Mussels in White Wine Sauce

Copyright 2008 by Cooking With The Single Guy

Ingredients:
1 lb. fresh mussels in shell (about 12-15 pieces)
1 sweet onion, diced
½ cup dry white wine
1 cup fresh cilantro, roughly chopped
2 T extra virgin olive oil

In a large saucepan or medium pot, warm olive oil over medium high heat and then add onions to sauté until translucent (about 3 to 5 minutes). Then add the mussels and stir for about 30 seconds and add the wine and cilantro and cook cover for about 5 to 10 minutes or until the mussels have opened up. Plate up with any remaining juices and serve with a big piece of garlic bread.

Makes 1 to 2 servings.

Pair with a glass of Sauvignon Blanc (the same wine you would use to cook the mussels).

TIP: You should clean your mussels before cooking it. The main thing to do is to pull the “beard,” which is a little whisker-like string sticking out of the shell. Some mussels will have a long one and some may not even have much. Just tug on it until it snaps off. I also like to scrub the shell with a vegetable scrubber just to make sure there’s nothing on it. Sometimes mussels can be a bit sandy, depending on how clean your fishmonger washed them. So I like to soak them in a bowl of cold water for about an hour before cooking to let any residual sand sink to the bottom of the bowl.

WAKE UP: Cooking shellfish like mussels and clams sometimes need a bit of help to open up. With their spring action of the shell, it usually helps to just tap on it with a wooden spoon. So when cooking the mussels, if you notice one that’s not open, tapping on it might help wake it up and get it going. Another trick is to just grab your covered saucepan or pot and shake it a bit. This lets all the ingredients toss inside and also helps wake up your mussels. But remember, if the mussel still doesn’t open after all your attempts to wake it up with the tapping or shaking, then toss it out because that’s probably a bad one.