If youve ever been wary of cooking shellfish at home, mussels are a great place to start.
Frozen mussels have a weird, kind of mealy texture.
Do not buy them more than a day or two ahead of time.
Dont buy any mussels that are cracked or open.
These mussels are dead and will taste bad.
Store your mussels in a bowl, covered with a damp paper towel in the fridge.
Keep them in there until right before you plan to cook them.
While theyre chilling, gather your other ingredients and get everything ready.
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if you bump into any cracked or wide-open mussels, toss em.
if you run into justkindaopen mussels, give them a tap and see what they do.
If they close, theyre still alive, and good to go.
Once youve cleaned them up, pop em back in the fridge while you ready the broth.
Add your garlic, and cook until its a light golden brown.
Get some good deglazing action going by dumping in your wine and giving everything a little stir.
Add your stock or broth, bring everything to a boil, and dump your mussels in the pot.
Let them cook for three minutes, giving them a stir every minute or so.
After that time has elapsed, remove the guys whove opened up, and keep cooking any that havent.
Bathe those babies in broth, squeeze some lemon on there, and sprinkle them with chopped parsley.
Serve with hunks of roughly torn bread for soaking up the flavorful liquid.
Dinner is done, and its a good one.
Once youve mastered this simple mussel recipe, flex your creative culinary side and go crazy riffing.
The world is your mussel, do with it what you will.
One variation Im not a fan of, however, is cooking them in the Instant Pot.
Youre also more likely to overcook the delicate little guys, making them rubbery and sad.
