Look at my muscles!

I’ve got a confession to make: I’ve never cooked muscles.

I love to eat them, but they always seem, erm, a bit complicated. I can never remember when they are in season (months with Rs?) and I knew there was something else to be aware of (if they don’t open? if they are open?). See what I mean? Complicated.

My kitchen remodel is finished (more on that later) and the folks over at Fish is the Dish kindly sent me a delivery of Cornish Seafood, which included mackerel, scallops, plaice, smoked salmon … and muscles!

When I examined the delivery, some of the muscles were open, which freaked my out, so I went straight to Google. I found this helpful article.

Turns out that opened muscles are OK, as long as they close when you touch them. I washed the muscles, and out of the 70 or so, 10 didn’t close or were cracked, so I threw those away. Note: If muscles don’t open after steamed, then you DO throw them away. Easy peasey.

I decide to go simple and classic, and made moules marinere, based on this recipe. I used finely chopped onion instead of shallots, lots of fresh garlic, and when I reached for the white wine, realized we didn’t have any! Instead I used a

small bottle of bubbly I got from a blogging event. It worked wonderfully.

My adapted moules marinere recipe:

Ingredients:

3 lbs mussels

1/2 cup white wine

1 tbsp olive oil

1 onion, finely chopped

3 cloves garlic, crushed

3 bay leaves

1/4 red chili, finely chopped (optional)

3 tbsp chopped fresh parsley

Instructions:

1. Wash the mussels under cold water. Remove anything that is sticking to them. Throw away any muscles that are damaged, cracked, do not close when you touch them (I found this could be quite a few!).

2. Melt the butter in a saucepan, then add the onions, bay leaves, garlic and chili. Add the wine. Let it simmer.

3. Add mussels, cover and cook until the mussels open, this will take just a few minutes. THROW AWAY ANY MUSSLES THAT DO NOT OPEN.

4. Add parsley and serve with a yummy bread or french fries!