Curried Penn Cove Shellfish mussels with fresh lime
I was recently asked to showcase a dish that showed off products featured in the series as part of Peggy Roulo’s Food, Family & Friends summit. Right away, I knew I wanted to focus in on Penn Cove Shellfish’s quick-to-cook, utterly delicious mussels. Because I’d be making a dish start-to-finish on camera, I wanted something that only took a few minutes to make and mussels fit the bill.
I covered Penn Cove Shellfish in our first season — the multi-generation family-run company farms mussels, clams and oysters in upstate Washington with a focus on sustainability and utter freshness. The mussels I’m cooking in the video above were in the water the day before they were dropped at my doorstep in St. Louis. Mussels have a lightly sweet flavor and are among the most sustainable of all seafood choices — Penn Cove farms its shellfish, but unlike many other ocean-based fish farms, there are no inputs like feed or antibiotics. The tiny baby shellfish attach to lines and then just hang out in the water, actually filtering and cleaning the water where they’re raised, until they’re mature and ready for harvest.
Besides being a seafood choice you can feel good about from an environmental standpoint, mussels could hardly be any easier to cook. The recipe I offer here is a Thai-style coconut curry with fresh lime and herbs, but you could go a beer-onion-sausage route or keep it simple with butter, white wine and tarragon. The mussels cook in just a few minutes, popping open and contributing their liquor to the flavor of whatever you’re cooking. It’s a luxuriously easy and approachable seafood dish.
Quick Curried Mussels
Recipe by Catherine Neville
2 lbs fresh mussels (like these fresh-from-the-water mussels from Penn Cove)
3 garlic cloves
2 shallots
1 to 2 Tbsp neutral oil like grapeseed
2 to 3 Tbsp (or more, to taste) red or green Thai curry paste
1 can coconut milk
Juice of 1/2 lime
Chopped Thai basil and cilantro to serve
| Preparation | Check your mussels and toss out any that have broken shells or are dead — tap on the shells to see if they pull themselves closed. If not, they most likely dead and should be discarded. De-beard the mussels by pulling on the “beard” — the strings that some mussels have on the exterior of their shells — and then submerge the mussels in cold water, leaving them to soak for about 30 minutes. This will help them expel any grit that might be lurking in their shells. Drain when you’re ready to cook.
Peel and chop garlic cloves and thinly slice shallots. Heat oil in a large, deep skillet and then add garlic and shallots, stirring until golden and fragrant. Add curry and fry for a minute to enhance the flavor and aroma of the spices and then add in mussels and coconut milk, stirring to evenly distribute in the pan. Cover and turn heat to high for 3 to 4 minutes, until the mussels pop open. Squeeze fresh lime juice over the top and spoon into wide, shallow bowls. Garnish with fresh Thai basil and cilantro. Serve with hot jasmine rice.