Mussels in Garlic White Wine Sauce

This is a great tasting recipe that you will want bread with to sop up the great sauce.  As my wife said on her first bite: This is Super awesome!  You are definitely going to have to make this again.

Having visited my Uncle Don's cabin cruiser in Victoria, BC, when I was a boy it took me a long time to appreciate eating mussels.  Mussels were something that grew on the hull of boats and ships.  You dry docked the boat and scrapped them off and filled big garbage bags one after the other and then threw them away.  The thought of eating them was not even a remote possibility.  Oh how things change.

Living on the West Coast of BC we are blessed with fresh sea food.  I sent my agreeable wife out to pick up mussels at the Lobsterman on Granville Island during her lunch on a Friday so we could start the weekend right.  Lesli is a Registered Massage Therapist so she knows muscles (teehee).

I used this recipe I found on the web at abeautifulbite.com and didn't change a thing except halving the recipe.

Restaurant Style Mussels With Garlic Wine Sauce

Author: Melanie

Recipe type: Appetiser

Cuisine: American

Prep time:  15 mins

Cook time:  10 mins

Total time:  25 mins

Restaurant style mussels at home. All of the flavor at a fraction of the price.

Ingredients

• 4 lbs mussels
• 3 Tbsps butter
• 3 Tbsps olive oil
• ½ cup shallots, chopped
• 6 garlic cloves, minced
• 2 medium tomatoes, seeded and diced ( I used a green heirloom tomato out of our garden)
• ½ Tbsp dried thyme
• 1¼ cup white wine 
• ¾ cup chicken broth
• 2 Tbsps lemon juice
• 2 tsps kosher salt
• ½ tsp red pepper flakes
• A few good cranks of fresh ground black pepper
• ¼ cup flat leaf parsley, chopped
• 1 Tbsp lemon zest

Instructions

1. Dump mussels into a large bowl and cover with cool water. Set aside.
2. In a large heavy pot, heat butter and oil over medium heat. Cook shallots until translucent. About three minutes. Add garlic and cook just until fragrant. About another minute or two.
3. Add tomatoes, thyme, white wine, broth, lemon juice, salt, red pepper and black pepper. Turn up heat to medium high and allow to come to a boil.
   
4. Add mussels and cover. Cook for eight to ten minutes. Shake pan every now and again to move mussels around.
   
5. Pour into bowl and garnish with parsley and lemon zest. Serve with a loaf of crusty bread to sop up garlic wine sauce.

Plating

We had a very interesting Chardonnay from Culmina Winery that blew our socks off.  Then we paired it with the Chanterelle Mushroom Risotto I made for the main.  Oooooh life is good.  

The aftermath

I can't help but think of all those mussels we threw away when I was a kid, such a shame.  I know better now though ;)

Recipe by A Beautiful Bite at http://abeautifulbite.com/restaurant-style-mussels-with-garlic-wine-sauce/