One day channel surfing I came across a reality TV show during the dinner scene and all I recall about the conversation was the personal chef saying "mussels". And with that, those words resonated in my head for about an hour. I hopped up off the couch, checked the fridge for some kind of sausage or bacon and skipped over a block to the fresh seafood market.
About 35 minutes later I had made garlic and white wine sauce mussels. And because I am the sharing kind my good girlfriend had her introduction to mussels.
Necessary Ingredients:
1 lbs of cleaned mussels
2 pieces of sausage link (I used Italian chicken sausage I had scored from Trader Joe's earlier in the week)
1/2 cup of slices onion
1/8 cup chopped shallot
2 garlic cloves roughly chopped
2 tbsp of butter
2 tbsp of EVOO
2 dried bay leaf
2 cups of white wine ( I use drinking wine, Chardonnay)
In a medium stock pot over medium heat, cover pan with EVOO and 2 tablespoons of butter letting them melt evenly together. Slice sausage into pieces and add to oil.
Add in garlic, onion, and shallot. Cover with lid and let simmer for 5 mins stirring once to ensure sausage is not sticking. Add in bay leaf next, let cook for an additional 3 minutes. Add in two cups of wine and bring to a boil.
Once wine is rumbling and has married the flavored together add in mussels. Cover and let cook until mussel shells have opened up, similar to a V is the shape you are going for.
Slice a baguette into thin pieces and serve with mussels from pot or in a bowl. Bread is essentially for soaking up the juices of the sauce that the mussels are flavored with.
From the looks of things, her first trial was not too bad. :-)
