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Mussels Bordelaise
When I was in the South of Ffrance I soon dioscoverd that mussles were everywhere. Mussels, it seemed to me, took the palce of a McDonalds in the France. Fast food style restaurants serve up big steaming pots of mussles fast and cheap. The menus consisted of dozens of sauces to be served with your mussles. This recipe is a flavorful tomato sauce that was on every one of those menus. The tanginess of tomato goes very well with the rich flavor of mussles. Any left overs you have will go greaqt in a Boston Style Red Chowder.
For 6 People
Ingredients
Conversions to European measurements can be found here!
- 4 pounds fresh mussels
- 8 tablespoons butter
- 4 large shallots, minced
- 1 bay leaf
- 1 sprig fresh thyme
- 1/4 cup parsely, minced
- 1 1/2 cup dry white wine
- Juice of one lemon
- 4 tablespoons tomato paste
- 2 celery stalks, diced
- 2 large carrots, diced
- 1 medium yellow onion, diced
- (optional)
- 1 tablespoon white wine vinegar
- 1/2 cup finely chopped cilantro
- 1 teaspoon cayenne pepper
Procedure
In a large sauce pot melt 4 tablespoons butter and add the shallots. Sweat the shallots for 10 minutes then add the bay leaf, thyme, 1/2 the parsely, and the wine. Bring the liquid to a boil and drop in all the mussles at once. Cover the pot with a tight, heavy lid cook the mussels for 2-4 (or untill all the mussels have opened) shaking the pan occassionally.
Remove the cooked mussels from the pot and place them into a serving dish.
Remove the herbs from the cooking pot and return the pot to the stove. (You might also strain the cooking liquid at this point if you see a large amount of sand or grit in the sauce. Use a large colledar and line it with some cheese cloth to make a quick easy seive.)
Return to a boil, add the celery, carrot, and onion and allow the liquid to reduce for several minutes. Add the remaining butter, tomato paste and lemon juice and incorporate with a wisk
If you so choose you can add the vinegar and/or the cayenne at this point.
Pour the liquid over the mussels and sprinkle the remaining parsely over the mussles.
Notes
I have had the hardest time finding a fish market that will sell mussels with their beards on. As I mentioned above once a mussel is de-bearded it starts to die. I can understand a fish merchant wanting to make his/her products look their best but not at the expense of quality. The trouble is I have no way of knowing how long ago that mussel was de-bearded. So I don't know how long the mussel has been dying. And that's bad....