I’m certain there are plenty of small, cute beach shacks on France’s southeastern coast where you can get mussels and fries and drink rosé and pastis with your friends or your lover or alone. But my favorite small, cute beach shack is tucked directly into the seawall (?!) about 20 minutes south of Marseille’s city center, and they toss their mussels in aïoli. Do that here, and add fries.
When you’re short on time but your stomach can’t wait, this recipe is just the ticket. You’ll have this pot of mussels and sambal on the table in a flash.
Moules frites are easily one of my favorite things to order at a seafood restaurant. If you eat a dish like this outdoors in the summertime, ideally with your feet in the sand or resting gently on the grass, you will remember it forever. Don’t be afraid to work with mussels—they take a little while to clean, but they cook in minutes and are very inexpensive.
Paired with some crusty bread and a simple salad, mussels make a lovely light meal. But getting them perfectly cooked can be tricky, with most stovetop recipes inevitably turning out some overcooked and some undercooked mussels. We made cooking mussels absolutely foolproof by using our multicooker, which evenly surrounded the mussels with steam and resulted in a pot full of tender, plump mussels every time. On the pressure setting, we needed to cook the mussels for just 1 minute; on the slow cook setting (which heats up much faster than a traditional slow cooker) the mussels were cooked perfectly within half an hour. To infuse the mussels with lots of flavor, we sautéed garlic, thyme, and red pepper flakes in butter, and used wine as the cooking liquid. We finished the mussels with a sprinkle of fresh parsley. You can substitute 3 pounds of littleneck clams for the mussels; increase the pressure cooking time to 2 minutes. Discard any raw mussels with an unpleasant odor or with a cracked or broken shell or a shell that won’t close. Serve with crusty bread.
This recipe is admittedly a little basic, but sometimes, basic is good. Basic is a garlicky, white winey, tomatoey broth that will take care of your expensive seafood, cook it gently, and make everything taste delicious.
Chef Omar Allibhoy's friends and family say his is one of the very best seafood paellas they have tasted. The intensity of flavour in the stock you make will be the most important thing, as well as how wide your paella pan is. Believe it or not, it makes all the difference.
Usually beans are eaten by themselves (often with rosemary and extra virgin olive oil), or with pork and vegetables. This is a rare combination with seafood, and it provides a particularly delicate taste. The recipe is cooked in two parts.
Ingredients
This is a simple stew that delivers big flavor.
Mussels offer excellent nutrient density at a great value, making them an extremely accessible seafood.