chap.  I had no idea about Mussels and their preparation, whereas most folk would have done a bit of research beforehand I was banking on a bit of google assistance and/or Lovely Hubby's odd 'general' knowledge of all things to do with films and food.


  


After learning what this beard business was I was slightly worried when I looked at my catch and found out that they were fully bearded.  Its OK though Lovely Hubby knew exactly what to do (really don't know how or why he knows but he does) so we got down to a bit of de-bearding and scrubbing together. 




Next step was cooking the beast (*sob* I had to use wine for this part!!!).  I was able to send Lovely Hubby away to put his feet up for this as my other assistant the Countdown website was able to help me with this part.  I was prepared to chuck out half of them due to unopening etc but they all survived!!  Clever me/Mussels!  Here we have on the right the cooked creatures...  

All that I needed to do now was reduce down the tomato base (prepared by my fair hand earlier in the day) with the wine and pour over the Mussels and voila below we have the finished product...


The presentation was a bit iffy!  My apologies!  I had a couple of wines (glasses that is not bottles) so by the serving up stage I was past caring!  To me anywho it looked yummy.  I love Mussels, I thought Lovely Hubby did too!  I knew Lil Sis didn't she shipped out for the night.  I thought maybe Mr Nature, fisherman etc Lil Sis' Boyf might like one but he doesn't like eating them but he loves diving for them.  Hmm note to self if he doesn't like eating them maybe I can eat what he collects.
So I'm all chuffed with myself for preparing this lovely dish, some nice hot buttery bread to accompany the Mussels and mop up the sauce.
Well what can I say.  One Mussel and Lovely Hubby pushed his plate away and declared 'yeah I didn't think I liked Mussels'.  Needless to say I wasn't amused!  But on the bright side I got 14 Mussels all to myself and they were A.W.E.S.O.M.E!


9 comments:

  1. You're a very brave lady! I wouldn't touch mussels with a ten-foot pole, unless of course someone else was kind enough to prepare them for me. :)
    They look delicious!

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    1. Yeah I was scared alright but quite satisfying once ready, although it would have been nicer if it wasn't just me eating them!!

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  2. Wow so proud of you babe. we love mussels and have them often. Grim also said he didn't like them but in a white wine sauce, he seems to be fine with them. Keep up the good work, that is some challenge you undertook this week. What's next?

    Think you should try salmon with sweet chilli sauce, so simple, yet very tasty!!

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    1. Aww thanks chum.
      Weird Loely Hubby likes oysters but not mussels!
      Just have to be sneaky and I'll get him liking them :)

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  3. They look good to me, your lovely hubby is too fussy. As for I'll sis she has never been a fan of mussels, bearded or otherwise.

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    1. When your here next we'll have them together and the rest can feck off... Unless Lil Bro is here too and he can have coz we all know he is mussel mad!

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  4. Sounds yummy. I love mussels, but have never cooked them. My OH won't eat fish or sea-food of any kind so I miss out trying my skills with sea food.

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    1. Man these OH's are a menace! Frustrating coz I always try new things he makes for me .....

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  5. Who knew that cooking mussels was so complicated?! Sounds delicious to me, I'd have had the OH's share!

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