Mussels are awesome. They’re briny and seafoody and delicious, they’re super easy to cook, they’re pretty cheap compared to other kinds of seafood, and they are REALLY versatile. I was born in and spent a lot of my childhood in Alaska, and occasionally we’d just pull them off the rocks and load them in a pot of chowder or something simple. Now that I live in land-locked Oklahoma, I don’t get to have that luxury but that doesn’t mean we can’t enjoy them just as much!
John had never had steamed mussels with a side of crusty bread, so I decided that’s what we’d go with this time. There aren’t many things in this world better than dipping some good bread into the garlicky, lemony, briny liquid in the bottom of the bowl after you’ve scarfed those scrumptious shellfish! Few ingredients. UBER simple. If you like seafood you really owe it to yourself to try this if you can get a good source of fresh, LIVE mussels where you live. A good supermarket or a local fish market is your best bet.The ingredients are pretty basic: a nice loaf of French bread, a bunch of mussels, a lemon or two, a shallot, a few cloves of garlic, a handful of fresh parsley, and some wine — that’s really it. I added some crushed red pepper to add a little zing to the broth. It’s a pretty traditional mussels dish, and it seems like there’s a wide variety of takes on it. The recipe I’ll share is sort of my twist on it, but it’s probably not very different from the original.
The result of steaming the mussels in such a flavorful liquid is fresh, herbaceous, garlicky, lemony, bread-dunking goodness with a hint of the wine (if you really don’t want to steam them in a little wine, you can always use water well-seasoned with salt and pepper, or a veggie broth). The mussels are tender and juicy, with a hint of the ocean. They’re seriously delish!
If you like clams better than mussels, you can always substitute the shellfish of your choice with this steaming liquid. I think this would work with shrimp too, but the liquid won’t be as slurpable at the end because mussels (and clams and oysters) give off a salty, yummy liquid as they open and steam — sort of the essence of mussels. You’re left with almost a seafoody little soup in the bottom of the bowl.
My local Sprouts Farmers Market had a sale going for $2.99 live Prince William Sound (Alaska) mussels, but all of the Sprouts in my city were sold out. I went looking for a well-rated seafood market here in Oklahoma City and wound up going to Gulfport Seafood, which had a wide array of fresh and frozen seafood, clams, mussels, crab, lobster, and fish, a huge variety and everything appropriately stored and gorgeous. The fish market didn’t even smell like a fish market, which means everything is SUPER fresh.If you’re in my neck of the woods I’d highly recommend them, but if you aren’t I’d encourage you to visit a seafood market or two just to browse. You’ll probably be surprised how relatively inexpensive fish and seafood can be when you’re dealing with someone who specializes only in the ocean!
I ended up paying $5.95 a pound for live, wild-caught mussels from Prince Edward Island in northeastern Canada. One pound of live mussels will yield about one cup of meat, so plan accordingly. I bought 4 pounds for a total of $24.00 (we were due for a little splurge) and even at that price we were able to eat until we were full and still spent less than we would at Joe’s Crab Shack or similar for an appetizer portion of steamed mussels and a meal for one of us. Score!
| Servings | Prep Time |
| 2 Entree portions | 20 minutes |
| Cook Time |
| 10 minutes |
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An easy recipe for Moules Mariniere, steamed mussels with white wine and shallot, garlic, and parsley. These are great as an appetizer, a family-style entree or side dish, and they're easy enough for a light lunch or snack.
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- 2 pounds FRESH, LIVE black/blue mussels For green-lipped mussels which are quite a bit larger, increase cooking time
- 1 ea Shallot, large About the size of a golf ball, or 2 small
- 3 ea Fresh garlic cloves
- 8 oz Dry white wine
- 1/2 cup Parsley, fresh
- 1 tsp red pepper flakes optional
- 1 loaf French bread
- 4 tbsp Unsalted butter for steaming liquid
- 2 tbsp Unsalted butter for bread (optional)
- Rinse your mussels (one pound of live mussels per one person) in cool water in a colander. Check them over and remove any mussels with broken shells, or any that are dead. Dead mussels will have shells that are open or slightly open, and they will not slowly close on their own if you try to close them. Mussels eat and breathe with their shell open but if you pinch their shells closed and they're alive, they will slowly close and seal the shell to keep you out. Any that don't close after that treatment are dead, discard them. The top two mussels in this picture are dead:
- While you're checking over the mussels, if you see any that have the "beard" still attached (a clump of little fibers sticking out of the shell) pull the beards out.
- For the bread: Cut the french loaf into one-inch-thick slices. Very lightly butter one side of the bread. On a grill pan, on a grill or under a broiler (carefully supervised), "grill" or toast the bread until golden brown and crunchy, but not too hard. Crispy.
- While your bread is toasting, put the 4 tbsp butter, finely diced shallot, finely diced garlic, and about a tablespoon of finely-diced parsley into the pot with a sprinkle of salt and black pepper, and sweat them on low to medium heat until the garlic and shallot are translucent. If you are adding red pepper flake, this should also be in the pot. Don't brown the vegetables or the butter.
- When everything is soft and translucent, turn down the heat to low and add the wine to the pot, along with the juice of the lemon. I just squeeze it right into the pot. If you like the taste of lemon with seafood, you could also put in a half teaspoon of lemon zest for this step. Raise heat to medium.
- Place steamer insert or colander into the pot over the steaming liquid, and put mussels into the steamer. Turn heat up to high and bring the steaming liquid to a boil, then reduce immediately to a simmer. Cover the pot.
- Steam the mussels for 7-10 minutes or until most all of them have opened and given up their brine to the steaming liquid. There may be a few that don't open; these should also be discarded.
- Transfer mussels to a large bowl (family style) or small bowls (individual servings). Finely chop the remainder of the parsley and add it to the liquid in the bottom of the pot. When combined, taste the juice for salt and add if needed. Pour the pot liquid over the bowl(s). Serve with crusty bread for dipping, and a fresh salad.
If you get one pound of live mussels per person, that will work out to about one cup of mussel meats per person. With the bread and a side dish that should be a good serving. If you're all hungry or are mussel fiends, get more!
Using LIVE, FRESH mussels here is pretty important. You can use frozen pre-cooked mussels if you really want to, but I find that cooking them twice in a recipe like this where the shellfish is the star, makes them sort of rubbery and overcooked. Your mileage may vary.
If you do get live, fresh mussels, remember this: they breathe air. Keep them on ice in your refrigerator, but not in an airtight container or plastic bag. If your fish market gave you the mussels in a closed plastic bag, be sure to open the bag so your mussels don't die before you cook them up.
Dig in!