Cheap and quick. Prince Edward Island mussels ran me $6/lb at Central Market. The time it took me to get from bag to bowl was around 20 minutes. If only NASCAR could be this satisfying.
I have been holding off making mussels because I wanted to try it with good chorizo. Thanks to the Hill Country Food & Wine fest, I met Leslie Horne. She owns Aurelia’s Chorizo in Boerne, TX. Nice lady, but more importantly, great Spanish chorizo (also sold at CM). I diced it up with shallots and sweated them. To that I added generous glugs of white wine, tossed in the mussels and slammed a lid on it. A few minutes later, crusty bread in hand, I dove in.
Things to watch for: make sure all the mussels are closed before they go into the pan and open when they come out. Uncooked mussels with open shells are dead mussels. Cooked mussels with closed shells weren’t alive either.
Things I learned during the making of this dish: Mussels and oysters belong to the Bivalve family and have hinged shells. Abalone and Conch have a single shell and belong to the Gastropod family. Keep that in your pocket for the next time you’re in the Cash Cab.