Steamed Mussels with White Wine and Garlic

steamed-mussels-in-white-wine-with-garlic

Steamed Mussels with White Wine and Garlic

Ingredients:

2 cups dry white wine
4 large shallots, minced
4 garlic cloves, minced
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 pounds mussels
Handful of mixed fresh herbs, including parsley, or basil, chopped
1 stick of salted butter, cut into pieces
2 teaspoons Dijon mustard

Method:

Combine wine, shallots, garlic, and salt in a stock pot over medium heat. Simmer five minutes. Add mussels. Turn heat to high and cook, covered, until mussels open, about five minutes. Add herbs, butter, and mustard, and toss to mix well. Serve immediately over pasta or with a loaf of crusty bread for mopping.

Via Los Angeles’ February Food Bloggers, Malcolm and Jillian of “From Away“

By the time we left Mexico, it was almost too late. We are lucky to have a certain freedom of movement, but you still have to have a sense of an exit, a strategy for moving on. Being a foreigner is always tiring, even if most of your life is lived on a deserted beach. We restored a house, got married, and acquired a street dog or five, not necessarily in that order. We explored Mayan ruins hidden deep within the ancient peninsula and drove to the edges of civilization and back. After four complicated, dazzling, amazing, enlightening, disturbing years we were both ready to come home. But breaking back in was a little more taxing than we’d realized. America had changed, and so had we.

Luckily, we chose Maine to break our fall. It’s where Malcolm always returned to with his family, after spending time living abroad. The rocky coast is salty-beautiful-iconic. There are lighthouses and pine trees and lobster boats around every sublime corner. You can walk out into a bay and pull mussels with your bare hands. Or you can go to the fish market or grocery store and buy a pound for about a dollar. It’s easier and less cold that way. The emphasis here again is simplicity of ingredients and preparation. Don’t mess with the strange perfection of cold water shellfish mixed with butter, garlic and dry white wine.