Curry Mussels
7 June, 2020
I was inspired to create this dish after one of my favorite local Coronado restaurant (Leroy’s) had a coconut curry mussel special (Abigail and I ended up ordering three extra loaves of bread to ensure we had sopped up all of the sauce). We were so surprised at how amazing this flavor combination was. It reminded me of the movie “One Hundred Foot Journey”, where an Indian spice inspired chef merges his curry spices with traditional french dishes to create magical new flavors. I would like to think this is what the sauce is like that I came up with (or so I like to tell myself………). Its gotten to the point that any time i see curry listed with mussels on a restaurants menu, I immediately order it for the table so everyone can experience the magic!
Ingredients
One can of coconut milk
One can of coconut cream
1/2 cup of white wine
One chopped onion
1 stick of unsalted butter
5 chopped fresh garlic cloves
2 Teaspoons of a curry powder of your choice
2 lbs of fresh mussels
Sea Salt for Seasoning
Making the Magic
Melt your butter over medium-low heat in a large stockpot.
2. Once the butter is melted, add the chopped onions and garlic to the pot, and cook until the onions are translucent and brown around the edges.
3. Add the curry powder to the butter and onion base and mix thoroughly.
4. Once the curry powder is fully incorporated, add the 1/2 cup of white wine, and let the wine simmer on medium heat until it reduces by about half. This will probably be around 5 minutes. Stir the base routinely, to ensure the onions don’t stick or burn to the bottom of the pan.
5. Once the wine base is ready, pour in the can of coconut creme and coconut milk, and bring the sauce to a simmer. Make sure to stir it frequently to make sure the coconut milks does not burn. Stirring will also help with incorporating the base into the milk. Don’t be concerned if the coconut cream looks pretty thick coming out of the can. The heat will naturally liquefy the cream. If it is super hot in your house, and you have coconut oil or cream, you’ll notice that it will liquefy in the container if it is to hot. Once the sauce is incorporated, add sea salt to taste (1/2 to 1 teaspoon usually gets it done). If you think you want more onion or garlic flavor, you can always add in some onion or garlic powder for seasoning as well.
6. Once the sauce is at the desired flavoring, add in your mussels to the sauce. Mussels cook really fast (Usually in about 4-5 minutes, so I make sure everyone is ready to dish out their plates when the muscles go in the pot). For this recipe, I found some fresh muscles on the half shell (I of course did not get around to cooking them in time, so I ended up freezing them for a week or two), but if you get fresh closed mussels, you know they are done when the shells crack open. If a shell does not crack open, then you should toss that one.
Time to Eat!
Once your mussels have cooked in the sauce, dish them out into a bowl (I find that a shallow pasta bowl works great if you are doing individual servings). My favorite things to pair with mussels, which you usually see at french restaurants is fresh french fries and some yummy fresh french baguettes (One of these days I will get around to attempting my own baguettes, but for now I will leave it to my local bakeries or friends who have taking up bread making during their COVID quarantines). For the french fries, our double fried french fry recipe worked great as a side for this dish! This sauce is amazing with mussels, but if you are not a shellfish fan, you could always adapt it to use as a sauce on chicken, and pair it with some rice. Enjoy licking your bowls clean!
